Mostly quiet week for me and the bees...

As the title says, it's been a relatively quiet week here at the Wings of Liquid Gold apiary.  For a couple of reasons, I had to move the "regular" hive from where I had it next to my shed out to my new bee yard.  I had seen an idea online about using scaffold jacks with 2x4s to build an adjustable hive stand that would be easier to level, so I did.

You can see it there on the right side.  Those cinderblocks and 4x4 I had to put out there to get them away from the original hive area.  Bees don't like to move short distances, it messes with their internal navigation because their visual cues are haven't really changed much.  The general rule for moving bees is 3 feet or 3 miles, although there is some (lots) of debate among beeks about that.  They say if you need to move a hive a short distance, move it in increments of 3 feet, waiting a couple of days between each move. That way the bees will be able to find home without too much confusion.  That would have taken a while because I moved it about 30 feet, and I really didn't have that long.  My shed needs the floor replaced because it's rotting out and our handyman guy wouldn't come out to do the work until the hive was moved.  Plus, more importantly, during the day, the bees would bother Colleen (fortunately they didn't sting her), so it had to be relocated.  The other option is to move it more than 3 miles, because then none of the visual cues are available to the bees and that's generally outside their normal forage area so they have to reset their navigation immediately, but I couldn't do that. Those cinderblocks and 4x4s are the remnants of the old hive stand that I put out there temporarily to remove the cues from their original spot.  Once I'm confident that the bees have adapted to their new location I'll move them to a storage area for other projects.  If you look close, you'll see a big dead branch of leaves in front of the white hive there.  That's part of the readaptation process.  By putting the branches/leaves there it doesn't allow the bees to just exit the hive and fly off, they have to crawl out thru the leaves and the bees will start to perform reorientation.  Unfortunately after I moved the hive, Tropical Storm Bertha moved in and the weather has been pretty crappy here for a few days.  Inspecting the hive in bad weather is not a good idea, as most of the bees are home and the wind and rain just make them ornery.  So I've had to wait.  Hopefully I can get in the hive tomorrow.  

Since I've had some down time from the bee yard, I decided to build a bee vacuum I'm been thinking about for a while.  You use a bee vacuum to suck the bees into a bucket when recovering a swarm or performing a cutout of a wild hive in a wall or floor.  After watching a buttload of videos and reading forums and blogs I got started.  It was fairly easy to build once I had all the parts.  I started with a couple Home Depot buckets with screw-on tops.  Most of the DIY hardware stores and Amazon sell a vacuum head that sits in a 5 gallon bucket.  The one I bought is called a "Bucket Head" (pretty original huh?) that looks like this.

Then I took one of the buckets and cut it to look like this.

I cut the bottom off the first bucket so it can fit down over the "bottom" of the second bucket and form a snug fit.  You'll see why in a bit. Those black tabs on the side are heavy duty velcro to hold the two buckets together when it's all complete but still make it easy to remove the bee bucket.  The vacuum head then snaps into the top of this part.

For the bee bucket, the I drilled 4 2.5" holes in the bottom and then glued 1/8" inch hardware mesh on the inside. 

The holes allow the vacuum to suck gently enough to pull the bees into the bucket without killing them (hopefully). The mesh allows ventilation for the bees plus is small enough that they can't escape. To be able to insert the hose I used a recreational vehicle sewer gate valve mounted on the side of the bucket.

I show it in the open position, but as soon as I'm done vacuuming I push that T handle down and it closes right up.  Lastly there's a screw top for the bottom of the bucket that will make getting bees out easier.

That middle part unscrews and will allow me to quickly stun the bees by bumping the bucket on the floor and then opening it and dumping them in the new hive box.  Once most of the bees are out of the bucket and you're sure you have the queen in the hive box you can just leave the open bucket next to the hive and the remaining bees will eventually migrate over to where she is.

Fully completed, it looks like this.

The hose is just an old pool vacuum hose that is smooth on the inside so the bees don't get too beat up on the way in. It's also segmented so I can add/remove hose as necessary.  It's fairly light and easy to transport, it just needs an a/c power source.  I'm working on a portable battery/power inverter setup for those hard to reach places, but most places I'll be using it will have power available.

So, no real excitement this week, I did get to look inside the horizontal hive and it looks like the rehomed swarm is progressing and I'm pleased with that.