#rooftopapiary

When Mother Nature gives you lemons - you give Mother Nature 4 I bolts and 2 ratchet tie downs.

04/13/2016- After being down for 2 days with it’s seals compromised in the aftermath of the 60 mph wind gusts that knocked the hive down 3 times 10 days ago; I thought the outlook was dim. I stood the hive up and figured I would let things settle and wait before making an inspection. During the past 7 days there was no visible activity; as the days past I started to think that the wind event was catastrophic and the colony was lost. I wanted the weather to settle before conducting an inspection. Weather was good today so I planned for a mid afternoon inspection. I went to the roof early this morning and did a recon. The first thing I noticed was brood that was scattered in front of the hive - actually these were almost full term bees, cream colored the size of bees, no eyes, legs, color etc. I wondered how did they get there? Were they ejected when the hive fell, wasps? After my recon I decided that a full inspection would go as scheduled later in the day when it got warmer. Fast forward 8 hours to the inspection. Fearing the worst, I went to the roof with only a plastic bag to put comb filled with dead bees into. Ready to clean the hive and get it ready for a new package. To my pleasant surprise, this is what I encountered. Activity similar to what it was prior to the hive going down. I could not believe what I was witnessing. I think that the partially formed brood scattered about the exterior of the hive is the colony exhibiting hygienics - cleaning out cells that house, dead, dying or diseased brood; that’s a good thing.

04/04/2016 - 24 hours later and the monster winds have passed. Hive is up and sitting good. Activity is surprisingly good. Rain / snow forecast for entire day and throughout the week. Time to let things resolve. Tether on Wednesday

04/03/2016 - After surviving 26" snow in January and a typical Northeast winter; the hive was taken down by this 24 hour weather anomaly of 60 mph wind gusts. The first fall came at 7:20 this morning. The hive fell intact, but while attempting to right the unit, the hive bodies separated and there was a whole lot of mess going on. Bees escaping, Bees dying and honey all over. After securing the hive - to my dismay the wind took it down several times. Decided to leave it down and will triage after winds subside. # Mothernature #beethinking #bees#rooftopapiary #urbanapiary #topbarhive #warrehive #sustainable #honeycomb #honey

11/02/2015 - Last inspection & feeding of 2015. This top Hive body is pretty full of comb & honey.; buckwheat and blueberry seem to be the flavor of the day. There are two bodies below this one. Much more activity in the lower bodies VS. the activity in this body. Looks like their store of honey is being finished and readied for the winter. The honey in this box will be harvested next spring. A new queen will be introduced and the colony split. One feeder bottle was empty and the other was 90% empty. Weather was mild and I was fortunate to be able to inspect as I did today. 66 f.

08/31/2015 - The first time since I installed the hive that I manipulated without gloves. More importantly I was able to minimize the damage tremendously. Counted two bees down. One caught in feeder when I replaced food and one that got stuck on a piece of this cloth that separates the feeder from the top bars of the top hive body. The smoker was the key. After I did my research, everything pointed to driving the bees to a location with the use of smoke. Not just calming them, but driving them to a location of your choice- so to speak. Previously when I went into the feeder body there were bees all over the bottles and they were and had been building comb - as you can see. This time in the feeder body everything was basically the same; bees all over the feeder bottles, comb being built/ albeit the same piece of comb that has been in the same location for a few weeks now. Bottom line, bees all over. I knew that it would be time to replace the feeders, last week I was down to one of two bottles and knew by this week that it would be time to refill. I felt that I was ready to utilize the smoker thinking that it would make for a cleaner manipulation. Fired up the smoker using, cotton swabs, hemp twine and twigs that were lodged in the twine from last years grow season. Fired up like a smoke stack. Cracked the propalised feed body and hit the box with little smoke. - Calming - After opening the body fully and seeing the same scenario- I started to hit the bees with good puffs of smoke and then more - noticing that, yes the bees basically ran from the smoke. It took a few minutes but I was able to clear the feed body of all of the bees as you can see. At this point I remove the empty bottles and replaced them with two full bottles. Usually I am fighting the bees with the brush to get them out of the rebate that holds the inverted feed bottles - no brush used ,not this time around; just hit them with smoke and cleared them out. Unfortunately one bee did get caught in the rebate as I was replacing a feed bottle. Compared to the previous manipulations; this one was smooth as silk. I was relived. I also felt in control of the manipulation. Did not rush.

08/17/2015- As you can see there is significant bearding 1 hour after inspection compared to the bearding prior to the inspection. 1 bottle of food was empty. The other was 70% full. Bees in feeder body building comb. Bottom hive body was full of bees and 50% comb. Top hive body is full- did not go in or attempt to inspect. Unfortunately there was significant collateral damage on this run. Need to minimize my disturbance of the hive. Feed -add hive bodies when necessary, split when necessary and remove honey when time is right. That’s it…