Natural Hive Duplication Started...

Finally finished setting up the hives for natural duplication method.  I had to work at night to make sure all the bees are in.  Attaching the coconut flushed to the surface of the hive proved to be more troublesome than I thought.  I have to make sure that there is no other exit except through the new hive.

It looked pretty ugly with all the duct tape to seal of the gap.

The bees did not seem to be a bit bothered by all the fuzz I was making outside their hive.  I just hope they don't suffocate inside.  I forgot to take a close up shot, but I took a piece of propolis from the entrance of the original hive and put it at the new hive entrance.

Let's see tomorrow morning if the bees can figure the way out!

Natural Hive Duplication or Eduction Method

Imagine, I have an existing bee colony on the right hive, and I want to coaxed them into building a new colony in an empty hive on the left.

What I will do is to force the bees (without hurting them) to pass through the new empty hive, by connecting the 2 hive box with a tube.

The coconut is not necessary, but in my case, the bees have built a vertical shaft of propolis over the extrance/exit of my existing hive and uses it as their launch pad as can be seen on the picture below, and I do not want to destroy it, thus the coconut shell.

Here are some detailed pics.  I will have to cover the tube with newspaper to block off the light.

I will put the tube late in the afternoon when all the bees have returned to the hive to get some sleep, and they will probably be surprised and annoyed when they wake up the next day and find the coconut covering their entrance.  So for them to get out and forage, they must learn to go towards the light at the end of the tunnel. Returning back will probably not be much of a problem for them except for the extra walk they need to make.

This empty hive has been used by other colonies before, so there may still be some pheromone residue left. This may help the bees decide to build a new hive here so they will not make the extra walk to the main hive.

If the bees do build a new colony and get established pretty well, I will remove the connecting tube and seal off the hole at the back of the new hive.  I guess the trick will be attaching the tube without disturbing the bees.

Natural Hive Duplication Method has been successfully done by some stingless beekeepers such as Rob Raabe of Ipswich, Queensland;  Tom Carter of Rockhampton; and John Klumpp of Brisbane.  This a very slow method and not 100% successful as compared to "splitting" the hive.  But it is less stressful to the main hive and it's occupants.   This method can also be used to collect colonies from the wild.

Here are some references:
http://www.aussiebee.com.au/abol-003.html
or
PDF version

Eduction Method

Unwelcome Visitor

Today, I saw again  an unwelcome visitor to my beehive.  It hovered around the hive for several seconds and more than once, I think it tried to enter the hive, but the stingless bees shooed it away.  Not sure if this is a mellifera or cerana and if it belongs to the same colony as the bees I caught the other day.  I hope they will not give my bees and trouble.















It seems the stingless have build small chambers in between the box hive and the plastic sack that was used to contain the bees during transport.  They have already glued the sack to the hive so I was unable to remove the sack completely.  I just cut off whatever portion I can.  My hive may have seen more than 1 season already and has not yet been split.  If that is the case, the bees may be running out of space, box hive must be full already and my bees are trying to expand their hive outside the box.


I tried to peel of the sack at the bottom portion and bees emerged from the crack.

This is where the visitor bee tried to enter but met some resistance.

This is on the the rear, upper left side of the hive.  The bees seem busy building a rather large chamber.

Instead of splitting the hive in 2 and be left with 2 half-strength colonies, I will try an experiment which have been successfully done by some stingless beekeepers.  It is called "natural hive duplication" or the "Eduction Method" as proposed by John Klumpp of Brisbane.

The technique basically involves persuading the existing colony to build a new hive in an adjoining empty hive.  This is a rather bee friendly method as it does not involve me, litterally splitting the hive in 2 and risk destroying or damaging the existing hive by exposing the hive to the elements.  The bees worked very hard building their hive sealing it from the outside world, and I want to keep it that way.  Whether the technique succeed or fail, I will still be left with a strong hive.

The technique will be discussed on my next blog.

Bee Observation...

Today, I saw some bees hauling up loads of  white pollen on both of their pollen baskets.  It was amazing to see it for real.  Also, this afternoon, I noticed several bees are clinging in front wall of the hive.  They were motionless.  A few seconds later after I arrived, they all went inside.  At first, I thought I scared them.  I went to see what was going on at the back of the hive.  As usual, there were plenty of bees outside.  I think they are expanding the nest outside the box.  Then, I noticed it.  Lots of them have drops of liquid on their mandibles! Could they be dumping the liquid at the side of the box to expand the hive?  I took a look at the front of the hive and the bees were there again.  This time, I also noticed the liquid on their mouth.  The bees seem very busy.  They seem to be working double-time taking advantage of the good weather, because they know that the rainy season is here.

I am now a bee landlord...

I don't think I will be using the term "beekeeper" because I will really not be taking much care of them.  All I will do is provide good and safe home for them as best as I can, and perhaps give them some water and food if they really need it.  They are free to go about their business as they see fit.  In return of course, I will be charging them yearly rental fee in the form of honey, pollen, wax, and propolis.

My friends and I went to UP Los Baños this morning to pickup the stingless bees I ordered.  I decided to setup the hive on our roof top near the Banaba Tree.  I believe the humidity is much better there.  Also, it is already rainy season, it will save me the trouble of later relocating them when we get hit by a waste high flood again.

 

I did not finish the table I am building, so I just used this old chair.  I smeared some grease to prevent ants from climbing.  I noticed some fallen bees were immediately attacked by ants.

 

I can not remove the rest of the plastic sack that we used to transport them because the bees have already glued it to the side with propolis.  The bees get really annoyed when I tried to remove it.

The bee entrance... can you see any bees?

Box Pile Hive Update

I found this box pile hive design while searching for some info on Apis cerana.  This is from a Japanese beekeeper.  I think this hive design is based from their traditional vertical log hive but provided a way of harvesting honey without destroying the whole colony.

Below is the link to the video.  The channel also provides instructional videos on how to make the hive and how to harvest honey.

Structure of traditional bee hive of Japanese honeybee

I believe this is how I should start with beekeeping.  Technically, you will just provide a home for the bees and collect yearly rent in the form of honey, pollen, and wax.  Not exactly sure if this design will work for the Apis cerana here in the Philippines, but I am hoping it will.

So, I finally finished the main parts of the box pile hive.

The Bottom Board, a place for the bees to land and take off:

The Hive Entrance:

The Supers:  This is where the honeybees build their combs.  I actually need to build 3 or 4 more of this, and they will be stacked on top of the other like a conventional bee hive.  I am also suppose to put some wire support inside to prevent the combs from falling off, but I am still searching for alternative materials.  I do not feel comfortable using GI wire... I am thinking maybe bamboo sticks will do.

The Grid Plate:  This is where the bees will start to form the comb.  This is equivalent to the bars on the Top Bar Hive design, but here the grid plate is fixed so you can not move the combs around as you would do in a Langstroth or Top Bar hive.  The grid plate is put on the top most supers.

The Top Cover, to seal the hive.

And finally, the Roof, to keep the elements out.

Right now I am working on some angle bars to build a frame where I will put the hive to keep it off ground.

Macro Shots of What I Hope Will Turn Out to be a Stingless Bee...

Took some more photos, this time some macro shot and higher resolution.  Still not sure if this is a stingless bee.  If anyone can positively confirm that this is indeed a stingless bee, please send me a message.

Could this be what I am looking for? A stingless bee in our garden?

I think I even saw one with white pollen clinging to its hind leg.  I want to believe that these are stingless bees... yes bees, there were two of them, maybe three.  They were foraging on the tiny flowers of the cilantro... or parsley...

I have observed one bee foraged for about 20 minutes then left.  There was no activity around the cilantro for at least 5 - 10 minutes, then the bees returned.  This pattern probably occurred throughout the day.  I started watching the bees come and go late in the morning.  At 4 pm, bees are still visiting the cilantro. There are new flower buds forming, so I guess the bees will be visiting for a few more days.  I hope I can get a good close up shot tomorrow.  I tried using the burst shot mode, but the camera sacrificed picture resolution for speed and so I did not get any good picture of bees carrying some pollen.