First Time with the Bees

Mohan Sookdeo has been an active and enthusiastic member of the bee committee since we first started our work in 2009. A couple of weeks ago, he got his first opportunity to don one of the white suits and come out to the hives to help Nigama. I asked him to write a few words about his impressions and he kindly agreed.

My First Time with the Bees

We approached the bees very carefully and not with a lot sound. When we got closer, I could hear them buzzing. As I was standing there, many of them came by my face net and were bouncing at me. Maybe to ask me what I was doing there. I knew I had to stay calm otherwise they would have gotten more mad at me. Anyway, they saw that I was not doing anything to harm them and they left me alone.

It is very interesting to look at the bees and learn from them.

Pictures Speak Louder Than Words

Aum Amriteshwaryai Namah

Sitting here typing, it's challenging to put today's experience with the bees into words. The light gray mist everywhere gave an air of calm to all the grounds at the Amma Canada Centre. The images we took capture some of that atmosphere, so I'm going to let them do most of the talking.

Nigama walking out to the hive on a calm and misty day

All week, we watched forecasts of showers with concern. We didn't know how much we could get done and had some pressing tasks we hoped to complete. But when we arrived at the centre in the morning, there was no rain. We suited up and got out to the hive as quickly as possible.

Opening Hive 2

I always hold my breath when we open the hive for a check. Even though everything may look fine from the outside, you just never know what's happening inside. The first peek revealed that this hive is as strong as ever.

Does the video above look like a horrid mess to you? What you see are the bees hard at work doing some spring cleaning on the bottom board from the hive. This one has been in place all winter, so it's collected a lot of debris. This includes things like wax droppings, pests, and the bodies of dead bees.

Bees are extremely hygienic creatures, and these ones have been assigned the task of removing this unwanted filth from their home. I was very interested to see that they had completely cleared an area in front of the space where the entrance was.

Nigama puts a clean bottom board in place

One of the important jobs for us was to install a clean bottom board. This new one has a screen that is small enough for mites to fall through and get trapped in the grease applied to a sheet of paper in the bottom. However, it is too small for bees to go through. We also drew squares on the paper to help us with mite counts throughout the warm season.

A frame from inside the hive

We checked frames in both the top and bottom boxes of the hive. They looked fantastic. The outer frames were full of capped honey. On others, we found the "rainbow pattern" of brood, pollen and honey.

Larva and eggs in some of the cells from Hive 2

Short of seeing the queen herself, the indication that she is alive is to find eggs and young larva. We found several of these tiny shrimp-like beings and heaved a sigh of relief.

Rajeswari's new BF - bee friend

The best part of my time involved a tiny friend who decided to hang out with me. I looked down to find a bee sitting calmly over my breastbone, occasionally wiggling her attenna. Each time I checked, I thought she'd be gone, but there she was. She was with me for at least half an hour! In fact, when we were getting ready to leave, we had to use a feather to gently place her back in the hive. We didn't want her to come with me all the way to the farmhouse. She might not find her way back to the hive.

This bee really didn't want to leave Rajeswari

Later in the evening, I was telling my BFF Uma about it. She is seven and infinitely wise. She simply said, "Oh. That was probably just Amma in the form of a bee."

By the way, as soon as Nigama and I had returned all the equipment to the shed, a downpour started.

Om Parashaktiye Namah!

Inspection of Hive no. 2

By the time Mohan* and I got out to the hive, it was in the shade and there was a cool breeze. This limited how much time we could inspect the hive as it's important not to expose the brood to cool temperatures for very long. Within 20 minutes, we determined that the queen is alive by the presence of eggs and young larvae. The pupating brood were also healthy and free of any disease.

The colony has lots of honey stores as well as pollen which the young bees mix together to form what's known as “bee bread”. They feed this to the developing larvae, as it is the perfect combination of carbohydrates and protein needed for growing bees. Sugar syrup supplemented with Honey Bee Healthy essential oils was added to the hive's feeder. This is an organic method to help protect the bees from the parasitic varroa mites whose growth is stunted when they come into contact with many types of essential oils such as spearmint, tea tree and wintergreen oils.

An earlier picture of Hive 2 - even a few weeks ago they were very strong.

As it was cool out and the colony is a medium size, we didn't add the screened bottom board which is used to trap varroa mites and increase ventilation in the hive during the warm months. That can wait until the colony has had time to build up its numbers. For now, the winter wrap is still on the hive to help keep the bees warm so that they can concentrate on raising the young ones.

It was a relief to see that the colony has a healthy queen and that, generally, the hive is performing well. After not being in their hive all winter except for a moment's peek, it was also a joy to see our gentle and ever hard working bees up close again!

*Mohan Sukhdeo helped Nigama with hive inspections today. Having been on the bee committee since the beginning, it was lovely for him to finally get a closeup look!

Yellow Flowers

Aum Amriteshwaryai Namah

Hive 2 is still active

Nigama and I didn't have time to do a full hive check before satsang today. We had gone to a treeplanting seva in the morning in partnership with Evergreen. She decided to stay over at the centre and find someone else who could help her on Sunday. I had a little bit of time so I decided to take a stroll out to see how our strong hive was doing and say my hello to the bees. Everything looked great, as it had in the weeks before.

Closeup of bees at entrance to Hive 2

The forager bees continue to bring a lot of pollen into the hive. Nigama and I have been wondering where they might be collecting it from, especially because there are still cold days. When we first started working with the hives, we had the opportunity to ask Amma if we should plant a special bee garden. It was during one of her visits to the centre around the time of the Toronto program. Amma assured us that there was plenty around for the bees, so we've never worried about it. It's just interesting to figure it out.

There are some maple trees that generally blossom between February and April, so that was one possible source. Last week, we noticed a patch of yellow flowers about 30 metres east of the hive. So today I head over to take a look.

Source of pollen? A patch of yellow flowers about 30 metres east of the hive

Upon closer inspection, I found lovely, small flowers with petals like many rays. Somewhat like a dandelion. But I did not know what they were. Thanks to the digital age, I found the answer very quickly when I got home. This website on Ontario's wildflowers revealed that they are called Coltsfoot, and they are one of the province's earliest appearing spring flowers.Their stalk has reddish scales and they love wet waste areas, especially ditches along country roads.

Coltsfoot: one of Ontario's earliest appearing spring flowers

Om Parashaktiye Namah!