Zoo Staff Class Part III

The hive on the hill is doing quite well also. Although, given it was such a sunny and warm day, the bees were warm-you can see above the bees are hanging outside the entrance fanning the hive.

Look at that luscious zoo honey!!!

Daryl and Glenn hold up the frame of golden honey.

After closing up the hive for the day, Robert whips out a level to make sure the bees home isn't tilted.

The Locust trees outside my house are blooming. Are yours?

Swarm Management, Hazelwood

A couple weeks ago, we inspected the hive at Hazelwood.The colony is building up fast--they seem to like it there! When we inspected, the drone/mite trap frame was capped so we removed it and replaced it with a medium frame with foundation (you can see the pictures of it here). There were other indications that the hive was preparing to swarm: there were a couple queen cups with egg and larva and the super was full of brood. To address the possibility of a swarm, we added a super of mixed empty comb and foundation frames both above and below the super with brood (compare the pictures below). Additionally, because the lower hive body had empty frames and was less active than the upper hive body, we reversed the hive bodies and removed 3 frames of brood, which we contributed to the nucs that we are establishing. We checked back in a week and found the queen—the tactics seemed to have worked. You can compare pictures of before (in the Pop City article) and after (when we checked back on the hive a week later).

Demonstration Apiary Installation: Pittsburgh Zoo

We are so excited to establish our second demonstration apiary at the Pittsburgh Zoo! Our demo apiaries are where our beekeepers -in-training will practice working with the hives. And there's no more scenic place than the Zoo for this! Here, Francis Pizzi, Curator of Horticulture at the Zoo leads us to the bees' new home on the Zoo's green roof that overlooks the bear exhibit.
Bees and Bears--roommates.
Alex places the hive on a pedestal on the Zoo's beautiful green roof, which is abundant with pollinator plants.
A visitor to the green roof.

Demonstration Apiary: Pittsburgh Zoo II

Hive number two goes on a hillside next to the entrance of the Zoo.
Francis Pizzi stands next to the new hive.
Meredith gazes at the escalator that climbs the hilly entrance to the Zoo. Zoo guests will be able to view the hive from the entry walkway.
Installation Accomplished.

A Nucleus Checkup

Robert, Joe, and Alex take a look at the nucleus colonies, derived from the Braddock feral colony removed several weeks back. The colonies, which were given Hawaiian queens from where Christina is spending the year, are doing quite well. Well enough that later that evening Meredith and Alex took two nucs to the Pittsburgh Zoo--their new home!

We also put in a new shipment of queens into some of Robert and Jennie's own nucs.

Meredith stands tall against Robert's skyscraper hive experiment, which currently weighs in at 200 lbs.
Jennie and Alex say goodbye as we load up the two nucs headed to their paradise home at the Pittsburgh Zoo.

Hazelwood Neighbors Class

Yesterday, May 9, 2009, Alex and Meredith gave a beekeeping class to a group of fearless Hazelwood young adults, gathered by Barb Williams, holding the veil above.
They were remarkably good beekeepers! Gentle and patient with the hive, they also asked fantastic questions about their neighborhood bees!

A couple students are especially eager to get back into the hive as the season progresses. We'll be sending a call out each time we're going in to let everyone know!