[Assam] A Rebellion of my Own/ Chapter II

[Chan Mahanta]

Readers: Pardon the excruciating details leading to the lengthy piece  
below. I am writing this also for our Journal, where the readers
will understand the details and would want to know.
cm
________________________________________________________________________________________________________


The last piece I posted to assamnet  about my bee-keeping saga was on  
May 19.

It was on May 13 I determined that my hive B, was in fact taken over  
by what is commonly known in the bee-keeping community
as the Laying Worker Colony, a seriously bad problem, particularly for  
a novice like me.  Why it is so serious is because of the time
available in our climate for the colony to be re-queened and built-up  
enough to be able to survive the next winter -- the primary goal
of a new hive. The available time is from April to August and every  
week of new worker production and honey collection for the
winter is critical to its survival.

Once I knew I was in trouble with Hive B, I called my go-to-guy and  
answer-man, Bob. Bob is the tireless retired attorney, along
with others who provides this immense service to the St. Louis bee  
keeping community called Eastern Missouri Bee-Keepers'
Association ( EMBA). Ordinarily I would have been somewhat hesitant to  
keep calling him ( started with e-mails from Assam, about
ordering problems over the internet), but he assured me earlier that  
he did not mind. So I told him about my problem. Now, Bob, being
the attorney he is, does not converse like ordinary  people, he cross- 
examines you at every step. Fortunately, I am OK on that front,
because I do too. But every now and then the cell-phone breaks up, Bob  
has this additional challenge of learning to read my accent
and in my excitement, I speak way too fast for most people to be able  
to comprehend. On top of all that Bob has been in pain from a slipped
disc and was under pain medication. So communication has, needless to  
say, been somewhat turbulent at times.

Bob's initial reaction, after assuring himself with the cross- 
examination that I DID indeed have a Laying Worker Colony,
from his car, was that it was over for Hive B. He wondered out loud  
about a couple of options , but was not hopeful. Gave me some
websites to look up and would himself look up his references to see  
what my options are. He thought more, called me again.
Went home, did more research and called again. He was a life-saver!  
Finally he found something in a newer edition of one
of the most well liked books on bee-keeping, by Dr. Keiths Delaplain,  
that gave him enough hope to call me and help me
with a definite piece  of advice ( unlike the thinking out loud  
options earlier) : I can try re-queening the hive with a new queen.
If the colony rejects it, we will just accept the eventuality and  
salvage the box-full of combs with stored honey with drones and all
and use them to accelerate the growth of my other hive, Hive A. That  
was on the morning of May 14. He had three queens, of which
two were spoken for, but he could sell me one. I was on the road to a  
meeting and I inquired when and where I could pick it up from.
Turned out it was not too far away, and after my meeting I headed for  
Bob's house. It was 2:00 pm  and I had not yet had lunch, but
I gave him a time and  made sure I was there. But Bob had another bee- 
keeper in his basement honey factory, teaching her how to install
re-inforcing wires on honey-combs. It was a great learning experience  
for me too. By about 2:45 PM, I was heading home with a new
queen and a lot of hope. Bob explained to me, in his usual and  
thorough manner how to place the plastic cage between two comb
frames, cautioning that both ends must be exposed to the workers and  
so forth and to make sure it does not fall to the bottom.
What Bob did not know was that I am even more careful about these  
things. I arrived home about 3:30 PM ( still had not had lunch),
went to my basement workshop, fashioned a metal sling to suspend the  
queen cage from the frame tops ( as opposed to merely
relying on side-friction of two comb frames to hold the capsule  
suspended) and placed the cage in the hive.

I have now completed the first step of our Plan A, to try and re-queen  
the hive. It was 4:00 pm. I reported to Bob that the deed had been done.
He wanted to know how the workers were behaving, grouping loosely or  
clumping heavily around the cage making stabbing motions
at the cage, which would be a sign of imminent danger.  The workers  
were behaving nicely I reported. And I went inside the house
to grab half a sandwich left over from the day before. It tasted  
heavenly!

Bob cautioned me to be patient and allow  three days for the worker  
bees ( he had reason to suspect I might be over-anxious, but that
is another story) to eat thru the candy-plug of the cage and release  
the queen. That will give the bees in the hive  enough time to get
used to a new queen and accept her, instead of attacking and killing  
her if she was released into the hive immediately. So I could inspect
the hive on May 17 to see how the workers were behaving with the new  
queen and if they had released her. Bob wanted to keep him
informed about how things were coming along.

May 17 was a very gloomy, cool and rainy day, all day. Not a good day  
to open and inspect a hive, because the workers were all inside.
They don't go out on rainy days to forage. Next day, a nice sunny day,  
about 3:00 PM , I finally got around to gear up ( don my screened
helmet and white body suit and long gloves that look vaguely like a  
clown-astronaut outfit) to go check the queen cage
and see if she had been released yet.  I lit the smoker ( you need  
cool smoke to blow into the cage, which calms the bees down
and suppresses their defensive instincts), grabbed my hive tool and  
long tweezers ( to grab and smash any hive beetle, a pest that
has already began to appear) and opened the top lid, removed the upper  
shell, feeder bucket and inner lid and exposed the comb
frames in the hive box below. The queen cage was in place like I  
expected it to be. I pulled it out to inspect. The 1" long candy plug  
was
eaten to about 3/4" only and the queen had not yet been released. I  
called Bob to report my findings. He took deposition carefully and we
discussed what to do next. I reported to him that I took a knife and  
scraped out some more of the candy plug, leaving only a little. I hoped
the workers will eat thru the remainder of the plug overnight and I  
will inspect again tomorrow, on May 19. Bob had a different idea: I  
could
hold the cage in my bare fingers ( no big deal if I get a sting or  
two, a bee-keeper is expected to be stung every now and then) and with
my fingernail open the little plastic cap ( not the candy plug) and  
release the queen into the entry slot at the bottom of the hive box. I
should slip the cage, holding the open cap close with my fingertip  
( no, a queen can't sting) into the bee entry slot at the bottom of
the hive box, release the finger and let the queen crawl into the hive.

I was a bit ambivalent about the operation. I knew I could do it. But  
won't it be better if I just waited one more day and let the workers  
release
her to themselves? Bob replied I could. What would be better, I  
persisted? He was not about to give a definitive answer. Obviously  
there was
not one. So I let go, set the tools away, extinguished the smoker and  
went into the office ( the hives are just fifty feet away from my  
office)
and resumed my chores. But I kept thinking, should I release her  
manually like Bob suggested? After all, he emphasized the getting used  
to the queen
and accepting her was the critical issue. Time is of the essence.  By  
about 5:30 pm, I got ready to work outside and decided, what-the-heck, I
will go release the queen manually.

Not a good decision, that! It led to a crisis all on its own.


Next -----CRISIS !










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Not to make light of the struggles of the oppressed in India's  
heartland and frontiers, but I have found myself
with sort of a Maoist rebellion right here in the land of  
capitalism :-).

After a number of years of mulling, I have decided to take the plunge  
into bee-keeping this year. In February  I attended a full day
seminar on bee-keeping, while traveling in Assam in March ordered bee  
packages and queens via the internet and thereafter attended monthly
meetings, on-hands training sessions on assembling hives, comb frames,  
installing bee packages and queens into hives, periodic checking,  
feeding, pest control etc. etc. Finally on April 17 we took delivery  
of two packages of bees each weighing about 2lbs. (about 6,000 bees)  
and a queen, for two hives.
It is recommended that a newbie bee-keeper start with two hives, just  
so if one becomes dysfunctional or diseased, one can remain to  
overwinter
and produce honey next year.

Immediately after  installing the packages into the hive boxes, the  
worker bees go into action, drawing combs in the frames for the queen  
to lay eggs
and start building the colony with worker bees. A good queen will lay  
eggs primarily to produce the female workers and  perhaps a few DRONES  
( males)
here and there. The queen starts laying eggs within three days, the  
eggs hatch in another three, the cells are capped in eight days and  
adults emerge
in sixteen days and the colony begins to build.

Things were going quite smoothly, until, after sixteen days of  
installing the two packages in the hives, I discovered that in one of  
the hives
there were only DRONES being produced, no workers, and thus a recipe  
for imminent demise of the colony. The drone cells are distinctively  
larger than the worker cells and easily identified. It did not seem  
right, but I thought it was just a little aberration. About a week  
later an e-mail came in from our bee-keeping organization announcing  
the next seminar where an expert was going to discuss various issues,  
INCLUDING problems such as drone-laying queens and
egg-laying worker colonies.

A warning flare went up in my mind! There are such things as a  
dysfunctional queen that produces only drones ? Or a colony taken over  
by the workers
who lay their own eggs? Oh no!! Why me I thought.

Ten days after I first saw the drone cells in my hive, I re-inspected  
the defective hive to confirm that there were no worker cells, only  
drones, just before going to attend the seminar. After a number of  
questions thrown at the speakers and a re-re-inspection of the problem  
hive the next day, I confirmed that the colony
did not have a queen and that workers were laying eggs, which can only  
produce drones.

Obviously, for some inexplicable reason, the workers went into a full- 
blown rebellion, killed the queen and took over egg-laying. I had a  
Maoist rebellion on my own hands!

Now what? I thought of calling PC. But that was not a good idea. He  
would probably say-" No discussions without them first laying down  
their arms"  or recommend calling in the air-force. MMS, perhaps?  
Naah, he will probably say that there is nothing that could not be  
solved within the democratic process! No use there either.

Well, how about  Assamnet law-and-order advocates?  Any help here :-)?

Stay tuned for Chapter II.

cm