Homemade soap!

Trying to learn a new craft... soap making!  This was planted in my brain years ago when I saw a segment on "Japan Screen Topic" about a community that recycles used cooking oil from around the neighborhood and turned it into detergent soaps.  Working on bees finally pushed me to do it.  I was thinking of just doing the "melt and pour" soap making process but I overcame the fear of working with lye and decided to go for the "cold process".  I ordered my raw materials, just caustic soda and coconut oil, invited my buddies to come over the weekend so we can have our usual RPG session and make some "beauty soaps."  Nope! we did not pour lye on our hands ala "Fight Club!"  And we also did not use and human fats!

Forty-eight hours later, and the soap still won't come out clean from the silicon mold.  The soap is still soft and soggy especially at the bottom.  But the top is smooth and hard.

However, the moment the soap is exposed to air, it hardens.  Below, I gave the bottom part a little patting and smoothing so it will look a little bit OK.  I'll let the soap stay in the mold for a while.  I won't be able to do another batch until maybe next Sunday. Once I figure out the basics of soap making, I'll try to add my bee propolis extract!

Stingless bees have started storing food in the eduction hive...

Twenty nine days into the eduction process, the bees have started storing food in the eduction hive. The bees have also sealed a great portion of the new hive box.  So, far I have not seen a queen.  I believe she will come later when the new hive is completely furnished.  Apis cerana, during the process of swarming, will leave the old hive without any idea where they will find a new home. Stingless bees on the other hand will look first for a new site and prepare it before their new queen moves in.

I also monitor the traffic going in and out of the eduction tube.  There will come a time when the main hive will cut off the connection to the eduction hive.  This is probably when a new queen starts laying eggs in the eduction hive, or when the main hive feels threatened. In such cases I will remove the tape covering the hole so the bees from the main hive will be able to forage outside.

Eduction method in progress...

What happened to the honey store?!?

I checked one of the hive yesterday and noticed the wax combs seem quite dry... the capped honey cells were missing and the nectar cells also disappeared.  The dish feeder was also dry...  Could it be that the bees have used up the little stored honey they had? That the honey flow is really over and supply can not keep with the bees demand? Rainy season is almost here.  What will my bees eat?  I got worried that my bees will abscond if they will not find any forage so, I returned this morning... and fed them sugar-water... sad... The queen cups I saw last time were still empty probably because of shortage of food.  I do not think they will push through with the reproductive swarm though.  So, I have to accept it, I am not going to get any harvest this summer.  Well, as long as my colonies will get stronger, I guess it is OK.

The bees were quite agitated again.  While inspecting the second hive, a bee decided to stick her sting through my thin jacket and got me in the arm.  I closed the hive and retreated back to the house but the bees were relentless and pursued me.  I moved in and out of the house to lure the bees out. When I thought I drove all the bees out, I removed my veil, but to my surprise, one bee managed to stay put inside.  It went berserk the moment I removed my veil.  I tried to flail my veil around hoping to drive the bee away but I think it only made her more angry.  It made a kamikaze attack directly at my face, which I failed to dodge. It got me near my left eye.  It was very close.  After that, I decided not to take any more photos and just finish putting sugar water in each hive as fast as I can so I can go home immediately before my left eye swell shut.  So far, not much swelling is happening and I hope it stay that way.  But based on my previous stings, the swelling really starts after a few days.

Anyway, I think the bees will be OK for now.  I don't think they will abscond.  I hope the feed will encourage them to stay put, forget about swarming, and start building brood combs on the lower chamber.  However, I still can not say that there are no food in the area.  As I observed each hive activity this morning, lots of bees were hauling loads of pollen.  The traffic was a steady stream.  I will check again in a week to see if they have started storing honey again.

I also found a few dead bees inside one of the chicken feeder I placed outside.  Which means, the bees were able to find the feeder.  I really do not like putting feeder inside the hive as it attracts hordes of ants.

Row of young larvae (center) surrounded by capped brood cells...

Giving Eduction Method Another Chance...

I just can not give eduction method a rest, so, I am at it again using one of the stingless bee colonies at CVSU.  I am not doing it step-by-step. I immediately connected an eduction hive to the main hive. I am hoping the stingless bees are as intelligent as the cerana bees in finding their way out and then back again, though I think it would be much of a challenge for them considering their size.  They have a long way to walk to reach the exit.

I was able to take a small piece of brood from the main hive and put it in the eduction hive. This is suppose to speed up the process.  Now I think I know why, or at least I know one reason.  If new bees are to emerge from the piece of brood I put, then, those bees will consider the eduction hive their real home and they will start working on it.  I don't think they will be going to the main hive.  There should be at least a hundred bees in that piece of brood.

It is actually Day 2 of the experiment, and I still have to see a clear indication that the bees are able to make their way back to the main hive.  The photo was taken this morning and there was very little activity going on.  Hopefully, this coming friday, I will be able to observe the bees the whole day so I can track the movement of some pollen carriers.

I put plastic sheets on top of the hives so now I can watch the bees without them flying out.  Here are some photos I took.

this is the eduction hive...

and these are photos of the main hive...

the brood...

pool of honey (upper right corner)

bees filling the honey pots (center)

a close-up of a stingless bee (Tetragonula biroi)... this guy is a little bit smaller than your regular house fly...

To Feed or Not to Feed...

My dilemma right now is whether I should feed my bees or not.  About two weeks ago, I checked my hive and almost all frames were covered all over with bees... and a lot more bees are coming up because there are still lots of capped broods.  But I did not see any stored honey!  I did see a few open cells with nectar dotting here and there, which I believe were once brood cells. 

I am getting mixed info about honey flow period.  A beekeeper from Alfonso (about 8 km away from Amadeo), told me that their honey flow is over and he is not expecting anymore honey harvest this summer.  And he also told me that if I have lots of bees and no stored honey, my bees are in danger of starvation and the bees might abscond.  However one of my professor at CVSU (5 km away) told me that this summer is the period of honey flow.  Indeed, lots of trees are in bloom like mango, coconut, coffee, narra, and acacia. My galo tree is also in bloom right now and so is my guyabano tree.

Below is the map of Amadeo, Cavite.  The greenish circle represents 300-meter radius of foraging area while the reddish circle represents 900-meter radius.  Of course, Apis cerana has been recorded to forage up to 3 kilometers away from its hive.  Unless climate change will have considerable negative effect on the flowers, I don't think my bees are in danger of running out of natural food, especially since there are very few beekeepers around my area.  

For health reasons (mine and the bees), I really don't want to feed sugar-water.  I believe it is like giving bees junk foods.  The more I intervene with nature, the more harm I might cause.

But to be on the safe side, I actually put a liter of sugar-water outside the hive.  The last time I did that, the bees did not touch it.  Maybe the beekeeper at Lipa, Batangas is right.  He told me that if there are lots of natural forage in the area, the bees will not feed on the sugar-water even if it is inside the hive.   So, I guess, I will leave the decision to the bees.

Another issue I am facing is overcrowding.  During my last visit this week, again there were lots of bees outside near the entrance.  Maybe they did not like the box-hive super I added below.  I just hope they will not swarm again and reduce the strength of the colony.

Slice of (Bee) Life...

Finally, I was able to take photos of my Apis cerana bee frames!  The population looks good.  I was able to see some nectar in some of the cells which I believe were once brood cells.  But I did not see any pollen cells.  I also did not see any queen cells, which is a relief.  I am sure none of them will take off anytime soon.  Last time I visited them, I thought the bees were bearding at the entrance of one of the hive in which I installed the hive converter.  I plugged the original entrance so the bees will make their way down the box hive in order to get out.  Today, I did not see any "bearding" but just their regular "fanning" to keep the hive cool this summer.

The bees seem to hate having their pictures taken.  The moment I pointed the camera at them, they became aggressive and actually attacked the camera lens which was several inches away compared to my hand which is holding the frame.  The dark blurry patches on the foreground are bees attacking the camera lens.

Wow!!! This frame is almost completely covered with bees.

Looking down inside the hive.  Below the wooden grille is the expansion chamber which I hope, the bees will use in the coming days to come to build their new brood cells.  I am converting the frame hive to a Japanese type box hive.  It is similar to a Warre type hive but with fixed top bars instead of frames.

Capped brood cells (covered with yellow wax) occupy most of the lower half of the wax comb.  This is where new bees will come out.  The upper half is a bit new, which you can tell by its light color. The previous owner often harvest the top portion where the bees store their honey.  Fresh wax cells are used for raising broods first, then later filled with honey after the young bees emerged.  Already I can see some old brood cells (dark colored cells) filled with nectar.

Bees forming chains...

The queen is laying some drone (male) bees... you can tell by the cell cappings... drone cell cappings are dome shaped, bulging instead of flat like a regular worker cell cappings.  Drone cell cappings also have pin holes or at least a black dot at the center of the cappings.  Can you find the drone cells in this picture?

Some more close-up shots... I have yet to see a live Apis cerana queen... so, if you managed to find her in any of these photos, please let me know!

My sister's little 'La Presa' on our rooftop...

My sister took a vacation and left her little "La Presa" to me... it's a small 2 x 4 square-foot garden I built for her.  I think it is looking good now or at least it is getting better.  The tarragon looks happy. and the strawberries, well, they are fruiting... I think I will be having another strawberry tomorrow. The fruits are getting smaller though so maybe I should put more compost.  The runners seem to be shooting all over the tiny roof-top garden.  I hope it likes the micro-climate and spread like wildfire so we can have a small basket of delicious red jewels!

Bees eat their way through...

I tried two methods of merging hives a few days ago.  The first one, I tried the sugarwater-vanilla method.  My first attempt, I only transfer one frame from the queen-less hive to a queen-right hive (I hope I used the term correctly...).  All went smoothly.  No one seems to mind the presence of strange bees with them.  So, the next day, I tried the same method again, but these time I transferred 3 frames from the queen-less hive.  Everything was ok at first, but later that day, I saw bees clustering around the queen as if ganging up on her, trying to hurt her.  I tried to break them up.  The queen managed to walk away, but other worker bees began to cluster around her as soon as she got near them.  They seem to be pulling and biting her.  That day I thought I would lost a queen.  I really felt there was nothing I can do to save the queen.  I can not guard her all day, so I decided to let them be. I really do no know what was happening in the hive.  If I interfere, I might do more damage than good.  So I just hope and pray that the queen will still be there the next day.  And guess what?  The queen was still alive and well, as if nothing happened to her.  The workers clustering around her, biting her legs, pulling her, was probably meant to protect her... I do not know... but I have not read these things in books on beekeeping.  I probably never will... but I saw it and learned something new... it was fascinating!

My second merging attempt I tried the newspaper method.  Two to three days after, the bees managed to chew their way through the newspaper.  But they chewed at the rear part of the hive and no way near the holes I punctured.  I lowered the frames to the main hive and nothing interesting happened later on.  The newspaper method seems less stressful than the vanilla method, but then again, I merged two queen-less hives together.  Anyways, both methods work fine. I guess worker bees will not normally hurt the queen, especially if she is the only one in the hive and no candidates to replace her.

Trust in your bees... they know what they are doing...

So, as it turned out, I really had nothing to worry about my bees not finding their way out.  When I arrived at my humble apiary, I saw the bees clustering at the box hive entrance below.  Bees, after all can find their way back home miles away!

But some bees still insist on using the old entrance...

I checked the hives and still found some wax moth larvae.  I had no choice but to crush them.  The bees did not seem to get as irritated as before and allowed me to do my chores.  The remaining three hives look better (I lost one to wax moth).  I am an amateur, but I think I am correct to say that the colonies are growing.  Though, I still have not seen their queen.  I really need to finish my third hive converter.  One colony is still using the original hive they came in with and it really has no more room for the bees to expand.  If I don't add new suppers soon, the bees might end up swarming again!

There could be a new threat to my colonies.  I heard of news that small hive beetles have already reached our country.  I saw this in one of the hive.  It is several times bigger than what we have in CVSU.  Unfortunately, my photo is so poor I can not use it as reference and I was not able to take a sample with me.  But I do pray this is not a SHB!  I just hope that the increase in bee population will help keep all pests in check.

"Hope My Bees Will Find Their Way Out..."

There has been lots of things going since my last post about getting my bee hives.  A few days later, My application to the CVSU Bee Program got accepted so I am now a "professional" beekeeper.    I now have some money to spend for my graduate school expenses.  Graduate school started last November, also the same time the CVSU bees arrived.   So I have my hands full!  Plus, the 6 hours commute back and forth is really tiring me out.  Ok, enough of my excuses for not blogging.

I am suppose to go to Amadeo today to see how the bees are doing.  I was there last night to close the entrance of 2 of the old hives.  I am currently experimenting on a hive conversion technique which I found on the internet.  If you will look at the photos of my hives, these are just single layer supers with closed bottom. The bees really have no room to expand.  This is not a problem to the previous owner because he harvest honey combs monthly.  The bees were always busy rebuilding combs.  But not with me.  I will only be harvesting honey during the honey flow season.  The previous owner warned me about this.  He said I should check for wax moths because they love old combs.  In fact, one of my hive had already succumbed to wax moth!  So, I decided to push through with my initial plan to house the bees in a traditional Japanese beehives. Hopefully, the bees will like the simple log type hive  and the extra room below for them to expand and grow strong.  Once a frame is empty of all the brood cells, I remove it from the hive.  The bees will run out of frames above and will be forced to expand and build combs below the Japanese hive. Well, at least that is the theory.

I setup the conversion hive during the day and retain the original hive entrance so the bees can return without a hitch.  Come night fall, I closed off the original entrance of the original hive and open the entrance below.  I hope the bees will work their way to the new chambers below and find their way out so they can forage.  If not, the bees will be in deep trouble and so will I for not visiting them today as I am suppose to.

Please excuse the low res photos.  I don't have a good camera right now.

I am also suppose to set up the third hive today, but decided no to as the old hive I used for the conversion hive has too many cracks and it will just give me a lot of trouble later on.  The glue gun I used previously did not do a good job sealing off the cracks.  I really should use some good wood putty to patch up the cracks.