Attack of the 50 Foot Bug

A couple more shots from the front of the hive and a small hive beetle assessment April 29, 2010

This is the first drone that I have seen out of my hive. He was resting outside before taking a mating flight. If he gets lucky, it will be his last mating flight. He’s a little bit larger than the worker bee and is a good bit louder when flying.

A worker bee shot at about a 2:1 macro ratio.
One of my primary concerns with sustaining the beehive in the backyard is parasite control. With than in mind, I purchased a bottom board with a small hive beetle trap. The trap is a tray that covers the entire bottom of the hive and contains a layer of cooking oil. When the bees see a beetle, they will chase it even though they can’t hurt the beetle. The beetle then looks for a crevice or any other tight spot to get away from bee. The trap has slots that look like a good spot to hide. The beetle crawls in and drowns. Last night, I counted about 20 dead beetles in the trap, which is not really considered bad at all. I plan on checking the beetle count on a weekly basis. If I can control this parasite using methods that don’t involve chemicals, the better it is for the hive. I still have wax moths, varroa mites, trachea mites, and a whole host of other diseases to concern myself with.

Loaded down with pollen April 19, 2010

These photos are taken with a regular macro lens and a little bit of cropping is involved here, also. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time today to break out the MP-E 65mm macro lens. These worker bees are covered in pollen and a tight close up would make an interesting shot, especially if it shows the individual pollen grains. Weather permitting, I’m going to try and grab a couple of extreme close ups of bees covered in a dusting of pollen, later in the week. The pollen baskets are so full, the rear legs are almost rendered useless.

A couple of guard bees from the front of the hive April 18, 2010

She’s waving and saying “Hello”. The is from the front of the beehive on the landing.
This is an uncropped image using the Canon MP-E 65mm macro lens. It takes a little practice to use it correctly. The results are stunning once you get comfortable with it, though.

Another bird bath bee photo April 15, 2010

It’s really interesting watching bees gather water. When a bee fills up on water, it heads straight back to the hive. The term “bee line” immediately come to mind when watching this behavior.

Busy Bees April 15, 2010

The girls were really busy late this afternoon. I’m going to go into the hive this weekend to make sure that there aren’t any queen cells being built. I really don’t want to have a swarm, if I can help it. They have not touched the sugar water that I have provided. Spring is in full bloom and flowers are apparently much more enticing. I find it really interesting that they will take sugar water only when nothing else is available. I’m going to give it a few more days and remove the feeder if nothing changes.

Transfer of nuc into my bee hive complete April 13, 2010

Yesterday, was nerve-racking. I was able to transfer the bees into my hive late in the afternoon. This was my first time doing this and luckily I was able observe someone going through the process earlier in the day. This provided a huge boost to my confidence. The good news is that everything appeared to go okay and I didn’t get stung. The stung part occurred later in the evening.

The hive, in my opinion, seemed really strong and healthy. The nuc that I bought had five frames in it. It’s essentially a small starter hive which contains brood, pollen, honey, and lots of bees. If you want to quickly get up to speed with the production of honey, a nuc (nucleus of bees) is the best route to take.

I already have one concern. The bees don’t seem interested in the sugar syrup feeder. It may not be that big of deal though. There’s quite a bit of flowering plants available right now and the bees do ultimately prefer that over the provided sugar-water. Nevertheless, I’m going to redo the sugar-water mixture and see if anything changes tomorrow.

The bees were quickly able to find and start using a small bird bath that I provided for water. My neighbor across the street is getting a new pool installed and I want to prevent them from gathering water over there, if at all possible. I’ve found that taking pictures of bees gathering water is a lot easier than trying to photograph them on flowers. They tend to linger longer at the bird bath. A bee will usually spend a few seconds in a flower which is barely enough time to get set up. This picture was taken using a Nikon D300, a 50mm f1.8 lens and a full set of extension tubes.

Hover fly with outstretched wings April 11, 2010

Hover fly with outstretched wings

Ants are the cattle herders of the insect world April 6, 2010

An aphid is offering up honey dew to an ant. I believe that the aphid is prompted to excrete honey dew when the ant strokes it with it’s antenna.

Possible queen ant that is spawning? April 5, 2010

I captured this image yesterday in the backyard. I believe this is an ant that is spawning. It couldn’t fly anymore and didn’t act like a wasp.

Katydid March 31, 2010

Last years katydid.