insects and Coffee

Friday a week ago (05-16-2008), I noticed that the Carpenter Ants were swarming. New Queens were out flying looking to start new Colonies.

I have been looking to start a “Ant Farm” from a queen for years, and now here they were, and I was here walking from one work meeting to the next with out any thing to capture and store one until I got her home to the Gel Box I had waiting for just one of these ants.

Alas, to keep it short… once again at work (05-22-2008), I hear a shriek from the LAB, followed by “elvin will know what to do.” Yes! It was in fact a wing-less Queen crawling about. I shook her from the LAB tamping Scale, and put her in a Transportation tube with NASA Ant Gel.

Here she is with her first egg >>>

The “Ant Farm” that I have her in is quite small… I will have to (like to) build a larger one. One which Carpenter Ants will be more at home in, one with wood and such things to dig about in.

Updates:

05-28-2008: She now has eight eggs that she is brooding. If in fact it was a parasitic mite that was on her, it now seems to be gone.

05-31-2008: As of today she has ten eggs. Not seeing much change in the first eggs laid… maybe a little darker, no… it is clearing on the ends, definite clear liquid in the tips of the older eggs).

06-10-2008: Two new eggs today; total of twelve. (possibly thirteen: There is one eggs in the rubble pile that she discarded a week ago, making it nine eggs for a day and then back to ten that she was brooding… bottom line— twelve that she is brooding as of today).

06-12-2008: Fourteen eggs total now.

06-27-2008:  Seems she is down to eleven eggs now… not sure why she would eat them, I have heard that they will eat there eggs.  Maybe they were not developing like she wanted?  Any thoughts out there from the Entomologists or any other Ant Nerds?

Then again all my days seems too long of late… soon all will be good.

Headed up to Seattle to set-up an Espresso machine in the Meadowsweet Farms (milk) booth, at the NWFS Trade Show.

Back to Olympia just in time to catch a swarm off bees and hive them.

Then back to the cafe… closing the shop and then practicing my espresso, latte kung-fu (to relax; burnt thru 2# of coffee and a gallon of milk).

Highlight of the day, catching the swarm. Always exciting! Even more exciting is seeing the swarm take flight from a hive, the sky seems alive and 20,000 bees in the air in a relatively small area is pretty impressive. When I got home, for they were in my backyard, they had already clumped together in a tree.

Originally uploaded by mchlvn

just testing out the flickr straight to blog posting (did not work out so well, had to get in to wordpress and change up the post a bit :( ). Shot this grasshopper December 2007, in Mexico.

<<< will up-date later…

getting around to uploading some of my Insect photos from the trip to Mexico we took in December… and to getting some of my older photos off the old server and up on to Flickr.

Here is a great shot from June 30, 2007 >>>

<<< Potato Bug(Woodlouse), infested with Parasitic mites… these mites look(at this magnification) just like the Varroa Mites that are causing the Honey Bees of the world so much trouble.

Note: Not sure if I put this specimen in my freezer collection for further investigation. I’ll have to check, and if so bust out the microscope.

Update: I did not put this specimen in the deep freeze… kicking myself for not doing this, it would have been nice to get some micro-scope photos of these mites.

and here are some ant photos from Mexico… lapping up the water sweating from a Pina Colada >>>

<<< I need to get a better Macro Lens.

Shot this fly down in Cape Kiwanda, OR.

The only bug I got close enough to shoot all weekend.

Got out for a short walk today… my bees(as much as one can call any Apis their own) were flying, the sun was out and I took the opportunity to hunt down some Hazelnut trees… to see if they were in bloom yet, and to see if the bees were collecting pollen from them.

Alas, the catkins are in bloom, at least starting to bloom, did see two honey bees in the tree a few blocks from my house… not the frenzy that I was hoping to see, but as there was not much pollen going into the hives it was no surprise.

It’s always good to see the bees flying this time of year, there is always the worry that they will not make it thru the winter, and to see the pollen coming in is true excitement… pollen being the protein source for the raising up of new young bees(with out this boon of pollen in late winter there might not be enough bees to bring a hive in to spring with any hope of survival).

This year is the first that the catkins have bloomed this late… it seems that the past 6 years they have been in bloom right about the second week of January. The weather has been very cold this winter. Most of this week is is going to be flying weather for the bees… I expect to see the pollen flowing any day now.

Expected tempuratures for the next five days: Highs: 48/58f(9/14c) :: Lows: 29/39f (-2/4c)

I know. It has been a month now since my return from Mexico, but… here are a coulpe a Insect photos that I just had to share here on the Blog. There are more on the FLICKR site, and soon… soon there will be more from that trip and some of the shots I got around Olympia and Atlanta last year (well last summer, yeah… that does not sound as bad).

Moth in Playa del Carmen >>>

I know. It has been a month now since my return from Mexico, but… here are a coulpe a Insect photos that I just had to share here on the Blog. There are more on the FLICKR site, and soon… soon there will be more from that trip and some of the shots I got around Olympia and Atlanta last year (well last summer, yeah… that does not sound as bad).

<<< Wasp, or maybe a Fly? Technicaly speaking.

Today was just warm enough that the bees were flying.

Seems there is always at least one warm week in January, here in the Olympia area, giving the honey bees a chance to get out and make cleansing flights (honey bees do not hibernate, and do not defecate in their hives, the warm weeks in the middle on winter give them opportunity to get out and empty their bowels. Makes for health bees, not having to pinch it in too long). These warm weeks in this part of the country are the same weeks that the Alders and the Hazelnuts bloom, (catkins, I’ll try and get out this week and shoots some photos of these flowers for you all, we’ll see if that happens) this too is a great boon for the honey bees, giving them a much needed supply of pollen, a protein source for brood rearing in the coming spring.

Checked the weight of the hives in my backyard, found two of them a little light, fed them some honey from last falls honey harvest, and decided that I should head out to the Farm and check on the hives there as well.

The bees at the Farm were not one bit happy to see me. Had to suit up before I even got close to them. (I move all the pissy hives out to the Farm where they are less likely to cause trouble for me; I don’t think the neighbors would be happy if they were getting stung often, or at all for that matter).

They were doing good out there. One hive dead, I think it may have been that way going in to winter… the mice had moved in and so I left it. Maybe that is why I left it there in the fall, a mouse gimmie, otherwise the mice would move in to the active hives… much more of a hassle cleaning mouse nests out of active hives in the spring.

…so I left it again. The mice will have a dry home until spring, then I’ll give’m the boot.