Take a Look at Nature's Charm & Critters on Our Small Farm - June 24, 2017

Bee balm, coneflowers, phlox, and lilies are blooming - early. My favorite - red Lucifer Crocosmias is starting to bloom, but not full yet. It is a wonderful time to take photographs. I took a great picture of one of my honeybees on my flowers.  In addition, I snapped a photo of Spritzen Nala O'Chi lying under her cartoon dog - dog bed. She'd flipped it upside down and decided it was a great place for a nap. I found turtles while picking up wood, with the bigger turtle probably having its life flash before its eyes while being carried by me. In defense, she/he was trying to bite, but got a pleasant surprise when I popped black raspberries in its mouth. Enjoy!!

All pictures are copyrighted © to 

Tracey R. Simmons, creator of Paws4Hearts Rescue, 2017.

Second Chance Honeybee Hive

Wild Hive of Worker Bees
© Photo by Tracey R. Simmons 2017

What do you do with a wild hive full of worker bees that has no queen? I believe most experienced beekeepers would probably let it die, but not me. I knew that if all those wild survivor worker bees could be caught and put into a hive box, that a queen could be purchased and put in with them. Then that living dead hive would become a living hive.

Time was ticking on those little worker bees’ life span. My beekeeping teacher was going to let me use his bee vacuum, but he had let someone borrow it the previous fall. When that person was contacted to return it; it was returned - in pieces – destroyed.

Hive box set up near ceiling where wild hive was located.
© Photo by Tracey R. Simmons 2017

I was determined, and went to plan B (plan Bee). I tried thinking like a bee. (Only my adopted dad figured out my thinking.) I went to work getting the hive box set up inside the shelter, but up high, near the wild hive. To accomplish this, friends let me borrow two aluminum ladders. I placed a wide board at the highest level possible in between those ladders, and then put my hive box on the board. I put swarm lure and comb with honey inside the box. Surely, those bees would be hungry enough to go inside the hive box, find the frames with foundation, and think, “Hey, this is a pretty nice space. Let’s build some comb.”

In the meantime, I searched the Internet, found, and ordered a bee vacuum. The memorial holiday was in the shipping time frame, delaying the arrival time. Tick-tock, the worker bees’ life span is ticking away - kept going through my head.

On the Thursday after Memorial Day, the bee vacuum arrived. I loaded my car with all the essential items needed to finally catch those bees, most important - my bee suit, hive tool, bee vacuum, and a light.

I had to wait until nearly dark to do the work, in order to catch the bees that had been out foraging. I would be working alone, out in the middle of the country, and where when it’s dark, it’s extremely dark – no streetlights.

The light colored comb is all brand new comb
made in just a few days.
© Photo by Tracey R. Simmons 2017

When I arrived, I was amazed at the amount of honeycomb that had been built in a five-day period, but not in my hive box. I went to work. With the bee vacuum ready to go, I pushed the button, and began sucking up bees.

Five, ten, fifteen minutes passed, and I continued to work. I cut the new comb to get to more bees. Honey dripped from the ceiling, and was sucked into the vacuum. Finally, at 10:38pm, I was ready to go home with the captured worker bees buzzing inside the catch-box.

Wild worker bees in catch box
© Photo by Tracey R. Simmons 2017

There were a very large number of bees. The numbers were many thousands, but the honey that got sucked into the vacuum caused some deaths. Still I had bees to put into my butterfly decorated hive box, along with a new queen.

This is only part of the story of the “Second Chance Hive.” I can only hope that my efforts won’t be in vain. I will write more as the second part of this story unfolds during this summer.

WIld comb attached to hive frame with rubber bands until bees attach it to the frame.
© Photo by Tracey R. Simmons 2017

The Second Chance Hive is in the left hive box with butterflies as decoration.
© Photo by Tracey R. Simmons 2017

Take a Look at Nature's Charm & Critters on Our Small Farm - June 10th, 2017

Flowers are blooming ahead of what is normal, along with strawberries, blueberries, and black raspberries. My little Ameraucana chicks are in the small pen beside the big hens. Every few days I add one of the older chicks. This has cut down on the older chicks wanting to be bossy and pecky. Of course, I have to have a beehive picture. Bees are working away, as I did - picking up split wood and piling it up, which is how I encountered the snakes. I especially like the picture of the snake with his/her tongue flicked out. Enjoy!

All pictures are copyrighted © to 

Tracey R. Simmons, creator of Paws4Hearts Rescue, 2017.