Winter Without The Bees

I want you to be caught up because I haven't written in my blog forever. My mom is going to interview me.
Mom: After you were stung, how was the rest of the summer with your bees?
Tessa: Pretty good, but I didn't want to get too close because I didn't want to get stung again.
Mom: Does that mean that you didn't visit the bees?
Tessa: No, I still visited them, but I stayed back a few feet.
Mom: Were these bees as nice as your first batch?
Tessa: No, they were more aggressive than the first batch.
Mom: Did you see them in your garden?
Tessa: Yes I saw quite a few. Different types.
Mom: So not all honeybees?
Tessa: No. There were bees from other hives and bumble bees and mostly honeybees.
Mom: Could some of them have been wild?
Tessa: Yes.
Mom: How did they survive the hurricane?
Tessa: They made walls and walls and walls of bees in the feeder hole and the main door.

Mom: Since your bees died last winter, how did you better prepare these bees for winter?
Tessa: We used a tarp, staple gun and straw bale. We stapled the bottom of the tarp to the base of the bee hive. Then we filled it with straw and stapled it to the roof of the hive.
Mom: How can the bees get out of there?
Tessa: We stapled it in the back instead of the front because the back is north and that's the way the way the snow and wind blow.
Mom: Ah. But you are not at home now to look after them. How did you prepare them for your absence?
Tessa: I went out and talked to them and said that we'd be back. I also said "Hang tight. You will be ok."
Mom: Do you worry about them?
Tessa: No.
Mom: Have you met beekeepers in Dallas?
Tessa: Yes, at the farmer's market. It seems like there are a lot of urban beekeepers around here.
Mom: Anything else you'd like to mention?
Tessa: No, only that we're doing good around here [Texas]. Talk to you later!

Happy Bee Girl / Sad Bee Girl

It has kind of been a long time since I've written because all my bees died. But guess what! I got new ones on May 21st! When the bees were coming home to my house, the bees were in the backseat with me, on the floor on the other side of the car. There were 10,000 bees in just a small box, like a foot long. Surprisingly, I was not nervous to have the bees in the backseat of the car with me. I felt very happy because the bees got introduced to us while we were in the car because they were with their new family.

I have to mention that the queen was unknown. The bees did not know her. She was in her own small box. My mom sprayed all the bees with water to cool them down. When it was time to put the bees in the hive, I GOT TO PULL THE BOX WITH THE QUEEN IN IT. There were also a couple worker bees in there. We had to take off the metal cap because that's how she gets out of the box when she's ready and she's gotten to know the other bees. We hung the queen's box up between two bars with wire.

Do you know how we got the rest of the bees in the hive? My mom banged the box so all of them fell down then flipped the box right into the hive. Since the queen was already in the hive, the other bees wanted to be with her too. And since all of them did not come out, we just put it vertical (that was a good word) with the hole looking toward the hive. And when they were ready, they could come in.

That was the first happy bee girl day. Well, I had another on Father's Day. My hand was on the edge of the bee hive but not close to the door. A bee just walked on my hand. I came up from the bee hive and showed my mom and dad. My dad was kind of scared because he thought I was going to get stung. Well, I did not and I did not get worried. And I didn't really listen because I thought that was kind of weird. I thought, "Daaaaaaad, stop it. I won't get stung. The bee loves me." It did not want to come off me when I wanted it to go off to its hive. It came back on me. I tried it again and it came off and did not come back on. I was kind of glad because I did not want to keep on trying to put a bee back on its hive.

The next day, I was over by the hive again. A bee chased me and stung me right on my knuckle. The stinger was still in it and I got to see the stomach. The stomach was tiny and white. It felt so bad, I screamed. I was not really fussing with the bees but my hand was pretty close to the door and I did not really mean it. I ran inside and got the secret cure. I'll tell you the secret cure but don't tell anybody else: it is baking soda and your saliva. Just make a paste with it and put it on your bee sting. My mom also gave me a homeopathic remedy (mom's note: Apis). It calmed me down. This is weird--it was so long ago, my finger is fine but I can still see the mark that the stinger left.

The Tulip Festival

At the Tulip Festival I saw little honeybees on the grape hyacinths. My dad took a picture of them. I was very happy about this. It made me think about the bees we were getting the next month. The Tulip Festival was on Mother's Day.

I'm sorry this is short but that's all I can think of now. Do you know why I have not blogged in a long time? It's because I did not know what to say since I did not have bees. Like I said before in an old blog, my bees died and I had to wait to get new ones.

Happy Earth Day

Earth day is very important because the Earth is your home. Do you want it to be a mess? Here are some ideas that might inspire you: 
1. keep bees because bees are dying and are very important to pollinate the flowers for the food we eat.
2. pick up garbage anywhere because litter will pollute the Earth and is ugly.
3. walk or ride a bike to your school or grocery store. Why not get saddle bags?
4. compost scraps of fruits, vegetables and eggshells in a bucket and toss it in pile to make nice healthy soil (but it does stink). It doesn’t make sense to throw food in a landfill.
5. unplug your cell phone and computer chargers when not in use.
6. use the sleep mode on your computer and phones when not in use.   

Earth Day should be every day!

Bad Day

Yesterday, my family opened the hive. We checked to see if the bees were alive. There were none alive. We had to clean out the hive and we got a lot of honey. We buried the bees on the edge of my ravine behind my house.

I felt very very sad when I saw all of those dead bees. Some of the bees on the top were actually moldy. I think the cold weather and the moisture in March killed them. We saw a lot of eggs from the Queen. We tried to look for her, but we couldn't find her.

We cleared out the hive by taking out all the honeycomb and dead bees. We left some of the honeycomb in big bowls in the yard. The good news is I saw a ton of honeybees today on the honeycomb. I had to watch where I stepped because there were so many--I might have gotten stung if I had stepped on one. The bees will take that honey back to their hives. It will go to good use. They might be wild bees. We're hoping that some bees will move in during swarming season in late May. This is how they swarm: they split up the hive and they move. The queen takes one half and guides them.

We learned a lot by losing those poor bees.

How are the bees doing in the hive?

I can't wait to see the bees. When I go over to their hive and ask them a question, they sometimes answer. I ask them "How are you doing today?" Usually they say, "I'm so lazy." But I do not believe them! They only seem lazy to themselves because they are used to being so busy.

I am not nervous about them making it through the winter. I can hear them vibrating just a teensy weensy minuscule bit. Every time we have a spring-like day, they don't come out. They might just know that the next day will be a total disaster!

What temperature do bees come out of their hive?

Well, I know.

Our kind of bees come out in the high 40's - mid 50's. We have had some really warm Spring-like days, but we haven't seen any bees yet--not even one. So where are they and when are they going to come out? They must know that it's going to become co-o-o-lder again the next day so they say, "it isn't safe to go out." I bet the first one who knows it says that to the other bees in the hive. I am so eager to see them again!