Chapter 7

Opening Your Hive

IN THIS CHAPTER

Knowing when and how often to visit your bees

Deciding what to wear

Finding out how to light your smoker

Opening Langstroth and Top Bar hives

This is the moment you, as a new beekeeper, have been waiting for — that exhilarating experience when you take your first peek into the hive. You likely have a touch of fear, tempered by a sweeping wave of curiosity.

Put those fears aside. You’ll soon discover visiting with your bees is an intoxicating experience that you eagerly look forward to. What you’re about to see is simply fascinating. It’s also one of the more tranquil and calming experiences that you can imagine: the warmth of the sun; the sweet smell of pollen, wax, and honey; the soothing hum of the hive. You’re at one with nature. Your new friendship with your bees will reward you for many years to come.

The habits you develop in the beginning are likely to stick with you, so developing good habits early on is important. By getting familiar with the safe and proper way to inspect your hive and following suggested steps religiously in the beginning, you’ll minimize any risks of injuring or antagonizing your bees. The techniques become second nature in no time. Down the road, you may find variations on the suggested methods that suit you better. Or helpful hints from other experienced beekeepers (there’s more than one way to do beekeeping). That’s okay. For now, just relax, move calmly, use good judgment, and enjoy the miracle of beekeeping.

Establishing Visiting Hours

Ideally, open your hive on a nice, sunny day. Between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. is best. Under those conditions, thousands of busy worker bees are out in the field — fewer bees at home to disturb. Avoid cold, windy, or rainy weather because that’s when the entire colony is at home. With everyone in the hive, you’ll probably find too many bees to deal with, particularly when you’re just starting. In addition, the bees tend to be crankier when they can’t get out of the house! You know how that is.

Keep in mind that on city rooftops, the wind chill can be much harsher than at ground level and can lower the air temperature considerably. Be aware of its damaging effect on your developing brood. Chilling the brood means fewer bees for the next generation!

Setting an Inspection Schedule

For the first-year beekeeper, once a week isn’t too often to visit the bees. Use these frequent opportunities to find out more about the bees and their life cycles. Your first season is a time of discovery. You’ll begin recognizing what’s normal and what’s not. You’ll also become increasingly comfortable with manipulating the frames and working with the bees. So much so that inspecting your bees soon becomes second nature, and a quick peek at the entrance or under the lid is all that’s needed to assure you that all is well. Beekeeping is as much an art as it is a science. Practice makes perfect.

Once you begin getting the hang of it, you needn’t conduct more than six to eight inspections a year: Three or four visits in the early spring, one or two during the summer, and a couple of inspections at the end of the season are all that are absolutely necessary. But, hey, they’re your bees, and I know you’ll want to visit them regularly.

Every day that you smoke the bees, open their hive, and pull it apart sets their productivity back a bit. It takes a day or two for life in the colony to return to normal. So if harvesting lots of honey is your objective, limit your inspections to once every few weeks.

This schedule doesn’t apply to your first year when you need to gain greater experience by visiting the hive often.

As a beekeeper of a Top Bar hive, you are on a slightly different inspection schedule. Your immediate goal after installation of the bees is to get your bees started building straight comb. That will require some real early inspections, and possibly some comb management. Skip ahead to “Opening a Top Bar Hive” for a general overview of some important differences between opening a Langstroth hive versus a Top Bar hive.

Preparing to Visit Your Langstroth or Top Bar Hive

The weekend has rolled around, and the weather’s great (mild, sunny, and not much wind), so you’ve decided that you’re going to pay the girls a visit. It’s time to see what’s going on in the hive. But you can’t just dash out and tear the top off the hive. You have to get yourself ready for this special occasion. How will you approach the bees? What should you expect to see when you open the hive? How in the world do you use all this new equipment?

In the upcoming section, I take you through the details of each step; they apply whether you’re visiting a Langstroth or Top Bar hive.

You may want to read this chapter and the next one word for word. You may even want to read it a few times before having your first “close encounter.” You may also want to take the book along on your first inspection, just in case you need some quick moral support. Better yet, coerce a friend or family member to go with you. That’s what I did the first time. I had my wife reading from a book and prompting me through each step. At the time we didn’t have an extra veil for her, so she hollered instructions at me from a safe distance.

Making “non-scents” a part of personal hygiene

Forgive me for being personal, but you need to know that bees don’t react well to bad body odor. So please don’t inspect your bees when you’re all sweaty after a morning jog. Take a shower first. Brush your teeth. On the other hand, don’t try to smell too good, either!

Avoid using colognes, perfumes, or scented hairsprays. Sweet smells can attract more attention from the bees than you want.

Be sure to remove your leather watchband before visiting your bees. They don’t like the smell of leather or wool, and these materials retain body odor. Removing your rings also is a good idea. It isn’t that bees don’t like pretty jewelry. But in the rare event that you take a sting on your hand, you don’t want your fingers swelling up when you’re wearing a decidedly nonexpandable ring.

Getting dressed up and ready to go

Always wear your veil when you’re inspecting your hive. Doing so keeps the bees away from your face and prevents them from getting tangled in your hair. Nothing can be more distracting than trying to locate and isolate a bee caught in body hair before it gets to the root to sting. For a discussion of the types of veils that are available, see Chapter 5.

If a bee ever gets under your veil, try not to panic. It isn’t that big a deal. Her first instinct is to get out, so she’s unlikely to sting you unless you squeeze her. To help her escape, simply walk away from the hive and slip off your veil. Don’t remove your veil at the hive, and don’t thrash around screaming and yelling. Doing so only upsets the bees, and the neighbors will think you’ve gone wacky.

New beekeepers need to wear a long-sleeved shirt. Light colors and smooth fabrics (like cotton) are best because bees don’t like dark colors or the smell of wool or leather (material made from animals). If you aren’t using commercially available beekeeping coveralls, use Velcro straps or rubber bands around the cuff of each pant leg and sleeve to keep your clothing bee-tight. Unless, of course, you think you might actually like having curious bees traveling up your sleeves and inside your trousers.

You can use gloves if you feel you absolutely must (see Chapter 5 for more information about gloves), but I encourage you not to develop that habit. Gloves are bulky. They impair your sense of touch and make your movements clumsy. When you’re working with new colonies and early spring colonies, gloves aren’t even necessary. These small, young, and gentle colonies are a delight to work with. Save your gloves for unfavorable weather, moving colonies around, or for use during the late summer and honey-harvesting time (when the colony’s population is large and bees tend to be more defensive). But at all other times, I recommend that you leave the gloves at home or tucked into your pocket. Trust me. You’ll thank me later.

Colonies can be handled with far more dexterity and fewer injuries to bees (and you!) when you don’t use gloves at all. Less injury to bees means a more docile colony.

Lighting Your Smoker

The smoker is the beekeeper’s best friend. Yet for many, keeping a smoker lit can be the trickiest part of beekeeping. It doesn’t have to be. What you’re trying to achieve is enough thick, cool smoke to last throughout your inspection. You certainly don’t want your smoker to poop out as soon as you’ve opened the hive.

Begin with a loosely crumpled piece of newspaper about the size of a tennis ball. Light the paper and place it in the bottom of the smoker. Nest it in place using your hive tool. Gently squeeze the bellows a few times until you’re sure that the paper is burning with a flame.

Add dry matchstick-size kindling, pumping the bellows as you do. As it ignites (you’ll hear it crackling), slowly add increasingly thicker kindling. Ultimately, the fattest of your twigs will be about as thick as your thumb. None of the kindling need be more than 4 or 5 inches in length. The kindling needs to fill three-quarters of the smoker and must be thoroughly packed from side to side. Using your hive tool, occasionally stoke the fire. Keep pumping. When your kindling has been burning for a minute or so and embers are glowing, it’s time to add the real fuel.

Use a fuel that burns slowly and gives off lots of smoke. I’m partial to dry wood chips, a wad of burlap, or a fistful of hemp baling twine. But dry leaves and dry pine needles do nicely. You can also purchase smoker fuel (usually cartridges of compacted raw cotton fibers or nuggets of wood) from beekeeping supply stores. They work well, too. The bees really don’t care what you use — but avoid using anything synthetic or potentially toxic to you or to the bees. Figure 7-1 shows a smoker and readily available kindling and fuel.

You can learn how to light a smoker in the video at www.dummies.com/go/beekeepingfd5e. Check it out and see how I get my smoker to burn for hours!

The compressed wood pellets used as fuel in pellet stoves make fairly decent smoker fuel. Start with crumpled newspaper and a few twigs, then add a fistful or two of the wood pellets. Your smoker will produce thick, white smoke for hours!

Keep a box of kindling and fuel with your other beekeeping equipment. Having this readily available saves time on the days you plan to visit the hive.

Courtesy of Howland Blackiston

FIGURE 7-1: A smoker with all the “ingredients” is ready to load with paper, kindling of various sizes, and some natural fiber baling twine.

Pack the smoker right to the top with your preferred fuel as you continue to gently pump the bellows. Gently tap it all down using your hive tool. When billows of thick, cool white smoke emerge, close the top. Pump the bellows a few more times. Use a long, slow pumping method when working the bellows, rather than short, quick puffs. Doing so produces more and thicker smoke than short puffs (see Figure 7-2).

Your smoker should remain lit for an hour or more.

Courtesy of Howland Blackiston

FIGURE 7-2: A smoking smoker — the beekeeper’s best friend.

KEEPING YOUR SMOKER CLEAN

A good question that I’m frequently asked is: “My smoker is all gummed up and needs a good cleaning. How do I clean it?”

After a season or two, the inside of a smoker can become thickly coated with black, gummy tar. I’ve found the best way to clean it is by burning the tar out of it — literally. Like a self-cleaning oven, you need a great amount of heat. I’ve had success using a small propane blowtorch. You can purchase one at any hardware store. Just apply the flame to the black tar coating inside of your smoker. Keep blasting away. Soon the tar ignites, glows a fiery orange, and then turns to a powdery ash. Turn off the blowtorch. Once the metal smoker cools, you can easily knock the ash out of the smoker. Clean as a whistle!

Make certain the smoke coming out of the smoker is “cool.” You don’t want to approach the hive with a smoker that is producing a blast furnace of smoke, fire, and sparks. Place your hand in front of the chimney as you gently work the bellows and feel the temperature of the smoke. If it feels comfortable to you, it will to the bees, too.

Opening a Langstroth Hive

You are all suited up. It’s time to gather your smoker, hive tool, and tool box. Oh, be sure to bring along an old towel (I’ll explain why later in the “Removing the hive-top feeder” section). The moment of truth has arrived.

To see a video of me demonstrating how to open a hive, go to www.dummies.com/go/beekeepingfd5e. The steps are the same as the ones outlined here.

Approach your Langstroth hive from the side or rear. Avoid walking right in front of it because the bees shooting out the entrance will collide with you. As you approach the hive, take a moment to observe the bees and then ask yourself, “In what direction are they leaving the hive?” Usually it’s straight ahead, but if they’re darting to the left or right, approach the hive from the opposite side.

WHAT DOES THE SMOKE DO?

Smoke changes the bees’ behavior and prevents them from turning defensive during inspections. You may ask, “Why?” One explanation I was told years ago is that it tricks bees into thinking there’s a fire. In nature bees make their homes in hollow trees. So a forest fire would be a devastating event. With all the commotion, they become quite oblivious to the beekeeper.

But another explanation is more likely. The smoke masks the alarm pheromones given off by worker bees when the hive is opened. Ordinarily, these alarm pheromones trigger defensive action on the part of the colony, but the smoke confounds the bees’ ability to communicate danger.

In any event, smoking the bees works. Don’t even think about opening a hive without first smoking it. It’s a tempting shortcut that may work when your colony is brand-new, small, and young. But after that, it’s a shortcut you’ll try only once.

Follow these steps to open a Langstroth hive:

1. Standing at the side and with your smoker 2 or 3 feet from the entrance, blow several puffs of thick, cool smoke into the hive’s entrance (see Figure 7-3).

   Four good puffs of smoke should do fine. Use good judgment. Don’t oversmoke them. You’re not trying to asphyxiate the bees; you simply want to let the guard bees know you’re there.

   

   Courtesy of Howland Blackiston

   FIGURE 7-3: Approach the hive from the side and blow a few puffs of smoke into the entrance to calm the guard bees.

2. Still standing at the side of the hive? Good. Now lift one long edge of the outer cover an inch or so, and blow a few puffs of smoke into the hive (see Figure 7-4).

   Ease the top back down and wait 30 seconds or so. Doing so gives the smoke time to work its way down into the hive. These puffs are for the benefit of any guard bees at the top of the hive.

   

   Courtesy of Howland Blackiston

   FIGURE 7-4: A little smoke under the hive cover distracts any of the colony’s guard bees that may be upstairs.

3. Put your smoker down and, using both hands, slowly remove the outer cover.

   Lift it straight up and off the hive. Set the cover upside down on the ground (with the flat metal top resting on the ground and its underside facing skyward).

Your next step depends on whether you’re still feeding your bees at the time of the inspection. If no hive-top feeder is on the colony, skip ahead to the section “Removing the inner cover.”

Check out my video at www.dummies.com/go/beekeepingfd5e to see how I go about smoking my bees and opening my hive.

Removing the hive-top feeder

If you’re using a hive-top feeder, you’ll need to remove it before inspecting your hive. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Using your smoker, puff some smoke through the screened access and down into the hive (see Figure 7-5).

   

   Courtesy of Howland Blackiston

   FIGURE 7-5: If you’re using a hive-top feeder, apply some smoke through the screened access to reach the bees down below.

2. Hive parts often stick together, so use the flat end of your hive tool to gently pry the feeder from the rim of the hive body (see Figure 7-6).

   Do this slowly, being careful not to pop the parts apart with a loud “snap.” That only alarms the bees.

   Here’s a useful trick. Use one hand to gently press down on the feeder, while prying the feeder loose with the hive tool in your other hand. This counterbalance of effort minimizes the possibility of the two parts suddenly popping apart with a loud “snap.”

3. Loosen one side of the feeder and then walk around the back — not the front — and loosen the other side.
4. Blow a few puffs of smoke into the crack created by your hive tool as you pry loose the feeder.

   

   Courtesy of Howland Blackiston

   FIGURE 7-6: Use your hive tool as a lever to ease apart hive parts.

5. Wait 30 seconds and completely remove the hive-top feeder.

   Be careful not to spill any syrup. Set the feeder down on the outer cover that is on the ground.

   Positioning the feeder at a right angle to the cover when you set it down results in only two points of contact and makes it less likely that you’ll crush any bees that remain on the underside of the feeder. Always be gentle with them, and they’ll always be gentle with you!

Remember the old towel I talk about earlier in this chapter? This is where it comes in. If syrup remains in the feeder, completely cover it with the towel (alternatively, you can use a small plank of plywood or a scrap of carpeting). Syrup left in the open attracts the bees — big time! You don’t want to set off robbing. That’s a nasty situation where bees go into a wild frenzy after finding free sweets (see Chapter 10). Open containers of syrup (or honey for that matter) also can attract bees from other colonies. All the gorging bees wind up whipped into such a lather that they begin robbing honey from your hive. War breaks out, and hundreds or even thousands of bees can be killed by the robbing tribe. Enough said! A good rule of thumb: Never leave syrup in the wide open. Keep it out of reach!

Removing the inner cover

If you’re not using a hive-top feeder, you’ll need to remove the inner cover (an inner cover is always used unless a top feeder is on the hive). Removing the inner cover is much like removing the top feeder. Follow these steps:

1. Puff smoke through the oval hole and down into the hive.

2. Using the flat end of your hive tool, gently release the inner cover from the hive body (see Figure 7-7).

   Loosen one side and then walk behind the hive and loosen the other side. Pry slowly, being careful not to pop the parts apart with a loud “crack.”

   

   Courtesy of Howland Blackiston

   FIGURE 7-7: Direct some smoke through the hole in the inner cover — wait half a minute and then use your hive tool to release and remove the inner cover from the hive body.

3. Blow a few puffs of smoke into the crack created by your hive tool as you pry up the inner cover.

4. Wait 30 seconds and then completely remove the inner cover.

   Set it down on the outer cover that’s now on the ground, or simply lean it up against a corner of your hive out of your way as you continue your hive inspection. Careful! Don’t crush any bees that may still be on the inner cover. I like to take a quick look just in case the queen happens to be on the inner cover. If you happen to see her, coax her to go between the frames of the box.

Opening a Top Bar Hive

With a Top Bar hive, there is no difference regarding how you prepare for a visit and smoke your bees. So here I deal with those details that are a little different when dealing with a Top Bar hive.

The comb in a Top Bar hive is very fragile. Be very, very careful when handling it. Never tilt the comb forward or backward, allowing the comb surface to be positioned horizontally, against the force of gravity. Figure 7-8 shows the three safe positions for handling Top Bar hive comb. Because there are no bottom or side supports, the comb in a Top Bar hive requires constant support. This is particularly the case with new comb — but the warning applies to all Tob Bar hive comb.

Courtesy of William Hesbach

FIGURE 7-8: These are the three positions you must maintain when handling Top Bar hive comb. Any other position will result in the comb detaching from the bar.

Top Bar hives are opened from the rear of the hive, meaning the end farthest from the entrance. That’s because the bars farthest from the entrance are the last ones on which the bees draw wax comb. This approach is less disturbing to the colony because the bars will be relatively free of comb and bees until the colony really gets established. Also, because the older bees and the guard bees are up front near the entrance, you give yourself a little buffer from disturbing these more defensive bees at the start of the inspection process.

If the entrance is in the middle, you have two ends to choose from when approaching and opening the hive. Either one will do.

Follow these steps to open a Top Bar hive:

1. Smoke the entrance just as with any hive.

   Pause a moment or two before proceeding to let the smoke do its magic.

2. Remove the top cover.

   Careful — it’s heavy. Place the cover nearby on the ground. With a Top Bar hive, there is no “inner cover” to remove, so the top bars are exposed at this point.

   Once you remove the cover, the long flat surface of top bars seems like a natural place to rest your smoker — but don’t do it. The bottom of your smoker is hot enough to damage or melt the wax hanging just below on the bars. Put the smoker down on the ground when you are not using it.

3. Remove the back bars until the feeder is exposed and then remove the feeder, being careful not to spill any syrup.

   Cover the open feeder to avoid the possibility that other bees in your area are attracted to it.

The Hive’s Open! Now What?

Whew! The hive is officially open. Relax and take a deep breath. You should see lots of beautiful bees! Here’s what to do next:

1. Time for the smoker again.

   From 1 or 2 feet away, and standing at the rear or side of the hive, blow several puffs of cool smoke between the frames and down into the hives. Pumping the bellows in long, slow puffs, rather than short, quick ones, make sure that the breeze isn’t preventing smoke from going into the spaces between the frames. Watch the bees. Most of them will retreat down into the hive.

2. Now you can begin your inspection (see Chapter 8).

   Although you have much to do, you don’t want to keep the hive open for more than 15 to 20 minutes (even less if the weather is cooler than 55 degrees Fahrenheit [13 degrees Celsius]). But don’t rush at the expense of being careful! Clumsiness results in injury to bees, and that can lead to stings. Be gentle with the ladies!

In Chapter 8, I explain exactly what you should look for when the hive’s wide open.