Plan Bee

I woke up Sunday morning and decided I would go tackle the rocks above the bee hive.  If I could pull them away I could expose the base of the tree and we'd have better luck removing the queen.  I put on the suit and headed down the hill. 

I didn't have smoke, but I knew I would really annoy them anyways due to the rocks that would need to tumble over the hive entrance.  I didn't want to be out of breath using a pick ax and breathing smoke so I figured I'd get in and get'r done.  I removed two large watermelon size rocks off the top of a broken tree next to the hive.  The tree was about 1' diameter and appears to have broken in the last hurricane, and I now know why it was weakened.  The bees had created a tunnel in the roots between the two trees and both were hollow at the base.  I'm guessing that the water from the hurricane pushed the rocks down and covered the top of the broken tree.  Looks like nature can sometimes work faster than FEMA when it comes to repairing roof damage.  When I pulled the smaller rocks around the hole in the top I was happy to see many bees and good looking honeycomb.  The picture below shows what I first saw. 

Here's the same picture with some highlights.

I called up the Honeyman and he said he'd be out if a few hours.  That gave me time to sharpen, oil and fuel the chainsaw.  With good smoke around we spent about an hour clearing rocks from the top and bottom of the new opening, and could smoke from the old to the new holes.  This gave us a good plan to get to the queen.  Once we exposed the lower part of the right chamber we were able to pull out honeycomb down to about an arms length in the hole.  This was still about a foot higher than the chamber on the left.  We used the chainsaw and cut a 1' square section out of the side which gave us deeper access.  That additional arms length let us find the brood we were looking for.  There were good larvae in them but we couldn't find the queen.  After a little more digging we were able to heavily smoke from the original opening to the new hole and drive most of the bees out of the hive.  The video below is vertical but I was quickly trying to get a shot of the hive openings and of the bees congregating on leave clusters.  We hoped the queen was there and they were following, but that was not the case. 

With no sign of the queen we figured there had to be another spot in the hive where she could hide.  Once we stopped the smoke, some bees would return to the hive so she had to be in there.  I noticed an area in the rocks above the second tree that seemed to have a void so I pulled out smaller rocks until I found a basketball sized chamber.  We could see a small amount of smoke filling the 3rd chamber as we smoked the other two.  We tried many things, including using a long 3/4" PVC pipe to get smoke deep in the chambers but couldn't locate her due to the many hiding areas in the rocks.  We were running out of daylight so put some ammonia in the hive to deter her from returning and set up a bee box up wind with some brood in hopes she'd left and would find the box more appealing. 

I returned Sunday morning to find most of the bees had returned to the lower chamber. 

The Honeyman said the queen was most likely still in the hive when we left, or she left but it was too dark for them to search for a new home so they went back.  Either way he said he'd come back Wednesday morning and we'd smoke them out early, and for a long time.  Hopefully she'll take the hint and leave so we can continue with the driveway. 

We did end up with over 2 cups of excellent honey.  Here's one of the darker combs. 

This is me after a long, exhausting day with the bees and extracting the honey from the combs.  Sometime this week I'll melt the combs and extract the remaining honey. 

Chico did work on the road Monday and was able to clear and level the viewpoint area.   Here's what we started with back in May. 

Here's when he started working clearing the area. 

The viewpoint is a curve in the road on our property where you can see Puerto Rico, the other US and British virgin islands, Buck Island, Salt River bay, and Christainsted.  Our house will be below on the left.  The road curves to the right and goes down hill to our driveway so we will see this view as we leave or head home.  Denise and I are going to build a rock bench/love seat on the left side that will face north (Left in this picture) so stay tuned for the finished product. 

Here's the road entrance when we started clearing it the first of May.  It took us almost a week to get down the road to the corner. 

Here's a look after Chico took a few hours to clear the road.  It will take some final grooming work after construction is complete. 

This view is from the viewpoint looking west down the road to the entrance.  The Christmas palm on the right side with the orange marker was one I had him dig up at the edge of the road and move down here.  The bench will be beside it. 

Here's a few hours later after he'd cleared the road to the entrance.  More had been done but I forgot to get a final picture but it's dark now.  Since the bee's are still around Chico is going to spend a few days doing some excavation for our neighbor. 

All this work could not be completed without proper supervision.  Here's Super D making sure the dozer is on the right path.  

Now for some other fun stuff.  Denise liked this picture of the sunset when I was on the phone with the Honeyman discussing the next days plan.  Lucy has her favorite ball she takes with her on our morning walk.  

We went to "The Village" party in Frederiksted which has food and alcohol booths in little buildings (the village part), a stage with live music and rides for the kids.  Our friends who grew up on the island said they won't let their kids ride them because they're the same ones they rode when they were kids.  They said after the festival the rides are stored on some property in the rain forest.  Steel and salt air do not mix so they don't trust them. 

We woke up early this morning and watched the first sunrise of 2019 from the viewpoint. 

Later today we watched the first sunset of 2019 from the deck at Kent's house.  2020 sunrises and sunsets will be from our house!

Lucy and Bella were being funny a few days ago.  Lucy was minding her own business with her ball when Bella walked up to her and ended up giving her a Bella hat for a few minutes.  The picture's a bit blurry because I took it through the screen.  I figured they'd move if I got up to open it. 

An finally, Jack and Ivan are still hanging out being best buds, spending the days relaxing in paradise.  It's a rough life for them. 

That's all for now.  I hope to have the bee situation under control tomorrow and good pictures of the hive. 

Kevin & Denise