A Walk Along The River

Vroom vroom

Was give a gremlin bell for the holidays and finally got it on my motorcycle.

These little bells, known in the motorcycling world as Gremlin Bells, Guardian Bells, or Spirit Bells, are a kind of good luck charm for motorcycle riders. The bell is said to protect them during their travels, similar to how a pendant or image of St. Christopher, the patron saint of travelers, is often carried in vehicles to protect their occupants while on the road.

Here’s how the bell works: legend has it that there are harmful spirits that lurk the roadways, always on the lookout for motorcycles to cling onto and cause mischief. You may have heard of unusual and hard-to-diagnose problems that occur in machines (most often in electrical systems) being called “gremlins,” and supposedly, it is these same unpredictable and harmful spirits that cause problems for motorcycles and their riders.

The Gremlin Bell is a way to ward off these spirits. It is said to work by capturing them in the hollow of the bell and infuriating them with the constant ringing until they release their hold and break free, returning to the roadway to find another unsuspecting rider without a bell to harass instead.

The Rules of the Bell

There are some “rules,” however, to the Gremlin Bell and how it works:

1. It should not be bought by the user – in order to work, it must be given to a rider from a loved one. According to the legend, a bell is “activated” by the gesture of good will when someone, especially another rider, gives it to a rider they care abou as a giftt.
2. It should be attached to the lowest part of the frame. Because gremlins lurk on the roadways and “grab” onto bikes as they pass by, the low-hanging bell should be the first thing they contact, so that they are immediately captured by it. It should be attached securely – safety wire is sometimes used, but that can create rust and scratches, so a zip-tie is generally the preferred method.
3. When a bike with a bell on it is sold, it should be removed. The Gremlin Bell is a gesture of kindness to a rider from someone who cares about them, so it should be kept by the intended recipient, and can be transferred to another bike. If someone sells a bike with a bell and they want the new rider to have it, they should still remove it, and give it to them face to face. A bell that is not given with intentional good will loses its spirit-fighting mojo.
4. If someone steals a Gremlin Bell, the gremlins go with it – and the bell will no longer ward them off. The key to the bell’s power is good will. If it is stolen, it loses its effect…and karma will take care of the rest!

The Legend of the Gremlin Bell: A Bikers Tradition by BikeBandit. 2018

With weather getting more tolerable, and with the decrease in drivers in and around Ann Arbor, I've had some time to take the bike out.  As of this post/this riding season, I have completed 5 rides this year, totaling 4 hours, and have traveled 84.3 miles.  Here are some pictures from my last ride which took me into Ann Arbor, and some of notable landmarks.

In front of the gate leading down to the football field at Michigan Stadium

In front of the North End zone Main Entrance at Michigan Stadium

In front of the Bo Schembechler Statue while the sun is setting.

In front of the campus famous 'The Cube'

Queen Olivia Hive Install

Last Saturday we installed the Nuc.  

 Looking for the Queen.

 Still Looking for the Queen...

 Found Queen Olivia!  She is the bee that is at the tip of my finger.  She is currently unmarked, but I hope to mark her on May 9th when I go back into the hive. 

 Brian put the last frame in.

 Blooming tree at the edge of the yard. 

 I peeked inside the Queen Betty hive (teal and yellow hive) to see what they were doing.  You can't see it really well, but they are hanging on newly built comb!

April Flowers

The tulips bloomed last week!

 This grouping was pretty...the deer ate them last night  😞

Jenn: "You took my seat."  Simba: "Who me?"

Orientation flights!

This is a day or two after they started blooming.

Happy Birthday Gus Gus!!

Gus is 11 years old today in people years! We had a Birthday party with cake!

 We sang Happy Birthday and blew out the candle!  Simba couldn't take his eyes off the cake!

 Simba stole the cake and walked off with it!!!

 Cake stealer (aka little fat dog)!

Birthday Dog!!

 Toy Party!

Brrrrr It's Cold

Yesterday we were nearly 60 degrees and today we are at best 41 degrees with a cold wind.  Trying to keep the bees warm and alive!

Honeybees!!

The Honeybees that came today went into the teal and yellow hive.  This hive is known as the Queen Betty hive.  Many have asked, "Why bees?". Honeybees are essential to pollination and food production and they take up a relatively small footprint.  The pink hive remains empty until next weekend. For the time being the pink hive has been taped shut to keep the other bees out. 

3 pound package of bee, which is about 10,000 honeybees. 

Honeybees are also known as Apis Mellifera.  The bees traveled up to Michigan yesterday by trailer from Jessup, Georgia.  When they arrived here this morning they were apparently in a state of "torpor" or shock from the colder temperatures and they were all laying on the bottom of the boxes, which is also what they look like when they are dead in the box. We waited until 11:30am to pick-up our bees, which was easy because pick-up was in our backyard, here at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens. We actually walked over to get them. By waiting until 11:30am the sunshine had warmed them up and they were hanging from the sugar can like normal. 

 Brian suited up.  It is most important when working bees to always wear your gear.

 Jenn is suited up.

 Together is always better!!

 Honeybees are interesting creatures.  They can communicate to each other to by a "waggle dance".  They can tell each other where to find honey.  They can measure the dimensions of their homes and communicate those dimensions back to their colony.  In a colony there are three types of honeybee, the worker bees, drones, and the queen.  The queen and the drones always have the same job throughout their lifespan.  The queen will always do what she does, which is lay eggs and the drones only have one job and that is to fly away from the hive and mate with virgin queens.  The worker bees will have different jobs throughout their lifespan and the job they have at a given time will depend on how old they are.  When they hatch they become nurse bees. Once they graduate from nurse bees they could become house cleaning, defenders, attendants to the queen, foragers, egg attendants, runners to the honey super, scout bees, etc. 

 Feeding Board.  Feeding this hive of bees is most important because it is a package.  A package does not come with any part of a built home.  They have to build everything from scratch.  In doing this the bees don't have time to go out and forage for nectar or pollen.  The rectangular hole is a pollen patty smashed into the wire.  This provides the bees protein. The 2 circular holes get mason jars of sugar water turned upside down. There are tiny holes in the lid of the mason far that allow the sugar water to be drawn out by the bees, but not leak out. 

 Lighting the smoker, which we didn't need today, but it is an essential piece that is needed anytime you are working bees. The smoker is used to "shut off" the bees attack pheromone and calm them down.  A package of bees is usually not aggressive, because they do not have any home to defend.  Now when I go back into the hive in a couple days to check on them and make sure they released the queen they might not be quite as calm.  An interesting fact, never eat anything containing banana prior to working a hive.  Bananas have the same scent as the bees attack pheromone. 

 Opening the package.  Opening and installing the bees actually wasn't hard at all.  The wooden box has an upside down can of sugar water with tiny holes that feeds the bees.  This is important because of the long trip from Georgia.  Before taking out the sugar water can, there is a wooden board that was stapled over the can that has to be removed.  When Jenn took the can out, she slid the wooden board back over the open hole so they couldn't start flying out of the box.  Prior to shaking them out of the box and into the hive, she sprayed them with 1:1 sugar water that we made this morning.  This helps prevent them from flying around while dumping them into the hive.  It was interesting, once the bees were sprayed  they all fell to the bottom of the box and were cleaning or "licking" each other.   

 Prior to shaking them into the box the queen must be removed.  You don't want to beat the crap out of the queen. In a package she always hangs from a slit in the wooden box that is made by the sugar/water can.  She comes in this little box that has a few nurse bees in the box with her to take care of her.  Each end of the box is plugged with a cork.  Jenn removed the two corks and placed a marshmallow in both ends.  This is important because the bees have to accept the queen and release her themselves.  This is the way the hive accepts the queen. This queen is already mated and has all the eggs she will need for her lifespan.  She is also marked, so you will notice that she has a blue dot on her back. Jenn requested she be marked, because being new to bee keeping we wanted to be sure we could find her.  

 See her blue dot??  Her body is longer than the other bees in the box. Once the hive gets honeycomb built, a queen will lay between 1,500-2,000 eggs a day.  She is a busy bee!!  There is a special way to place this box in the hive.  It has to be attached to one of the frames, but the marshmallow end has to point up.  This ensure that if the nurse bees inside with her die they don't plug her escape hole. It is pretty typical to go back in 2-3 days to make sure they release her.  At that time is she is released this box is removed from the hive. 

 This is a deep brood box.  There are a total of 10 frames in this box.  Jenn took out 4 frames to make a space to shake the bees into.  The frames have real wax foundation, which we are curious to see how the bees take to this. 

 Bee dumping time!!

 It is easier to get them into the box if you can knock them into a ball. 

Adjusting frames and watching the bees. 

Just dumped into the box. 

Trying to put sugar water on without smashing any bees. 

The sugar water jar to the left needed refilling by the end of the day. 

It is typical to have some stranglers left in the package box they came in.  It is normal to leave the box at the entrance of the hive and they will make it into the hive on their own. They know to do this because of the queen pheromones.  

The bees are clustered at the entrance of the hive.  When starting a hive you need to put an entrance reducer on, so that it makes the hive easier to defend while they are building their home. 

A quick look to see what they are initially doing.

 They were clustering around the queen cage and occupying the frames. 

Honeybees!!