Initially, on the first check of the trap-out at Nolan & Cory's (I call them "Nory" :) ), there were no bees in the box. I realized my mistake: I'd not put a frame or two with eggs, larvae and brood in the box as a lure. On my second trip I'd done just that. Also I repaired a hole and second entrance they'd made through the duct tape (in the video I saw attic insulation, but really it was a window-unit air conditioner insulation; that stuff was crucial in plugging up the holes, so I'll have that cheap material on hand for any future trap outs). The videos show the lure frame and the entrance repair (I apologize for the awful sounds at the end of one of the lure video ... this is new to me.)

A couple weeks passed. It was time to check. SUCCESS! When I took off the top I was greeted with a decent amount of bees. Also there was a nice piece of comb they'd attached to the lid, which made for a nice little souvenir. It's 16 feet in the air so I had to reach over from the top of the ladder and pull the frames out one by one to see which frames had bees. Only one frame did, but it was a gorgeous frame with a fair amount of bees and fresh comb on it where they'd finished building out the bottom corners.

I put the frame in the bucket and lowered it down. I then put the frames in my travel nuc, which had the bottom stapled to it with some screen over the entrance and a screen flap underneath the lid. I rubber-banded the lid partially open during the ride home, since the whole affair is quite disturbing to the bees and their temperature rises quite high. If you don't ventilate, you'll cook the bees.

Two weeks had passed, and the lure frame was filled with capped brood and a few larvae. You can see that in the third photo below. It takes only 9 days from a freshly laid egg to become capped brood. That means the old queen has been in the trap box and on the lure frame, laying away. That's even MORE success, because now I know I can lure the queen out. Once she's removed I'll lower the trap door with the one-way escape, thereby removing all remaining bees inside the patio roof at Nory's. This is working! But the BEST part was seeing on this single frame a gorgeous capped queen cell. This single frame was now a queen-right colony. The queen cell is the large light-colored cell hanging from the top side of the frame hanging out and down. I wasn't sure if the old queen was on the frame or not, but either way the colony had decided to supersede her. My first trap-out is quite an education and thrill ride.

Once placed into my apiary, they seemed quite content. A brief removal of the lid a week later and all was quiet, indicating they're happy with their newly hatched queen. I still have plenty of bees to remove from Nory's, but with this first take-away I already have colony #6 in the apiary. My next take-aways might mean colony #7 and possibly #8! I'd better get to building more equipment and fast! And painting. And building more frames.

I can't believe how fast and furious this year has been in the bee raising business at T's Bees. I still hope that my first ever honey harvest this year will get me close to my goal of 150 pounds. Even if it doesn't I'll be happy with the 90 pounds I know is out there. But all of these extra colonies mean I can sell nucs to those needing some emergency bees after initial failures, as well as have plenty of backup queens. I'm going to turn these nucs into comb-building machines, since comb is so crucial to success. That way next  year's honey harvest is bound to be quite large! :)

So in the past couple of weeks, nectar just hasn't been flowing. Pollen wasn't coming into the hives, and the bees had stopped drawing wax in the supers, another sure sign. In the meantime, they've had an unquenchable thirst for water, and it's not even that hot. I was thrilled to see bees by the dozens finally hitting the birdbath just off our back porch some 50 yards away from the apiary.

I use rainwater from our rain barrels in the bath. I've put both city water in a dish beside the rain water, and every time they go for the rain water. It's also a joy to just hang out with the bees who're busy getting a drink. You can get super close and listen as they buzz right around your head en route to the watering hole. They seem to like it when the level is low, as they use the sides of the bird bath to line up and get drinks. I've also noticed hygienic behavior at the bath, the bees grooming each other after getting their fill of water to take back to the hive. I'll definitely be adding a self-watering mechanism and another bird bath or two so they'll have plenty come summer (and won't be a bother to the neighbors).

Looking at Natasha's incorrect lean since last year, I knew I had to go in and level off that hive some how. I'd levelled off the hives using my new configuration of two cinder blocks and a 2x3x8 hive stand atop them for my two full hives. Or, so I thought. But Yvonne was alarmed at how "off" one of the cinderblocks was underneath Natasha's new stand. The hives were even but their support wasn't. Yep, I had to redo the long process I'd done just a week ago. I got smarter this time, thank goodness. The older I get the more I see that "smarter" almost always is simpler and less work in the long run.

They hadn't drawn any further comb in the supers, by the way. :( I moved the bottom board and slatted rack in place and re-assembled in reverse order. Then I did the same for Boris. The bees were surprisingly calm, compared to just a week earlier when I'd leveled off the hives originally with my new hive stand configuration. (It uses a single 2x3x8 piece of lumber and 5" lag screws underneath each end to allow for the imperfect ground beneath each cinderblock. If additional settling occurs I simple will adjust the lag screws when needed.) Then I repeated for Boris.

This was a month ago, and I'm only now getting a chance to write about it. For the trap-out at Cory & Nolans, I needed some empty comb. I didn't have any, since I'm in my second year. However, I'm now putting my nucs into comb-production mode. Still I had an immediate need, so I decided to take two honey frames from Boris and Natasha, and give them another empty frame to draw out each. This will also bide me some time. Both brood nests are getting back-filled with honey. Each has a full super of honey on top. I've got to convince them to draw out a second super. Aaaugh, so much to do and so little time. So, I took two honey frames and had to extract them. It was time to get out my simple bench extractor and get reacquainted, so come harvest time, just around the corner, I'll know exactly what's going on. I can't tell you how pulling a few honey frames is a remarkable learning experience. And, guess what? You get honey out of it! Each deep frame can hold 8-9 pounds of honey. Since I'm running 9 frames in a 10-deep, my frames are in the 9-pound range.

I've eaten a lot of honey over the past year and a half. I bought nice, new comb-styled jars for my customers. But I broke out my big old used honey jars I'd gotten from Hillbilly Produce and others to take care of this extracted honey. So, while extracting, I had to first uncap the frames. Then, after uncapping, I decided it'd be smart to put the cappings in the extractor along with the frames, you know, to spin out the honey. Big mistake. What came out of the extractor was honey and wax, and all kinds of extra bits. Yes, I'd forgotten the part called straining, which comes before bottling. Good grief, I won't make this mistake again. So, I kept all of this honey from mid-April in various jars and a bowl. I waited a couple weeks, busy with other things to do. And I realized that if you let your honey sit, all of the foreign particles, wax and other bits, float to the top for easy removal. Still, I had a much better tool, a straining system and storage bucket with honey gate. I waited until Yvonne had no more patience and demanded her glass bowl back. I strained all of the honey, and then bottled it. I originally told Yvonne that this was most likely left over sugar syrup stores from when I'd fed the bees sugar syrup last fall, prepping them for winter. I should've known I was wrong. I was delighted to see this beautiful early spring "top shelf" light honey chock full of Spring 2012's pollen. So, even though I'd have to wait another month or more to do my spring harvest, I was able to put aside my first bottles ever of my very own honey. I put a sticky label on this highly prized jar, and will enjoy this first bottle by the fire on a brutally cold day in winter, remembering what a glorious Spring we've had, and my first harvest ever.

So my experience with Nolan pointed out the beauty of making your own equipment. For less than $40 in plywood we cut out enough material to make 2 deep brood boxes and 4 nucs. Okay, I was bitten by the power-tool and DIY bug. I started by making myself some nice, tall sawhorses. I used a 4-foot piece of plywood I had on hand as my work table. My apiary is suddenly expanding. I started with two colonies. Then after I split Boris I had 2 more. Cory & Nolan's feral bees would make hive 5.

Oh, and I had to split one of my nucs to prevent a swarm. All signs of bearding up constantly on the outside, and having 4 frames full of bees in a 5-frame nuc told me to do a walk-away split. Now I have 5 colonies in the backyard. I needed to get my apiary consolidated and ready to accept the growing number of hives. I left too much space between Boris & Natasha last year, and Natasha was at a bad angle. I started by making a simple 2-hive hive stand out of a single 2x3x8.

As luck would have it, I already had these shelves just waiting to be used. Yvonne had wanted me to hang them in the laundry room and now we had a good use for them. This is where Ts Bees Honey inventory will be kept. And, we won't go into how many holes I left in the wall that must be spackled, sanded and repainted, nor the stripped screw that's still sticking out of the wall that I gotta remove, either. And we won't mention the fact that I have the end braces too far in and need to move those out another 8 inches. No, we won't talk about that. Well, this whole thing is live-and-learn (the hard way) anyway. Onto the next lesson!

A week before Yvonne and I were to visit our dear friends Cory & Nolan's, I got a call from Cory. We were excited to see their new home, which they'd been working on so hard for a year and a half,  transforming a half-finished box with a roof into a magnificent home. As the Universe would have it, they also had several thousand new residents they hadn't anticipated: honey bees. I'd decided that I wasn't going to be in the bee extraction business just yet on my own. The Universe had decided otherwise. Taking up the mantle of a public service, I was nevertheless excited. Cory sent me this video to verify it was honey bees and to show thier location.

I spent the week researching my options. "Can I remove the outer wall of your brand new stone front porch?" Not surprised to hear the answer was no. I then decided to perform a trap-out. I poured a week of research into the project, eventually got in touch with Cleo Hogan of Kentucky, who'd perfected a trap-out technique designed to remove all the bees including the queen. To honor Kentucky, we enjoyed some bourbon slushies while we were at it.

The Hogan trap-out method requires a little bit of specialized equipment. Low on funds for equipment, I decided to build my own using Nolan's assistance and power tools. I found an amazingly simple plan to build nucs by the late Dan Coates. It makes four out of a single sheet of plywood, including tops, bottoms and cleats. You simply double the width for deeps. You can find this information at the Bee Source forums. Since we needed a deep for the trap-out, we had to modify the plan. Working with Nolan was total fun!

The basic concept of the trap-out is to reduce the bees' entrance to a single small opening, lure the bees into a new hive body, then close off the old entrance. The entrance is outfitted with a bridge tube. That tube will fit around another tube that feeds into a hive body. Here you can see the specialized tube fitting into the hive body, and it's larger female counterpart which will be fitted onto the bees' current entrance and exit.

_I thanked Cory & Nolan for being kind to the honey bees. So many people would just spray with poison and assume it would take care of the bees. Almost always it doesn't, as you can't get into every nook and cranny they've colonized behind the walls, ceilings, floors or what-have-you. Here is the inner tube with the hole for the one-way entrance trap.

Part of the trap involves the "cone method" of removing bees. Basically you make a cone of small mesh screen, fray the ends a bit, make the end large enough for a drone to exit and the other end as large as the opening for the bees' original entrance. The cone, screen and frayed ends confuses the bees and they can't return to their original location. We only needed a small cone for this trap-out tube. The great thing about this tube is that I'll be able re-use it on other jobs.

We glued the cone in place then added staples for extra security. Since space is an issue in the confined space, Nolan cut a hole in the bottom corner of the hive body for the tube to slide in. Also cutting three sides instead of four is simpler and in my book, better. I used a hammer to convince the snugly fitting inner tube to extend outside the hive. Our bridge tube is about seven inches long. The inner tube is about five inches, so there's plenty of overlap and it'll be easy to install.

Yvonne and Cory were awesome enough to document us men-folk making this special equipment. Yvonne gets in frame while documenting the action. Here Nolan uses his pneumatic brad nailer to attach the front handhold. I gotta get me one of those things. A pneumatic brad nailer and air compressor sure would make for a nice birthday or Christmas present (hint, hint). Below you see the trap door Nolan made. It's simplicity is awesome. An L-bracket. That's it. Did I tell you he's an engineer?

He added a bit of strapping, folded up a couple times, for a spacer so the bracket would be close enough to the door but far enough away that it can slide easily in and out. He also put in a top brace so the trap door will be secure once it's slid into place. Nolan later added a handle to the door: a simple wood screw on the side. Brilliant.

Unfortunately, Nolan had to suit up in the old nylon coveralls my brother Tim had given me. You look like you either work at a meat packing plant or you're a psycho killer attending a disco ball in this thing. I assured him nothing was getting through that nylon though. Since he was a little concerned about bees climbing up his legs, I secured his leg openings with duct tape. (Always have duct tape on hand, as well as a stapler. I figured he wouldn't be keen on the idea of my using a stapler securing his pants.)

Nolan completes his get up and our photo team insisted on a posed shot. Nolan's first honey bee experience and my first trap-out was about to commence. Although I had a brand new hatless veil, I was about to find out that I hate, hate, hate looking up in that hatless veil. You end up getting the screen squished against your face and your vision's obscured. There must be a better veil out there. I'll retire this thing to backup status and hopefully soon.

Then it was time to drill. Using Nolan's hammer drill, I put in some pilot holes. Everyone said there was a huge cloud of bees that were appearing as work was getting underway. Funny thing was, the more bees there were the calmer I got. I could smell the honey and comb of the hive from inside the overhang as I worked. That and the buzz made me forget I was working 10 feet or so up (it may as well have been a mile as far as I was concerned). Everyone said the photos didn't do justice to the number of bees flying about. I just knew I enjoyed their company.

Top view of the commotion going on after the bridge was installed. They were quite confused at first. These girls are beautiful, yellow honey bees. Eventually they'll make a nice addition to my apiary full of dark Russians and local hybrids. You can also see a group of bees just outside the entrance. They performed a parade, exiting the tube and then turning around and going back towards it, then repeating in a loop. They were a greeting party to show returning foragers exactly where to come and go. I'd spent an hour or so up the ladder. Not bad for an acrophobe. Phase 1 was complete!

By the end of March and beginning of April Spring had fully blossomed. Our apple tree had an early showing, too. I just knew it would prove an undeniable magnet for T's Bees. They wasted no time. For those two weeks they were pollinating Miss Apple.

The azaleas also were putting on quite a show. And honey bees weren't the only pollinators working the field.

My favorite flower, the dogwood, was going strong. Spring had come early, the first week in February in 2012. Some early dogwoods bloomed and then quickly died. I was happy to see the majority saved up their blossoms for the end of March.

Our collards had also bolted and showed off their colors. I had no idea collards flowers were so pretty. The honey bees didn't seem interested. I guess this classic Southern green is definitely an acquired taste!

As the azaleas and apple trees were at their peak, the red tips began to flower. I'd never seen this before. Fronds of tiny little flowers formed at the ends of the leaves and popped open. They hadn't last year, at least ours. We have the last red tip in our neighborhood and is over 40 years old. T's Bees loved their very quick and tiny blossoms!

Two weeks into April and the apple trees and azaleas were done. Our first roses are on the vine, as are the many blossoms of our raspberry and blackberry brambles. Our blueberry bushes, which blossomed the first week of March, are full of berries. Today, the honeybees were all about the brambles. I was amazed at this all-black honey bee. Was this a feral bee? Was it a legendary German black bee, the original honey bee brought to America? Was this one of my Russian bees, or was this one of my Russian-Charlotte hybrids from one of my two nucs underway? This black honey bee was hypnotic, watching it work. The early spring flowers have me eagerly awaiting that first light spring honey harvest!