Colony management, making lemonade

I think this falls in line with management. About 4 weeks back I noticed one of the colonies in my home yard was lacking young brood. Made a note that there might be a queen problem, I found what looked like an open cell.  First thought was they superseded her, (she was over a year old and not very good).  So I left them. Checked about a week and a half later, no brood, no signs of eggs or larvae. Gave them a frame from a different hive. Waited a week, no queen cells on the frame. So I figure there's a queen but just not laying. Again I waited until last Wednesday. No brood, no eggs, no sign of queen. So now what are my options. Something we should all think about from time to time. I had several grafts being made into queens, there are at least 4 virgin queens in mating nucs so getting a queen in a week shouldn't be a problem. And hopefully next year, from March to November we'll have queens all the time. Considered different possibilities, I really wanted a mated queen to put on the box in a cage and check the reaction. One can determine quickly if there is a queen in the box like this. I decided to go to a different yard and pull a frame of brood, at least with brood in the box the pheromones will suppress laying workers.  And the brood will maintain the population somewhat. While in that hive I spotted the queen. She too was a year old, and although still laying, I had planned to replace her in November. Made a quick decision to catch her and see if the first box was queen-less. Took home the frame of brood, put the queen in a cage and checked. Bees immediately came up to check out the queen. Fed her through the holes in the cage, were not aggressive just welcoming. So there was not a queen. Time to make some more decisions. Do I take this queen back to her old home? Do I leave her in this box in a cage overnight? Maybe for a few days? If I leave her then take her away will they suddenly panic and start making cells? (Now that''s something I might try to experiment with).  So here is what I decided. The second colony is very strong with four frames of brood and a lot of young larvae. I decided to leave the queen caged for two days in the first hive, check for any queen cells in the second colony and go from there. Meantime my grafts and virgins can be doing their things. Went back and checked the second box, at least 8 queen cells. I figure I'll leave them alone and create a bit of a brood break. In the first box I decided I'd release the queen after the third day but also after doing an oxalic acid treatment. There is currently no brood in this hive so it should be quite effective. Pulled out the queen, put her in my pocket and gassed the hive. Waited an hour and put the caged queen back in. The next morning I let her out, she ran right down between the frames. I'll check this box in four days for brood. In 11 days or so one of the capped cells will emerge as the new queen, in hive 2. So on day 9 or 10 I'll do an OA treatment there.  Will still be some capped brood but not a lot. Here is a prime example of why a beekeeper should have at least two strong colonies of bees. From the misfortune of losing a queen, I'm using the time to replace a weak queen and treating two hives for mites. Making some lemonade from what could have been bad.

Racist branding

I'm really growing tired of the constant racist branding going on. It's almost gotten to a point where if someone simply notes that another person is a different color then that person is a racist.  Looking up the term in Websters finds a racist one who practices racism, which is defined here;  

1: : a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.

2. : a doctrine or political program based on the assumption of racism and designed to execute its principles.  
     : a political or social system founded on racism

3. : racial prejudice or discrimination

So today here's my issue. Last week Megyn Kelly, (she's some TV news personality, I didn't know who she was until this week). Made some comments about Halloween costumes and black or white face paint.  She said nothing about demeaning races, nothing at all which coincides with the above definitions.  Simply about costumes, and what actually constitutes racism. Now that would really be an excellent discussion. What exactly constitutes racism? Since this episode there have been comparisons to another TV personality, someone named Luann who dressed as Diana Ross. I didn't see what she did as Diana, from what I understand there was nothing disrespectful about it. It was some costume, perhaps she really admires Diana and wanted to look like her. But that has been called racist.   I did some searching and couldn't find any comments by Diana Ross, was she even offended?  We're getting too sensitive to what really isn't a problem and making a real problem much worse.  Is there racism? Certainly but not as much and not in all of the places we're lead to believe. 

About 30 years ago there was a black pop star who had this signature thing about wearing a sequined glove. That year I saw a lot of kids, of pretty much every race wearing a glove on Halloween and no-one screamed racism. For at least the past 30 years, costumes have featured president's faces. If someone wears an Obama face is that person a racist? Nixon, and Reagan are OK but Obama isn't?  Let's get a grip here. I also expect to see a fair number of hockey masks, are we demeaning all hockey players? 

It's not always about what someone does but why they do it. Disney has been accused of racism because in cartoons they use black musicians and copy their mannerisms. I'd call that complimentary. If I make a cartoon and include Chuck Berry as a character, at some point he's going to play guitar and skip across the stage, just as any cartoon of Michael Jackson will moon walk. It's only racism if the intent falls in line with the above definition. 

I'm sure Ms Kelly will come out all right, my understanding is that she was making 28 million a year. Most of us working class might make 2 million in a lifetime. But that's not the problem. The problem is we have the speech and thought police everywhere. The most heinous crimes today are offending someone. And the fear that someone might offend someone is beginning to dictate policies in our society and workplaces. Pretty soon simply breathing in the same room with someone will be an offense and subject to discipline.

Getting stung all the time. Why do I do it?

I haven't posted anything here for a while and I'll just ramble a bit. I'm frequently asked if I get stung a lot and my answer is most days in the club yard at least a couple of times. Lately it's been real nice, there's a honey flow on and it seems that you can really do a lot before getting them mad enough to sting. But I digress. It's probably about an 80 percent probability that I'll get at least 1 sting in any of the yards. (I now have bees in 4 locations). The why question though is hard to answer. Does it hurt? Yes, especially Saturday as I worked the hive in shorts and a bee crawled up my leg. I think she just panicked and couldn't get out so I took one in the posterior.  No I don't enjoy the stings. But I do enjoy the bees. I'm constantly intrigued by everything that they do. I've seen that the colonies have good and bad days, that the attitude can change with the weather and availability of food. When I make up a cell starter, putting a bunch of bees in a box without a queen, within just minutes they start to roar. They know there is no queen, no brood, no hope to continue and they get excited. Then just a few hours later, after adding a frame with a few larvae the right age to make queens, you can hear the sounds change. That's pretty cool, maybe that's the control freak in me. And I really enjoy the making of queens, or well not exactly me making them but the process of getting the bees to do it.  Although the excitement has dropped a little, I still remember the first queen that emerged then went out and successfully mated. That was a thrill.  Not quite so much anymore but still amazing that I can take a larvae from a wax cell, put it in a plastic cup and 12 days later a queen comes out.  And if all goes right within two weeks she's laying eggs and if I wanted to I could take one of her larvae and do the same thing.  But I think the most fun part in all of this is Sunday afternoons. We work our club yard every Sunday. There are a few regulars. Sometimes we just take a quick kook in a few boxes, other times, like today, we go through all of them. Most weeks we have a newcomer and that's the thrill. Things go pretty fast but I try to make sure that the newbee holds a frame of bees and gets to see all of the details. That's how we hook them. And then, after coming for a few weeks and showing a real interest I get to ask the question; "Are you ready for bees yet". Which means that next week they'll be taking home a nuc. That's why I do it. I like the bees and eventually plan to make some money selling queens, but right now, the real driving force is getting bees to people who really want bees.