3D Printable Mason Bee House

I created a 3d printable mason bee house. You can download the printable files for free at Thingiverse.


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Making Pollen Patties with Mandy Shaw

Hey everyone! Long time no post! I've been getting some emails and messages from people wondering if I'm okay and still keeping bees. Thanks for checking up on me everybody! :)

Yes, I'm still alive and doing well. I'm also still actively keeping bees, but also engaging (or re-engaging) in other hobbies. I currently don't have any time to shoot, edit, and publish videos, so that's not happening. I'm still active in my local beekeeping group, although no longer president or on the board. I've passed the torch on. In fact, the new president is none-other than my friend Mandy Shaw who just launched a new beekeeping podcast: Beekeeper Confidential. And I had the honor of participating in one of her episodes where we made pollen patties together. Go check it out: Episode 2 | Pollen Patties.

I was in a commercial!

(Posting this really late to the website. Sorry...)

This was really fun to make! In late June 2016 a casting call went out to the Portland beekeeping mailing lists and forums looking for a beekeeper to be in a commercial. I applied, auditioned, and (to my surprise) was cast for the part!

Watch and enjoy. :)


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Harvesting Honey Part 2 - Bee Vlog - Sep 5, 2016

Now in Part 2 I show how I extract the honey from the combs with inexpensive (less than $40 USD) equipment. In Part 1 I showed how to remove honey supers from a hive easily and without disturbing the bees.


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For more information about the expense of wax production.

Harvesting Honey Part 1 - Bee Vlog - Aug 29, 2016

In Part 1 I show how to remove honey supers from a hive easily and without disturbing the bees. Come back for Part 2 where I extract the honey from the combs with inexpensive (less than $40 USD) equipment.


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Observation Hive at Festival of Flowers - Bee Vlog - Jun 13, 2016

The theme of Festival of Flowers this year at Pioneer Courthouse Square is "Be Friendly PDX." I was invited to be on KGW's morning news "Out & About" segment, bring an observation hive, and talk about bees in Portland.

Tour de Hives is on June 25-26, 2016. Buy tickets here.


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You can watch the entire interview below.

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Wasp Nest In My Trap - Bee Vlog - May 18, 2016

I was refreshing the bait in one of my swarm traps and found a wasp nest. After some slo-mo inspection of the video footage (and discussion with others in the YouTube comments), it look like this was a yellowjacket nest.


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Supers, Splits, & Starvation - Bee Vlog - May 9, 2016

So much going on in this video! I got to meet Michael Bush! I give a quick rundown on my winter successes and failures. The plan today was to just run to all my out-yards and add supers, but found queen cells in one and split them to make 2 new resource hives (more on what a resource hive is in a future video). I also go through a dead-out to see what done them in.


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How To Install A Nuc - Bee Vlog - Apr 25, 2016

Installing nucs at Zenger Farm. Also, taking a look at the monitoring system donated by Bee-Certain.com. (This donation was a gift to the Portland Urban Beekeepers club for use at their club apiary at Zenger Farm.)


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Flow Hive - Up Close - Apr 18, 2016

I finally got my hands on a Flow hive. In this video I cover the concerns I think are most important to address.


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Overwintered Nuc - March 2016

I had 2 nucs going into winter, trying out a new way to insulate and protect the hive. It seemed to work okay. One hive died. I think it was due to a problem with the queen, so insulation wouldn't have helped there. The other hive did great and came out really strong. However, the insulation provided a nice space for ants to create a little nest of their own under the top. Ants everywhere! Even with Tanglefoot on the posts. Apparently Tanglefoot requires re-application from time to time.

Ready for a bigger hive

Nuc Winter Insulation

Winter is coming (it had to be said), and I'm trying a little test on overwintering a couple 5-frame nucs. I don't normally insulate my hives because I don't think it's necessary in my area. Bees can maintain their heat within a cluster just fine. However, things might be different in these small nucs. The cluster is much closer to the walls of the hive. My hypothesis is that the cluster loses more heat due to the proximity to the cold walls in a nuc than they would in a 10-frame hive. (Think: standing against an uninsulated window on a cold day vs standing a few feet away.) So the test here is to decrease heat loss through the side walls (the ones they are most likely in contact with) and see how it improves things.

The features here are, double-thick foam insulation on the roof (like last year). 1-inch thick foam insulation on the sides. A corrugated plastic rain roof with a drip edge on the front. The hive is tilted forward to promote water runoff on the inside ceiling, so it doesn't drip on the bees. Ventilation holes in the bottom and top box. Everything is taped together with white duct tape (not very pretty, but that's not the point).

Of course there are many factors that go into hive winter survival, so if these 2 hives die it may be hard to know if the insulation helped or not. But I'll let you know how things turn out next spring.

Honey Extraction - Bee Vlog - Aug 20, 2015

One of the criticisms and downsides of not using foundation is the difficulty in extracting the honey without destroying the comb. I decided to see how well my comb holds up in a radial extractor. Will it explode?

I was also interviewed on the Kiwimana Buzz show. I had a great time talking about beekeeping in Portland and how I create my videos. You can listen to the show here.

More on crush & strain harvesting.

The t-shirt: "We are all batpeople"


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Disneyland Edition - Bee Vlog - July 25, 2015

We went to VidCon in Anaheim, CA and had a fun time. We also visited Disneyland, because I'm a Disney Freak, and I tried to find as many bee references as I could.


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The YouTube creators shown in this video:
Michael Aranda - SciShow
Chris & Jessica Ballinger
Felicia Day -  Geek & Sundry
Matt, Leila, Coco & Shephard - Convos With My 2-Year-Old
Michael Stevens - VSauce
Kevin Lieber - VSauce2
Jake Roper - VSauce3

All of the YouTube creators were really great, and it was a pleasure to meet them.

Washboarding - Bee Vlog - July 18, 2015

This is a very fascinating behavior called "washboarding." Nobody really knows why bees do it. I've mostly seen it during warmer seasons. Are they cleaning? Cooling off? Marking the hive? Or just bored? All we can do is guess.


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Swarm Data - April 2015

My local bee club, Portland Urban Beekeepers, recently partnered up with Honey Bee Allies to provide a swarm hotline and easier-to-use swarm list for Portland, Oregon. We've had the hotline in place for a month now and having great success with it. One of the great things about it is being able to collect swarm call data.

Time to get geeky with numbers. Below is a little something I threw together to show swarm activity vs weather.

Data:

SwarmDate	# swarms	pressure (inHg)	pressure (amp)	rain (mm)	max temp (C)
4/1/2015	2	30.29	10.3	4.8	12.8
4/2/2015	1	30.39	11.1	2.8	14.4
4/3/2015	0	30.29	10.3	0.0	14.4
4/4/2015	2	30.15	9.2	4.8	13.3
4/5/2015	2	29.84	6.7	0.0	15.6
4/6/2015	2	29.79	6.3	3.0	15.6
4/7/2015	2	29.78	6.2	0.5	15.0
4/8/2015	4	29.99	7.9	0.5	15.0
4/9/2015	7	30.12	9	0.0	18.3
4/10/2015	2	29.96	7.7	0.0	18.9
4/11/2015	0	29.96	7.7	6.9	16.1
4/12/2015	0	30.22	9.8	1.0	14.4
4/13/2015	2	30	8	0.0	15.0
4/14/2015	2	30.22	9.8	8.4	13.3
4/15/2015	0	30.49	11.9	8.6	15.0
4/16/2015	10	30.36	10.9	0.0	22.2
4/17/2015	16	30.18	9.4	0.0	22.8
4/18/2015	12	30.25	10	0.0	24.4
4/19/2015	8	30.13	9	0.0	25.0
4/20/2015	10	29.91	7.3	0.0	27.2
4/21/2015	9	29.9	7.2	0.0	27.2
4/22/2015	1	30.18	9.4	0.0	16.7
4/23/2015	0	30.03	8.2	0.0	16.1
4/24/2015	0	29.87	7	1.8	13.3
4/25/2015	0	29.94	7.5	4.6	16.7
4/26/2015	0	30.14	9.1	1.0	16.7
4/27/2015	9	30.2	9.6	0.3	27.2
4/28/2015	3	29.92	7.4	0.0	27.2

I wasn't sure which variable would correlate best to swarming behavior, so I included barometric pressure, precipitation, and maximum temperature in the data set. To get the pressure to show up on the chart as anything other than a nearly straight line I applied an amplifier to it (inHG-29)*8. This makes the changes in pressure show up much better as a nice wiggle on the chart below.

It looks like there's a strong correlation between warm, dry weather and swarming. (Is that a big surprise to anyone?) Not much of a correlation with barometric pressure. Swarming is happening whether the pressure is rising or falling.

But there is something interesting happening with the rain.

A huge spike in swarms at the beginning of a long dry spell. Are the bees sensitive enough to weather patterns to know when there will be a long period of time to set out and find a new home? Or is this explained simply by the much higher temperatures?

Of course, experienced beekeepers around here are well aware of this pattern. It's just interesting to see it in chart form.

Honey Bee Dissection - Bee Vlog - Apr 4, 2015

As part of the Journey program offered by the Oregon State University Master Beekeeping course, I got to spend some time with their instructors dissecting bees under a microscope. This was an excellent opportunity to see, first hand, some of the organs and anatomy of the honey bee.


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Honey Bee	Head	Front Leg
Back Leg	Wings	Mouth Parts
Hypopharyngeal Gland	Drone Penis	Stinger
Spermatheca

Swarm #1 for 2015 - Apr 9, 2015

Got my first swarm of the season. We're having a very early spring and swarm season is well underway. Lots of swarming. This is my 3rd call this week, but the first one I could actually take. These were some good looking bees. Very eager to work. And in the 4 hours they were in the box they already started to put wax on the underside of the lid.

It felt like about 4 pounds of bees

That bush they were on was very thorny and it took a bite out of my hand. The neighbor that called the swarm hotline told me someone else was planning to light a fire and douse the bees with a hose. Ugh! Fortunately smarter heads prevailed and they called in a beekeeper.

Labeled appropriately of course

Unfortunately, these bees were collected near a very agricultural area. Which means they probably came from a farmer's hive. I could also tell that they weren't a "wild" swarm since I found no drones among them. Why would this be a bad thing? Because there's a good chance they may be dependent on chemical treatments for survival. And I don't do that. So it should be interesting to see if they can survive the winter. I'll take mite counts on them this summer and see how they look.

Balance - Bee Vlog - Mar 14, 2015

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“The major work of the world is not done by geniuses. It is done by ordinary people, with balance in their lives, who have learned to work in an extraordinary manner.” 
~Gordon B. Hinckley

“Be moderate in order to taste the joys of life in abundance.” 
~Epicurus

“Even nectar is poison if taken to excess.” 
~Hindu Proverb

“My God, give me neither poverty nor riches; but whatsoever it may be Thy will to give, give me with it a heart which knows humbly to acquiesce in what is Thy will.” 
~Gotthold

Hive Placement - Bee Vlog - Mar 7, 2015

Where are you going to put your hives? Do you need sunlight or shade? What about access? Water?


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