Hive Inspection 4/23/13

LITTLE MISS & ROZINA
70°F
Sunny
Calm

A View of Little Miss from Rozina

Rozina was a bit defensive when i opened her up.  Her gallon of 1:1 syrup had crystallized.  It looked like she took maybe half of it before it hardened.  The bees were mostly up in the top box still.  frames 2 & 3 had capped worker pupa & eggs, nectar, pollen, & honey.  Frames 4, 5, & 6, were solid eggs or larva.  Frames 7 had a bunch of eggs too but the queen had put more than one egg into a few cells.  Young queens will do that from time to time.  The workers sort it out afterward.  The queen should stop doing that soon.  The Queen was on frame 9, a nectar frame.  This box had plenty of walking Drones too.  The ones that came in with the package.  The population in the top box was fair.

Bad habits of young Queens

The bottom box was being back filled with pollen and nectar.  The Queen hadn't got down there yet.  Plus, there are still lots of empty cells for the queen to use.  The worker population in this box was poor.

For a new colony she is doing well.  I don't know why she moved up to the top box so fast.  Just as long as she moves down again instead of swarming once the top box is filled.

Little Miss was very calm in contrast to Rozina.  Lots of activity in her new top box.  Frames 5, 6, 7,  & 8 had eggs, larva, & pupa.  The Queen was on frame 5.  The population in this hive was OK.

A very good Queen Miss

The bottom box had 4 frames of brood; 5, 6, 7, & 8.  Though frame 6 is almost a solid frame of drone cells and they've begun to emerge.  The brood pattern was spotty but those are the over-wintering frames.  Productive but not uniform.  I believe they'll work it out but i'll keep an eye on it.  Also patches of new honey being capped on the outer frames.

Almost solid Drone Frame

Both colonies look good for now.  They need to continue brooding up.  Still hoping to make some splits if the population grow fast enough.  Still waiting for Rozina to find the bottom box.

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A Week after Instalation

Took a quick look into Rozina to remove her Queen cage and check progress.  The bees were introduced down in the bottom box.  Which is where i thought i might find them.  However they released the queen then proceeded up into the top box. 

Used Queen Cage & empty Frame?

This left the introduction frame oddly empty after release.  From experience, the queen usually starts laying on this frame first.   These bees have started their colony in the top box instead.  Where the queen has laid eggs on three frames.

Worker eggs in Rozina

The bees are heaviest in the top box but some manage to venture into the bottom box performing hive duties.  The population is low but that will turn around once the new bees emerge.  I'll closely monitor for hive pests.

Frame in top box

They are bringing in much nectar and pollen.  We seem to be in a heavy Spring brood flow.  The syrup i gave them last week is only half gone and currently seems ignored.

- - -   - - -   - - -

Also took a quick look into Little Miss as well.  She still has the three frames of brood she had when she was hived last week.  I did notice she is making Drones now.  Quite a few of them on a single frame.  Seems that some of the drone have emerged too. 

The Drone cells are the ones that stick out

Which means it's about Queen rearing season.  Come May i'll start making splits and new queens.  I'm down four hives so i have some work to do.

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Hard Winter

MAB & LITTLE MISS
58°F
Sunny
Calm

It is the beginning of March 2013 and out of my six hives only two remain.  The oldest of the remaining two (Mab) is queenless and dying off.  The other (The late 2012 swarm) has two and a half frames of brood and three plus frames of bees; a good population for a small Nuc.

Dying Mab to the left and strong Little Miss on the right

The rest of the hives died out during December and January.  Their populations weren't brooding up like they should have been last Fall.  They went into Winter with less vigor than required.  This Winter has been colder and longer than the last handful of Winters.  The bees took a beating.

I got real busy on other projects last July and left the bees to themselves.  They never looked bad and produced a good bit of honey.  However, a late Summer dearth lowered populations and shut down brooding around August.  This wasn't apparent (to the unobservant) 'till critically low populations were noticed in December.

As a stop gap measure the remaining two hives have been supplied with low wattage shop lamps to aid in heating the small clusters.  Mab, who is queenless, can be resurrected if her bees last long enough to make a queen for her.  About a month from now.  Might still lose her anyway.  We'll see.  The moment I see a drone anywhere around here we'll make queens.

Also, since so many hives are gone I have a pile of drawn frames stacked in the basement.  More than i ever intended to have.  Been watching for the Wax moth and have found only a few.  Two frames lost is all.  Freezer is pack with frames.  The rest are staked, post freezing, inside.

Any swarm i catch this year will be immediately put on 20 frames of drawn and mostly filled frames.  Lucky girls.

Hive Inspection 4/2/12

All Hives (six)
65°F
Sunny
Calm

Didn't mean to do them all but that's the way it goes sometimes.  It has been almost a month during an early Spring since we last looked in the bees.  Not a good idea but we have been terribly busy around here; did i mention we have chickens now?

Melissa has six brood frames in the top box and four in the bottom box.  Good brood pattern and a high population.  The bees are calm.  Saw Wax Moth larva in the detritus below the screened bottom board; that's a new one.  The moth larva posed NO danger to the hive and were fed to the chickens.  The bees finished off the last gallon of syrup.  The feeder was removed and a partially filled Honey Super from last season was added.  In a day or so an undrawn Super will be added as well.  Did not see the Queen but plenty of fresh eggs.

Nuc #6 (Gumption) also had a Moth larva under the Screened Bottom Board.  That too was cleaned out.  Her bees have not yet begun to draw out the new Medium brood box.  They have, however, finished their syrup.  The population is good but her productivity is low.  There is a Supersedure cell being drawn out on frame #5.  I left it in.  The bees know best.  It wasn't planned but her still empty new brood box was hastily donated to Nuc # 5.  I'll make her two new ones this week.

Nuc #5 (Mab) is on fire when it come to making bees.  The three week old New brood box was fully drawn & filled with capped brood, drone cells, pollen, & honey.  The best looking Spring frames i've ever seen.

All five new frames, front & back

The population is still heavy now that they have used up the new box.  As previously mentioned i borrowed the empty box from Nuc #6 to give this one room.  However, it is to late!

OOPS! First Swarm Cell of 2012.  Three weeks in a new undrawn box

The Queen cell was cut out and placed in Myrina who needs to be requeened anyway.  Many believe that once the Swarm cell is capped the bees will swarm no matter what.  I've done this before without the bees swarming so i hope to do it again. As soon as these bees fill up the new box they will be hived in a regular medium two box hive.  The feeder is still on and they'll get some more syrup.  So i'm guessing two more weeks.

Heléna has twelve of twenty frames filled with brood.  Her population is high and getting higher fast.  The Queen was in the bottom box as the top box was full.  So her feeder is gone replaced by a drawn honey super.  More Wax moth under the Bottom board but they were handled.  The brood frames are picture perfect.  Sadly it was late and too dark to get the image.

Mary is a surprise in non-productivity with only four of twenty frames having brood.  Her population is only fair with very little Drone comb.  The top box is practically honey bound.  So i will spin several frames to give them room to grow.  If she doesn't take to it she'll be requeened.  Her feeder came off too, but she hadn't finished the syrup in it anyway.

Myrina has only taken half of her syrup.  The population is fair with only three of ten frames in brood.  A Wax moth was found in the hive on a frame; one worm which was dispatched.  This colony is Very weak.  She began the downward spiral last Summer.  Then entered Winter diminished.  She got through Winter but she's going nowhere fast.  To remedy that the Swarm Cell from Nuc #5 was placed in this hive (frame 5) After i pinched Queen Myrina.  I'll check the hive again in a few days.  The Queen Cell was capped and due to hatch soon.

Note the Spotty brood of the previous Queen

This weekend i'll make a few more brood boxes and sufficient frames.  I'll put more undrawn Honey Supers on Malissa & Heléna too.

*_____________________________☼______________________________*

Mid-Winter Brood

Winter has been very mild this year.  Some of the colonies may not have had a brood break.  Today i checked the small hives brood nests.  The bees are bringing in Maple pollen now along with Nectar.  So stores are increasing.  Due to such the brood nests seem to be slowly growing in size.  A month ago the queen were laying eggs in small patches.  Today i saw eggs in much larger areas around the older patches.  There is still a month and a half of Winter but the bees seem to be starting their year Now.

Mary's Top Box

It was nice to see that Mary's cluster hasn't made it up to the top bars yet.  She has plenty of stores left on the sides.  Those frames can be moved to the middle if she needs a boost.

The small colonies; Myrina, Mab, & Gumption, are OK in the stores department too.  Though i added a full honey frame to Gumption.  Her few bees get all the help i can spare. Barring any prolonged deeply cold weather the bee populations in the Apiary are going to explode in another month.

The weather wasn't the only thing that was calm.  Varroa populations are down since the Mite-Away treatment last Fall.  There has been no signs of Nosema either.  There are a few SHB hanging around still in Mary & Myrina but much less now.  It has been a good Winter.  Hopefully that will lead to a productive Spring (population increase & splits) then to a honey filled Summer.  I will keep you posted.

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Hive Inspection 10/17/11

NUC #5
Sunny
75°F

The only nuc i have left and the first one i have ever tried to take through Winter.  She is from a wild hive and may be Survivor bees.  They have about finished their one gallon of 2:1 syrup medicated with Fumagilin.  Since they are a nuc that's all they get.

Top Box DNB2: frames
1 - Backfill, honey, empty
2 - Mostly drawn, backfill, SHB (1)
3 - Mostly drawn, backfill
4 - Backfill, honey, SHB (1)
5 - Mostly drawn, honey, backfill

Bottom Box DNB1: frames
1 - Solid Honey
2 - Honey, backfill, brood, pollen
3 - Honey, backfill, brood (eggs) - QUEEN (marked)
4 - Honey, backfill, brood
5 - Honey, brood, pollen, backfill

Bees on all the frames of the bottom box

Population seems to only be fair.  I'd like to see more bees in here.  They have four frames with brood and that's a good thing.  Honey stores could be higher too.  There are a couple of feedings left so hopefully that will do it. 

Queen of Nuc #5 (Mab).  Sorry for the blurry pict

At least these bees know to move the brood nest to the bottom box.  I wont have to manually move them down like the others.  I will also need to insulate this nuc and get a HTF for warm weather feeding.

*_____________________________☼______________________________*

Hive Inspection 10/16/11

HELÉNA & MELISSA
Sunny
73°F

Heléna looks great.  Lots of brood, honey, & pollen.  A few SHB's but they're everywhere now.  Heléna was the last Georgia package i will ever buy.  Lots of people around here are blaming the Georgia apiaries for transporting the SHB to us in out bees.

Top Box DHB2: frames
1 - Solid honey
2 - Honey & backfill
3 - Honey , backfill, brood
4 - Honey & brood (eggs) - QUEEN (marked)
5 - Honey & brood
6 - Honey & brood
7 - Honey & backfill
8 - Honey & backfill
9 - Honey, backfill, pollen
10 - Honey & backfill

Bottom Box DHB1: frames
1 - ½ Drawn, honey, backfill, empty
2 - 4/5 Drawn, honey, backfill, SHB (2)
3 - Honey & backfill
4 - Honey, backfill, pollen
5 - Honey & backfill
6 - Honey & backfill
7 - Honey, pollen, backfill
8 - Honey, pollen, backfill
9 - Pollen, honey, drone cells (2)
10 - Pollen & drone cells (2)

Heléna's Bottom box

Her population is where i like to see it at this time of year.  It was mighty high a month ago but they never got honey bound then swarmed.  This is actually the only package i have.  The previous one didn't make to last Winter.  She requeen via swarm a while back.  The new (local) queen has done well.  This colony also had Myrina's nuc combined into it.  Which did well and really helped the Georgia girl.

Queen Heléna - She's a quick one, hard to photograph

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Melissa has a mother and sister in the neighbor's apiary.  Both are doing very well.  Melissa could be doing better though. Too many empty frames.  These frames weren't empty before.  It happened as the bees relocated the stores around the brood nest and the cool weather has caused some clustering.  Which may have used up some the stores. 

Top Box DHB2: frames
1 - empty, backfill, honey
2 - Honey & backfill
3 - Honey & backfill
4 - Backfill, honey, brood
5 - Brood (eggs), honey, backfill
6 - Brood, honey, backfill
7 - Brood (eggs), honey, backfill- QUEEN (marked)
8 - Brood, honey, backfill
9 - Honey, backfill, some brood
10 - Honey, pollen, backfill

Bottom Box DHB1: frames
1 - empty
2 - empty, ½ drawn
3 - empty
4 - empty, ½ drawn
5 - empty, ½ drawn
6 - empty & backfill
7 - Backfill, empty, 3/4 drawn
8 - Backfill, pollen, brood
9 - Pollen, backfill, 3/4 drawn
10 - Pollen, honey, backfill

Empty frames but lots of bees

Her population seems fine.  The bees are busy every day.  Why the bottom box is so light i don't know.  I don't want to break her down like i did Myrina.  Nor do i want to combine the two of them.  I'm in this stage where i want to maintain the most amount of genetic diversity in the yard.  I think I'm in denial about losing a strain.  To combine Myrina & Melissa would mean one of the queens has to go; it would be Myrina.

To remedy her issues i will exchange her empty frames with ones that have been filled with syrup.  It will add some moisture to the hive in cold weather but that location is a dry one.
 

The framed comb from beneath a medium frame

The bare comb that was framed with rubber bands did OK i guess.  All of it was attached to the frames but none of it was completely drawn out.  It worked but the bees ran out of time it seems.

Queen Melissa

Seven frames of brood is the best in the yard.  She really means to make it.  With enough stores i wouldn't worry but she'll need some help.

*_____________________________☼______________________________*

Hive Inspection 10/15/2011

MARY & MYRINA
Sunny
67°F
Slight Breeze

Mid-October is the traditional time for final inspections before Winter.  Both colonies have received one gallon of 2:1 syrup medicated with Fumagilin.  The second gallon will be fed to them in the next day or two.

Starting with Mary.  Last inspection she had little brood and i never saw the queen.  After checking records I learned i have no record of seeing Mary at all this year. 

Top Box DHB2: frames
1 - Solid honey
2 - Solid honey
3 - Honey & brood (eggs)
4 - Honey & brood (eggs)
5 - Brood & honey (eggs) - QUEEN (unmarked!)
6 - Backfill & pollen
7 - Backfill & pollen
8 - Backfill & pollen
9 - Backfill & pollen
10 - Solid honey

Bottom Box DHB1: frames
1 - Honey & backfill
2 - Honey & backfill
3 - Honey, pollen, backfill
4 - Pollen, backfill, brood
5 - Pollen & backfill
6 - Backfill - most
7 - Pollen, backfill, honey - most
8 - Honey & backfill - most
9 - Honey - most
10 - Honey - most

Three weeks ago this colony had nine brood frames.  Now it has only four.  The brood frames it does have are beautiful with solid laying patterns.  Brood production always falls off at the end of the year.  Usually the Queen completely stops laying eggs around mid-December.  It may be that these bees have slowed down a little early but the last week has been cool and solid rain.  The nightly lows have also been in the high forties since the first of October.  Which might lessen the queen's urge to lay, maybe.  The population is good but not high.  I would have liked to see more bees in this colony.

Bees on every frame of the top box

 Long live the Queen.  We found her walking around frame #3 in the Top box; and she was unmarked to boot!  I thought this colony had requeened in Spring but i could not find anything in the records about it.  The last entry involving Queen Mary Actual was last year and stated she was marked blue.  So my record keeping needs some honing. This pretty Queen was treated to a quick marking with white paint and released.

2011's Queen Mary about to be marked

 The bees are nicely backfilling the brood nest.  One or two more feedings should top them off.  They are still up in the top box.  I hope they plan to move down to the bottom box soon.  Last year one of the colonies Wintered in the top box and did fine.

Backfilling the Brood nest

- - -   - - -   - - -

Myrina was a surprise.  Her population is in the tank.  SHB all over the place.  Only as much stores as so few bees can muster.  She couldn't even finish off her Fumagilin syrup before it crystallized.  What a mess.

Top Box DHB2: frames
1 - Backfill & fresh brood (eggs)
2 - Backfill, pollen, honey, brood
3 - Honey & backfill
4 - Honey, backfill, pollen
5 - Backfill, honey, SHB (10)
6 - 1/2 Backfilled
7 - empty
8 - Mostly backfilled
9 - Empty & SHB
10 - Mostly backfilled

Bottom Box DHB1: frames
1 - Pollen & backfill
2 - Brood, backfill, pollen - QUEEN (marked white)
3 - Backfill & pollen (dropped & placed in 4th position)
4 - Backfill & pollen (placed in 3rd position)
5 - Some pollen
6 - empty
7 - empty
8 - empty
9 - empty
10 - empty

Whoa!  Not at all what one wants to see at this time of year.  This is the first time since i got Myrina in 2008 that she isn't the strongest colony.  In fact she's a wreck.  I had to add two more SHB traps for now.

Choices are few but at least we have some.  To address her small population she will be broken down to a single Deep box.  A better fit there will help her deal with the cold Winter temps.  It will also help her control the Small Hive Beetles.  If her population is big enough i can add a Medium Honey Supper filled with honey.  Then they would be in great shape going into Winter.  I hope to do all of this tomorrow.  Plus I'll add a regular Bottom Board to replace the Screened one she has now. 

I could also combine the extra swarm into her.  That would boost the population but not by the amount she needs to stay in the Double Deep.  I'll have to think that over some more first.

For what it's Worth, there were no drone cells on any of the frames i saw today.  That's the first time that's happened going into this Winter.

*_____________________________☼______________________________*

Nuc'ed September Swarm

Here's an update for that swarm from Sept 21.

They have since been given a Hive Top Feeder from Brushy Mtn.  It was filled with a gallon of 1:1 Syrup with a drop of Thyme & Peppermint oils each plus a tbsp of Apple Cider Vinegar.  The bees took to it quickly.  Their population is so small that after a week they still haven't finished the gallon of syrup.  They did, however start drawing comb IN the feeder.  All of which was removed.

One nuc box & a HTF

 They are drawing out comb and filling it up with nectar & pollen like champs.  If it were April or May these bees would be able to establish a full hive before Winter.  Sadly it's October.  They would have to go through Winter in a 2 or 3 frame nuc.  They might be able too but I've not the experience to set them up for it.  I still plan to combine them into another hive but we'll see.  So I'm not counting them amongst the other colonies yet.

Eggs, Larva, & Pupae

The Best news is that the queen is laying in every good cell she can find.  There's even a few capped worker cells.  The bees must like her since there are no Supersedure cells to be found.  She not the biggest queen I've seen but the attitude of the bees and their productivity do rate well.

New Good Queen

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Hive Inspection 9/7/11

HELÉNA
Mostly Cloudy
80°F

It's the first time I've been in Heléna since the Combinations.  Her population is Very High.  There are bees everywhere.  I can't even see the frames through the bees.  The population going into winter is supposed to be as high as one can get it but i wonder if there are too many.  A swarm this late would leave too few bees in the hive.  Plus the swarm itself would never make it.

Both Heléna & Melissa have high populations from the combining.  Neither colony had drawn out a second Deep box.  The supplemental bees from the nucs only added ten frames into each big hive.  Which just equals another Deep box.  The two big hives should then only be the size of regularly seasoned hives.  However these two colonies seem to have more bees than anticipated.

Bottom box loaded with bees

On Melissa I added a undrawn Honey Super to give the bees a little more room.  She has now drawn out two frames and filled them.  She continues to draw more frames too.  I've been feeding them so the stores on these frames are the Adulterated stuff.  Which works great for me.  I'll take off the super when they go into Winter Cluster and feed it back to them come Spring.  Once the bees have emptied the frame they'll have more drawn Honey frames for next Summer.  So I'll put a Super on Heléna too since it seems to work.

We are in a Nectar dearth but pollen is plenty available.  The bees are sucking down the Syrup.  They'll take a gallon in a day.  When i looked into Heléna i saw no empty cells.  Either nectar or brood filled them all with a frame or two of pollen.  It concerns me that they may become honey bound inciting a swarm.  At some point the the queen begins to lay fewer eggs.  Those cells are then back filled with honey.

I did see nectar in brood areas.  Though, i don't know if the bees are back filling or they had nowhere else to store the syrup.  I plan to feed next week then hold off 'till October when I give them a Fumagilin treatment.  I'll be looking for a reduction of the brood nest.

Back to the inspection.

Top Box DHB2: frames
1 - Solid honey
2 - Solid honey
3 - Beautiful, solid capped brood
4 - Beautiful, solid uncapped brood
5 - Honey, Nectar, fresh brood
6 - Brood, honey, some back fill
7 - Brood, Drone cells, nectar, honey, back fill
8 - Brood, Drone cells, nectar, honey, back fill
9 - Back filling with Nectar & pollen
10 - Solid honey

Bottom Box DHB1: frames
1 - Not fully drawn nectar
2 - Mostly drawn honey
3 - Fully drawn nectar & honey
4 - Nectar & honey, some back filling
5 - Solid capped brood & Queen
6 - Solid capped brood & some honey
7 - Brood, Drone Cells, honey
8 - Pollen & honey, little brood
9 - Pollen, brood, little honey
10 - Solid pollen

Which gives them eleven frames of brood.  The colony looks to be doing well and is very strong.  Pests are at a minimum.  I did find a single SHB on the outside of the hive afterward.  It was dispatched.

We never used to see these here

*_____________________________☼______________________________*

Hive Inspection 8/24/2011

MYRINA
Mostly Sunny
84°F

When feeding Myrina the other day I saw a Wax Moth & a SHB in her.  I wanted to see if she was in bad shape or not.

Not what you want to see but they did a great job a cleaning it!

The first thing i saw were bees in the HTF.  So there must be a hole in the screening in put in but i couldn't find it.  I'll make some more and scrap the ones in here soon.

DHB2: frames
1 - Filled with brood & eggs
2 - Brood, eggs, some stores.  Spotty pattern. Queen (marked)
3 - Brood, eggs, some stores
4 - Pollen & uncapped honey
5 - empty.  Starting to add honey
6 - Uncapped Honey
7 - empty
8 - Full of uncapped honey
9 - some Honey
10 - Full of uncapped honey

DHB1: frames
1 - 1/2 pollen
2 - Brood & eggs.  Spotty pattern
3 - Brood eggs, pollen
4 - light pollen & honey
5 - pollen
6 - empty. little honey
7 - empty
8 - empty
9 - Some honey (SHB x3)
10 - some uncapped honey

Her population is smaller than i like and her stores are light too.  She is, however, adding brood & stores at an acceptable speed.  Plus, this inspection includes the first feeding.  A spotty brood pattern is typical for Fall yet she has several frames filled with eggs.  Interesting to note that there didn't seem to be ANY Drone Cells.  Though I did see a few drones walking around.  Another check in a week or so will confirm the end of Summer drones.

Filthy Rotten Bug! - Small Hive Beetle

The presence of the SHB is troubling.  fortunately i only found three of them.  I added a beetle trap to help the bees out.  I might put more in later.  No Wax moth were present.

The Slatted Racks are a Big Hit with the Ladies!

There wasn't any bridge comb and the frames looked clean.  The bees were calm and moved off nicely from the smoke.  I'll keep an eye on this queen hoping she can belt out a bunch of brood soon.

*_____________________________☼______________________________*

Inspection 3/12/11

Mary & Myrina
64°F
Partly Sunny
Slight Breeze

Not a full inspection but a brood check.  It's that time of year where time gets short with all the tasks to be completed.  A beek needs to monitor the Spring brood up for Swarm Control.  The last inspection showed small brood nests in each hive.  Today's inspection was to learn how much more those nests have grown.  

Myrina's bottom Deep had full honey frames from the 10th  to the 7th position.  Frame #6 was filled with worker brood.  I stopped pulling frames and closed the box up.  The last thing I wanted to do is pull apart the brood nest.  I'm sure, judging by the amount of bees on them, frames 1 & 2 also had brood.  I tipped the box on it's side to look for Swarm cells hanging off the bottom frames but saw none.

Her top box had many bees in it but a frame by frame search revealed no brood.  There too the bees were on most of the frames.  Still some honey in the end frames.  I expect eggs in the top box soon.  The Reversing tends to set them back a week or two and it's been only one week since that happened.  The bees look healthy now and I'll do another brood check soon.

There were a few equipment issues with Myrina.  The unpainted wood sheet beneath the bottom board had molded.  Apparently it soaked up the rain water which mixed with the hive debris under the screen.  The bees couldn't access it to remove it so it molded.  That sheet was replaced with a corrugated plastic 'Land 4 Sale' sign.  The wood sheet looked terrible.

Rain seeped in onto the unpainted wood sheet

I also changed out the Deep box that had been lowest in the hive.  It too had the mold/mildew spreading up it's sides.  I hope to save the box but that will take some bleach first. 

Mold & Mildew spread upwards

I wanted to put the first Honey Supper on Myrina.  I had ripped out all the Plasticell comb and then wired all the frames for Foundationless Natural Comb.  It's my understanding, however, that the bees must have brood in the box directly below the super for them to draw it out. 

Foundationless Medium Honey Frame

Since the top Deep has no brood in it I'll need to wait on that for now.  We are still having cold nights.  With the bees only filling one & a half Deeps an extra Super might add to much space for them to heat when they need to cluster.

Mary is much farther ahead.  I was pleasantly surprised to see full brood frames in the top Deep.  Recall the first inspection where she only had brood in the bottom Deep.  I pulled one brood frame to remove some bur comb beneath it.  On the next frame i found Drone Cells both capped & uncapped.  Great news!  I guess in a week or two I can go ahead and make my nucs.  Unfortunately in the excitement I forgot to look under the boxes for swarm cells.

I say I can make my nucs soon because the plan is to let the nucs make their own queens.  So drones need to be flying first.  I could wait and buy Queens to put in the nucs later but I want to make my own.  I hope to rear local queens and eventually have a bee yard filled with Survivor bees.  Though I don't plan on requeening Mary or Myrina this year,  Their queens are not yet a year old.  They should last me until next year at the earliest.  The nucs will, hopefully, make queens quickly.  Those who can make it through next Winter will seed the next batch the following Spring.  The big picture is to make my own queens and sell Wintered nucs.

However, I did see a small pile of Chalkbrood mummies beneath the entrance.  That's usually a sign of a weak queen but the brood in this hive looks great.  The amount is good and so is the pattern.  I keep an eye on it to see if it gets worse.  If it does I may need to requeen her.
Since Mary had plenty of brood in the top box I added an undrawn foundationless Honey Super.  That might help ease any potential over crowding until I can pull the nuc frames and replace them with more undrawn foundationless ones.  Which breaks up the brood nest and diminishes the swarming instinct.

However,  I did replace one frame from the top Deep.  The bees had over-drawn one frame and under-drawn the next one.  To fix this I replaced the oversized frame with another undrawn foundationless frame.  Now the bees can hopefully draw both out to normal size.  That too should relax the chance of swarming.

Both Hive Top Feeders were removed.  The bees showed no great interest in the syrup this Spring.  Maybe they hate the Tea or the Maple flow is just to good (still going strong).  The Inner Covers were placed back on too.  I'll put the Slatted Racks on as soon as I finish them.

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Inspection 2/18/11

Mary & Myrina
75°F
Partly Sunny
Slight breeze

The first inspection of 2011.  The colonies have looked good all Winter.  Now was time to see first hand.  Though there were some clouds out and a slight breeze at 75°F today would be good enough.

I started by opening up Mary.  The bees had again gnawed on the insulation near the single vent hole in the Vent Box.  They had not chewed anywhere else though.  So that's an improvement over regular Styrofoam.  I still want to try the foil backed fiber sheets next year.  There was also some very minor bee poop on the top of the Inner Cover; probably from December.  As of yet i have no plans to treat with Fumagilin this Spring.  I'd like not to, so unless there are signs of Nosema i won't.

Under the IC was the pollen patty placed there in January.  The bees were working on it but nearly all of it was still there.  A previous post mentions the bees were bringing in pollen.  I expected the bees to eat more of the pollen patties before now.  They just don't seem to like it much.  I took it out since they'll not be needing it any more.  

The bee are not yet on top of the frames in the top box.  They're in them but with plenty of store left above and around them.  Looking down the cluster is on 7 of the frames to the left (east) side.

DHB2 - still some room left to go

The TOP BOX (DHB2):
10 - Full honey
 9 - Full honey
 8 - Full honey
 7 - Full honey
 6 - Full honey
 5 - 1/2 honey, new pollen, in cluster
 4 - 1/2 honey, new pollen, in cluster
 3 - 1/2 honey, new pollen, in cluster
 2 - 1/2 honey, new pollen, in cluster
 1 - 1/2 honey, new pollen, in cluster

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DHB1 - this is where most of the bees are

BOTTOM BOX (DHB1):
10 - Full honey
 9 - Full honey
 8 - 4/5 honey
 7 - 1/2 honey
 6 - 1/5 honey
 5 - 1/4 brood, new pollen, in cluster
 4 - 1/4 brood, new pollen, in cluster
 3 - 2/3 brood, new pollen, in cluster, QUEEN
 2 - 1/4 honey
 1 - Full honey

New incoming Nectar & some Pollen

I'd like to find out where the yellow pollen is coming from.  The Silver maple pollen has a dull green color.  Whatever it is there must be a lot of it.  I suspect a Pussy Willow but I've not located it yet.  I have 5 of my own but they're seedlings so not in bloom.  The Nectar is likely from the Maple though.

Beautiful Early Brood frame

Last year I didn't see brood until March 20th.  So this year is quite early.  It has been warm and the bees have been flying since the 11th of Feb.  Still this is a great sight to see in.  The guy who sold me these queens last year told me they would brood up early and to watch out for swarming.  So i'll be getting the nucs ready soon.

Queen Mary herself on frame #3

There's that hard working queen.  Marked with 2010 blue.  It's an easy color to pick out.  This year is white which i hope will still be easy to see.  I might, like some, skip yellow and use a purple when it's time.


Then Myrina
Her bees were almost on top of the frames in the top box.  Not entirely but close.  They've almost gone through all their stores.  Here too the bees did not consume much of the Pollen patty.  It too was thrown away.  I was going to buy a case of these things to feed to the bees this Spring.  I'm glad i hadn't done it yet.  I don't think i'll bother with them next year either.  I started feeding syrup today as well.  With that & pollen & nectar coming into the hive they will be good going forward.

Bees not covering the top & useless pollen patty

The TOP BOX (DHB1):
10 - Honey, not fully drawn
 9 - Full honey
 8 - 4/5 honey
 7 - Full honey
 6 - Full honey, old & new pollen
 5 - 1/4 Brood, new pollen, in cluster
 4 - 1/4 Brood, new pollen, in cluster
 3 - 1/4 Brood, new pollen, in cluster
 2 - 3/5 honey, new pollen, in cluster
 1 - 4/5 honey, new pollen, in cluster

DHB1 - Lots of brood on the old frames

All fresh Pollen

BOTTOM BOX (DHB2):
10 - Empty, mildew
 9 - 1/5 honey, mildew
 8 - 1/3 honey
 7 - 1/2 honey
 6 - 1/2 honey, new pollen, in cluster
 5 - Mostly empty, not fully drawn
 4 - Mostly empty, new pollen, in cluster
 3 - Mostly empty, new pollen, in cluster
 2 - Undrawn
 1 - (oops, didn't record)

Myrina's bottom box

Myrina's bottom bottom box is having a mildew problem.  The right corner (west side) has a coating of the dark greenish stuff over the whole side.  Frames 10 & 9 are also affected.  The wood bars and a little on the wax comb too.  The box is from 2008 and has been fully waxed by the bees but the mildew's on the comb too.  I think the source of the mildew is the unpainted piece of luan board under the screened bottom board.  The moisture of the Winter hive settling on it each day may have started the process.  I think it then spread upwards from there.  I don't plan on opening the SBB until the nightly lows are in the 60°'s.  I'll replace the sheet with a painted one soon.

Mildew, box & comb

Top boxes are a common place for a queen to start laying in Spring but all the brood is in the oldest frames in the hive.  The current brood frames are the only remaining equipment from the old farmers apiary.  The comb is dark and the frames are rough and chipped.  I wonder if such old comb is desired by the queen for laying eggs?  I'll need to read up on it.

Feeding time again

After the inspection I added the hive top feeders to each hive.  Then filled them with a gallon each of the 1:1 syrup/tea I've made.  It looks like a good start to the year. 

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Requeening Begins

The time has come to requeen both Mary & Myrina.  Mary has been weak since last Summer.  I didn't requeen her then because I didn't know about that kind of stuff.  By the time I figured it out it was November and to late in the year.  Myrina was strong, productive, but old.  This is a good time to do her as well.  However, last inspection I could not find queen Myrina & the bees weren't acting queen-right.  Both Mary, since last year, & Myrina, from the last inspection, have had spotty brood & chalkbrood. 

I had meant to requeen in April but the local queen supplier didn't have any ready just then.  After which a bear shredded his apiary.  I've been waiting on his next batch to requeen.  When Myrina went south I decided to do it now.  Unfortunately I could not locate any queens.  So I had to wait some more.  Then last week the email went out that another beek had available queens.  I made the call & will pick up 2 VSH Italian queens Tuesday morning.

Which means i need to pinch any queens in the targeted hives.  Both have marked queens and Myrina should be queenless.  Or so I thought.  First into Myrina.  I wanted to make sure she was without a queen.  Suiting up in 98 degrees and inspecting 20 deep frames is no picnic but it must be done.

I had a Medium honey super on Myrina but they hadn't touched it.  So off it came.  Her population was down too and I noticed the Chalkbrood had vanished.  The amount of frames with brood had increase as well.  And many 'Eggs'.  Uh oh. Continuing the search found the capped brood to still be spotty but lots of eggs & larva.  The residing queen was eventually found on the second to last frame in the bottom box.  UNMARKED!

So apparently they had replaced or superseded the last marked queen.  Enough time has gone by.  I never did find any queen cells though.  I did watch the new queen for a bit.  she was scrambling around the frame randomly dropping eggs out her hind end.  Not putting them into cells at all.  Are they supposed to do that?  Well enough for me.  Myrina has always been very defensive.  Even if she's been trouble free I'm tired of putting on armor every time I want to look at her.  This daughter of her's would likely bee a good queen but still as mean as her mother.  So I removed her from the hive.

Mary was much easier on me.  She was on frame #2 in the top box.  She was easy to spot with that big blue paint dot on her back.  She was pulled from her hive as well.  Though I saw no signs of chalkbrood in Mary either.  Which is strange since she's always shown some sign of it over the last 2 years. 

So 2 queens out of their hives and into the freezer.  The freezer because I had no heart to mash them.  The bees will realize they're queenless tomorrow.  Tuesday I will place a new queen in each hive.  If all goes well the break in brood will only be a week.  Which Myrina has already done when she made the last queen.  Each will be back up to par before August, so should be set for Winter as far as population goes.  I'll update as the requeening progresses.

Also, Myrina's Bottom Board was replaced with a Screened Bottom Board.  That should help with keeping the hive cool.  The temps this year have been way up in the 90's each day.  3 old crimped wire frames in box 1 & 3 plasticell frames from box 2 were replaced with undrawn crimped wire frames.  The old frame because the bees had stopped using them; they were completely empty.  The Plasticell frames because the bees were also ignoring them; never drawn out.  The crimped wire wax foundations should entice the bees back to using the frames.

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Inspection 5/20/10

Mary
68 f
Cloudy

Mary has been busy lately.  She spent a almost 2 weeks at my place of work before being moved to a new Stand in the back yard.  While 'at work' she was in full sunlight.  Something we don't have here in the yard.  She used it wisely too.  Her activity level increased remarkably so her population looks good now.  The spot at work is a good one.  I'd like to use it all the time.  Right now it serves as only a temporary spot for moving hives & swarm catches.

The bees are working all 10 frames of the single Deep box.  The population has filled the box.  The number one reason I went in was to check for Swarm cells.  None were found but there were some queen cups in the 'swarm position' on frame 6 & 2 cups in the 'Supersedure position' on frames 1 & 2.  Right now 6 frames are filled with eggs, larva, & pupae.  There was a handful of drone cells.  Mostly on the bottom of frame #6.  There were a few isolated drone cells mid-frame in a few spots too.  They have even filled the end frames with fresh honey.  For a week colony they are looking about as good as they can.

Chalkbrood is still an issue.  A little on every brood frame.  Frame 2 is half gone with it.  Hence the dire need to requeen her.  I'll be seeing a beek this weekend who has queens.  I hope they're ready.  Although I couldn't find the queen today at all.  My beek neighbor helped me look but neither of us could find her.  I was ready to mark her but no luck just yet.

The bees are making lots of bridge comb.  The frames aren't too bad but I'd like to see less of it.  I scraped the propolis off each frame a while back to maintain the right bee space.  Yet every frame had a spot or two of it.

After all that it was time to add the second deep box.  This is almost the same box & frames she had on her last year.  I took them off when her population crashed last Winter.  After it came off the frames went into the freezer and the box was retired.  The box was original equipment from when I bought the hives.  I wanted to put it back on last week but after I thawed the frames the Wax moths found them.  I had to refreeze the frames for a few days to fix that problem.  One frame has a new wood part after I dropped & broke the old one.  I just transferred the old comb (plasticell) right into the new frame. A few others were cleaned up a bit with a sander.  The box is new.

The frames in the second Deep Box

Before I put the frames in the box each one got sprayed with sugar syrup.  As soon as the box went on the bees started to move up into it.  I didn't pull any of these out to look.  I'll check them in a week or so.

I put the hive top feeder on with a gallon of 1:1 syrup in it.  I hope that will help the bees produce extra wax.  That way they can quickly repair the wax moth damages cells in the second box.

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Inspection 5/15/10

2010 Hived Package (Duchess)
82 f
Partly Sunny


There have been reports of Small Hive Beetle in the packages that many of us received back in April.  My neighbor found one in her new hive and has since taken measures to control it.  I went into the new hive today looking to see if I could find any; hoping I wouldn't.  I went through each frame and didn't see any.  But I missed the Queen as well, and she's marked,  so I'll continue to watch for them.

The Hive top feeder was about at the empty mark.  What little was left had a thin crystallized cap on it.  I didn't get to it earlier this week due to a bout with the flu.  Nothing too bad, just enough to keep me inside.  I'll refill the HTF and monitor it better this time.

Only about a cup of syrup is left under a sheet of rock candy

The brood nest has grown at a modest rate.  3 undrawn frames remain while the rest are filled with brood, pollen, & honey. The first frames to have comb have a spotty brood pattern look to them.  The latter drawn frames have a more contiguous pattern.  I'm sure that's just an issue with cell availability at the beginning of the hive. 

Check the bur comb on the Drone frame

  Frames:

1. Undrawn
2. 1/2 drawn. Eggs, pollen, capped honey
3. Fully drawn. Mostly brood, lots of eggs and larva.  Pupae & Capped honey.  *Odd comb structure (the sheet not a cell)
4. Fully drawn. Eggs & pupae
5. Fully drawn. Eggs & mostly pupae. Some drone cells maybe.  hatching bees.
6. Fully drawn. Pupae, capped honey, pollen 
7. Done Frame - Fully drawn. Patch of pupae, some capped honey.  Mostly uncapped honey.
8. 1/4 drawn. Capped honey.
9. Undrawn
10. Undrawn

None of the frames had been propolised together.  Very clean throughout the hive.  The colony looks good.  It may be time for me to add the next Deep hive body.  
 

Frame 5 where the Queen cage was hung
 

Above you can see a spotty brood pattern in the middle of the frame.  That is where the Queen cage hung during installation.  After which the bees filled the hole with comb.  So that area lags behind the rest of the frame.  Currently it has eggs, pollen, & honey in it.
 

 Pierco Drone Frame

These frames would be great in Honey suppers.  They hold more honey because there is less wax.  The cell size is much bigger than the other frames to fit the larger size of the drone bees.  The queen can tell what kind of egg to place in a cell by feeling the size of a cell with her front legs.  Therefore all the eggs laid in this frame will become drones.  This frame is noticeably heavier than the other frames.  

Odd thing is that these bees like to bur comb the plastic.  This is the only frame to have bur comb both on the top and the bottom.  Maybe they don't like the plastic.  I know I'm liking it less & less in the brood chambers, meaning the plasticell & the Pierco drone frame.  At Dadant's the other day all I bought was crimped-wire wax foundation.  

Bur comb on the bottom of the Hive top feeder

Can you guess where the plastic drone frame was?  I'm not yet sold on the notion of using a drone frame to reduce to number of Varroa mites.  Yes it works, i'm sure, but I'd rather have a frame producing thousands of bees than drones & mites.  And since the frame is to be frozen before the drones hatch, to kill the mites, the frame really doesn't produce anything at all for the hive.  It may be that I will take them out for now.  In the event of a mite infestation I could put them back in then.  In the meantime I can be producing lots of bees.

A question of Supersedure came up during the last inspection.  I could not find and Queen cups of Supersedure cells.  However, I didn't find the marked Queen either.  There are lots of new eggs on the outer frames though.  So I don't know what to say.  An experienced beek told me her packaged bees may have superseded after only 22 days in the hive!  So both of us are interested in what these girls do.  Hopefully I'll find the queen next week.

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