Hiving a Nuc

The time has come for Little Miss to be a full hive.  She has a box of bees, a box of honey, and a great laying queen.  The bees fill both 5 frame boxes so she needs the expansion.

The yellow full nuc next to the white new equipment

First i took out the honey frames from her top nuc box.  They became frames 1, 2, 3, 9, &10 of the bottom 10 frame box.  Then all the frames of the bottom nuc, the brood nest, filled the gap between 3 and 9 of the same 10 frame box.  The result is the same brood nest packed with double the honey on the ends.

To fill the new second 10 frame box (Top box) i used filled or drawn frames from previous dead outs.  In this case 6 frames filled with honey & pollen and 4 frames of empty but drawn wax.  This gives the bees plenty of stores and room to lay.  What would take them weeks to over a month to produce they have right now.  Their energy can go towards brood yet requires less work from the field bees.

New hive in place

The new hive consists of:
Telescoping cover
Inner cover
10 frame medium
10 frame medium
Slated rack
Solid bottom board

No hive top feeder for them because; 1- The spring flow is strong and these girls are known not to take spring syrup;  2- They are not an over stressed package that just got shipped across country to be dumped somewhere strange.  Other than the new equipment nothing has changed for them.  They'll keep on taking nectar like they've been doing.

Ideally i can put on a 3rd box soon.  As a hive of mediums all they need for over wintering is 3 boxes.  If they can fill their 3rd box with brood before May i can add honey supers to the hive.  Winter ran a month late in ending.  So i don't know how that will affect the flow or whether these bees will have the time to produce surplus honey.  I'm looking forward to favorable conditions.
 

Queen bee from Little Miss

Meanwhile, queen Miss is a pretty girl of moderate size with an all black thorax and non-striped, sepia abdomen.  We are in our first week of warm weather yet she already has several frames of brood from side to side and a handful of scattered Drone cells.  She'll be marked when i feel assured i can make more queens.  Maybe in a month.

____________________☼____________________

New Colony - ROZINA

Today we hived that package into two ten-frame mediums.  These boxes were filled with the remnants of this Winter's Dead-outs.  These bees start off with a full box of honey & pollen along with a full box of drawn out and somewhat filled comb.  This gives them a huge start to the year.  I hope it translats into honey.

Newly hived Package

Since i'm practically starting over again all new hives will be mediums. This hive is made up of a;
Telescoping Cover
Hive Top Feeder
Medium
Medium
Slatted Rack
Screened Bottom Board (closed)

We are still having cool nights but come high Summer the hive will look like this;
Telescoping Cover
Inner Cover
Imrie Shim (top entrance)
Honey Super/s
Medium
Medium
Medium
Slatted Rack
Screened Bottom Board (open)

I might put an Imrie Shim between Honey Supers.  I've done it before but with inconclusive results.  The idea being an entrance per Super allows the bees to transfer the nectar faster thereby improving production.  We'll see how this year goes.

Anyway, back to the bees.  These girls were a calm bunch.  They didn't explode from the package nor did they fly around manically during the procedure.  They dropped in and spread out in the box. The only oddity was a few handfuls of bees walking away from the hive along the ground.  I've never seen it before.

The bees took to orienting immediately but went back in for the night soon after.  As always i hive bees late in the day to better keep them in the new location.  The next day they were back at it flying wide arcs in the apiary.  I went down later in the day but saw no pollen coming in yet.  They still need to find those sources.

The gallon of 1:1 syrup i gave them is half way down.  From what we can tell by the bees lack of interest in old left out honey frames and pots with sugar residue the Spring flow is on and quite strong.  The Maples are done but Dandelions are popping up everywhere.  This is great for the bees to have natural forage as apposed to pollen patties and syrup.  The best thing for a new colony.

- - -    - - -   - - -

On a sad but not unexpected note; Mab is dead.  I broke down her equipment and tossed it into the freezer.  She had a laying queen and brood in February or so but something happened and now she's gone.  What a shame.

____________________☼____________________

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.

Medium Boxes

One of my favorite things about beekeeping is all the time in the workshop during the off season.  Everything slows down and we can plan for the next year.  After which i get to build the shiny new equipment.

Two of four unfinished Brood & Honey boxes for 2013

I got an early start to the off season and built four of these today; ten frame mediums.  Southern yellow pine is less dense and likes to split at the ends when screws are snugged down.  Spruce, used above, is light but sturdy and doesn't regularly split.  The local home improvement store carries both including white pine and occasionally fir.

Spruce can be more knotty but the knots weep less than the knots of yellow pine. Plus, a coating of beeswax & paraffin on the inside of a knot keeps hive moisture from seeping in it.  Then one coat of quality primer followed by two coats of a decent top-coat semi gloss paint.  The box can last as long as a human house. 

Tight bond III glue and 2" decking screws keep it all together.  Since i use butt joints each 6' of board becomes one box.  I buy 12' x 8" boards, which are very cheap, and get two boxes out of it.  That way the homemade boxes are cheaper than the cheapest box i can get from any supplier.  The cheap boxes from the suppliers are much lower in quality too.

For finishing touches the frame rests are armored with an "L" shaped strip of regular flashing.  At 1" in width it protect the rest from getting gouged out over time.

I wish the bees were as simple to keep as these are simple to make.

____________________☼____________________

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.

*_____________________________☼______________________________*

Quick Peek & Brood boxes

Nuc #5 (Mab)
Nuc #6 (Gumption)

On Feb 28th i took a quick look at the two nucs.  Nuc #5, or Mab, is packed with bees and has three of her five frames loaded with brood.  The queen looked big & healthy as always.  This colony was my first captured swarm from last year.  Her population plummeted last fall but now she'll be ready to swarm in no time.

Nuc #6, Gumption, Has two of five frames in brood.  She doesn't have the number of bees Mab does but she's drawing comb already.  She is a late September swarm.  I never took her seriously though she continuously laid eggs.  So she's off to a great start now that she survived Winter.  So i finally marked the Queen; with white since she is from last year.

Since Mab is full of bees & Gumption is drawing comb they both received an additional brood box (5 frame Nuc) today.

Ready to go with old frames & new wax foundation

 -

Mab's (nuc #5) new yellow Medium Brood box

-

and Gumption's (nuc #6) new yellow Brood box too

I intend to inspect a few hives this weekend.  Might need to reverse some boxes to hold off swarming.  This Winter has been VERY mild and the bees are way ahead of schedule.

 

*_____________________________☼______________________________*

Fumagilin & Screened Bottom Boards

Today the colonies received their last treatment of Fumagilin.  Fumagilin-b is an antibiotic that controls the disease Nosema, or bee dysentery.  The disease usually occurs during Winter while the bees are unable to release bodily waste each day.  The weather is too cold for the bees to fly outside to relieve themselves.  So they stay in the cluster and must hold it in for months sometimes.  If they get Nosema the bees can no longer hold it in and can make a big mess inside the hive.  Plus the stress of the disease can weaken the colony and lead to it's demise. 

In Fall each full hive gets 2 gallons of medicated syrup per twenty frames.  Last week they all got their first gallon.  Two colonies were given only one gallon since they are only ten frames in size; Myrina & Nuc #5.  The Fumagilin is put in a heavy sugar syrup, 2:1 sugar to water.  That's eight pounds of sugar in about two quarts of water.

Crystallized sugar after one gallon of 2:1 syrup

This time of year the bees will take it down in one to two days.  There is some crystallization of the sugar in the Hive Top Feeder.  To fix that i toss a quart of warm water into the feeder afterward.  It dissolves the sugar and the bees then take it down too.

Also it's time to close all the Screened Bottom Boards (SBB).  Some beeks leave them open but i close mine.  I think it helps the bees brood lower in the hive.  Slatted Racks aid that as well.  Myrina's SBB was replaced with a regular BB with a solid bottom.  Mary & Nuc #5 also have the solid BB now.  Heléna & Melissa both have the closed off SBB.  As does that little September swarm i haven't been talking about.

The next steps toward Winterization will be the final Varroa check & treatment if necessary.

*_____________________________☼______________________________*

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

*_____________________________☼______________________________*

Fixed Comb

It's been a few days.  So I took a quick look into Melissa yesterday to check on the progress of the divided comb frames.  That story can be read by clicking on this link, (Divided Frames).  I'm happy to say it worked.  The bees have secured the lose comb to the top bar on all the frames.  They continue to draw the rest of the comb out as well.

Rubber bands held the comb in place

☼

You can see where they chewed the rubber bands

☼

Almost completely drawn out

The bees are supposed to secure the comb to the bar before they chew through the rubber bands.  That definitely seems to be the case here.  Though they are drawing out Drone comb I'm sure that will be fixed in the coming weeks.  Once the comb is drawn out I'll remove the rubber bands; either from the frames or the bottom of the hive.

It's fun to learn a new trick.

*_____________________________☼______________________________*

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.

*_____________________________☼______________________________*

More Honey Supers

Both Mary & Myrina are actually in the mood to make surplus honey this year, \\ Hallelujah! //  Not much but it looks like we may see 2 Medium Supers worth; one from each.  Not leaving it to chance I added a second super to Myrina today.  I'll add a second to Mary in a day or so.  I don't expect them to fill up the new supers but they might as well start drawing them out for next year.  There is little over a month left to our major flow.  Could be enough time to do the job.  If there comes a Fall flow we'll be ready.

The second super on Myrina went beneath the current one.  It is wired foundationless blasted with sugar spray.  I placed the Imirie Shim between the 2 Supers.  The bees have used it but sparingly.  I might block the bottom entrance tomorrow to motivate them to use it in earnest.  I'll do the same thing with Mary when she gets her's.

Two Honey Supers

- - -    - - -   - - -

I also got around to changing out the brood boxes on Melissa.  The yellow one (Heléna's) came off and the companion white one went on.  It's now clean and mold free.  Here too I placed the new brood box beneath the current one.  Now the bees will be near to top of the new frames where they need to start drawing comb instead of climbing up to it first.

Speaking of Heléna, she will get her second brood box this week too.  Another busy week but a good start to June.

Sweet Melissa

* ____________________________________________________________*

Hive Inspection 5/29/11

Nuc #4
Partly Sunny
85°F

This is really a Queen check but with only 5 frames it becomes an inspection.  The big news is that the Virgin Queen is now laying.  WooHoo!  I didn't expect it but there were eggs in all the usable cells; which weren't many. 

Queen and Eggs

Compare this image of the queen to the one I took of her on the 25th, four days ago.  Big difference.  Although it looks like her wings may be damaged if you zoom in on the above image.  The bees in the nuc were acting a little better too.  They have drawn out more comb and are leaving & returning from the field.  This Nuc is from Myrina (we think) whose production is usually good.  These bees may now make it.

Whether the plastic nuc helped or not I don't know.   There are a few other unknowns to this colony:  How does a swarm end up with a Virgin Queen?  How come the bees are so listless?  Why won't they take syrup?  Much doesn't make sense.  Maybe I'll figure it out someday.  Untill then this is the bees home untill the woodenware is finished.

Corrugated Plastic Nuc

They drew out a bunch of weird comb on the Plasticell frame again.  I turned the frame around instead of removing the odd comb.  They can try to get it right on the undrawn side.  The 4th frame from the left is the Medium brood frame from what was Nuc #3 but is now Melissa.

- - -   - - -

Also,
I checked the honey super on Myrina.  Surprisingly the bees had finally drawn out the majority of frames.  About Time!  So the super came out from between the 2 brood boxes and onto the top of the hive.  I added the Modified Queen Excluder as well.  I didn't see any eggs in the honey frames but I'll check again in a few days to be sure.

Honey At Last! 

 *____________________________________________________________*

Hive Inspection 5/25/11

Nuc #4
85°F
Partly Sunny

The poor & lowly Nuc #4

This Nuc makes me feel like a slum lord.  I was out of equipment when i caught the swarm.  I had to use whatever scraps could be found.  The cover is Mary's original cover from 2008 when i purchased her.  It has spent the last two years as a tomato starter, essentially a flower pot!  The Deep box was Myrina's.  The one that had so much mold last Winter the knots started to weep.  The bottom board was also Myrina's and was in storage yet covered in dead bugs and spiders.  To make thing worse it's a 10 frame set up when all the small swarm needed was at most a 5 frame box.  I didn't even have 5 frames so they got 4: 1 plasticell & 2 foundationless all undrawn.  I did add that brood frame from Nuc #3 but it is a Medium.

I put a entrance feeder IN the hive to keep the robing down.  I know the flow is on but these bees couldn't defend a drop.  The bees haven't touched the syrup.  They continue to act strangely all huddled together and barely flying.

They haven't started on the fourth frame yet.  I don't know what they're doing on the plasticell frame.  Making a mess i guess.  Just a weak performance all the way around.  And still NO eggs!

Today they got a little break.  I purchased one of those plastic nucs.   They get a newer, cleaner home and a fifth frame too.  Almost like real bees.  The plastic nuc isn't great but its a mighty step up from what they have now.  They can defend it & control the climate whereas the 10 frame was too big for them.  These plastic jobs are stamped out of one piece corrugated plastic.  It takes a little to fold it together, the directions are Useless.  These are a one shot deals.  No adding on or feeders.  I think they're more for selling nucs than Making nucs.

Movin' on up!

The good news is i might get some time this weekend to start making the real nuc equipment.  Hopefully that can be completed before these bees drop dead.

The queen still looks unmated.  Her abdomen is not growing any bigger.  If there is no change she will be replaced, soon!

That's the Queen!

To add to this menagerie of gloom look who popped out for a walk during the inspection.  Is this really necessary?

SHB

If this nuc lives it will be by luck and a miracle.  I will do what i can but if they don't start behaving like bees and working they're done for.

* ____________________________________________________________*

Swarm, Queen in Super, & Other Notes

Keeping up with the bees has been a daily chore lately.  Catching the Swarm on Wednesday (5/18) was great but all the equipment had to be borrowed.  The issue with that was the neighbor uses Mediums only.  Yesterday (5/20) the medium frames and the Medium Nuc were traded out for all Deep equipment; the quiet box is now in service.  On a good note the new bees had drawn almost a full frame already.  I like these bees.

The full story on the swarm is straight forward.  The Wife saw the swarm before Noon then called me at work.  After work we went back and hived them.  They were very cooperative in that the swarm quickly accepted the nuc.  They were all in it and calm within an hour.  We came home, put them on the stand, and fed them.  They've been busy since.  When i traded all the equipment they were calm and passive.  I guess the swarm was at about 2 pounds.  Good haul!  Oh, and the tree the bees were swarming on was a bee tree.  I marked it with flagging and notified everyone in the club.  We'll all watch it for years to come.  Welcome Nuc #5.

Equipment issues:
I'm out of  woodenware.  This Spring i started with 2 full hives.  The plan was to add one more full hive, via package, and make 2 Nucs.  The equipment for all was made and ready to go.  However what happened was more than i had hoped for.  On top of the what was planned I made a third Nuc and caught two swarms; the third Nuc is insanely productive and will be made into a full hive as soon as another box is available.

I have decided to make all the woodenware I need instead of buying it.  4 Nuc bodies, 2 Nuc covers, 2 Nuc Inner Covers, 2 Nuc Screened Bottom Board., 2 Nuc Slatted Racks, all for 5 frame Deeps.  Also I need 2 Screened Bottom Boards, 1 Slatted Rack, 1 Cover, all for 10 frame Deeps to fix a few issues with the full hives.  All of this is needed this year, NOW!, but the budget has been used up.  SO...I'll make everything from plywood.  Not ideal but doable. Plywood is more susceptible to water damage but is much cheaper.  To deal with the water issues I'll need to make sure the end grains are covered and well sealed.  If done properly the plywood boxes will last as long as solid wood.

Honey Production:
Queen Mary got into the Honey Super.  I notice on Monday (5/16) the bees had drawn a few frames out down to the bottom.  I wanted to put the Excluder on then but a rain storm shut me down then and for the rest of the week.  Yesterday (5/20) I went to put it in but it was to late.  She had gotten to 3 frames, mostly drone cells.  Not a problem though.  I made sure the Queen was not in the Super then swept the bees off the egg frames and culled them.  They went directly into the deep freezer.  Left them in for 2+ hours.  I figured by then the eggs were sufficiently chilled.   Then put the frames back into the Super.  The Excluder went on as soon as I culled the frames.  I'll check the Super again in a few days.

Queen Excluders are mostly called 'Honey' Excluders around here.  Seems bees don't like to pass through the bars and many Supers never get drawn out.  To remedy this I modified the Excluders.  I cut off the bars on the last inch of each side.  That way the Queen won't be in a position to crawl through while worker bees on both side can pass without hindrance.

Clipped off the sides

Other beeks like to place the Excluder sideways on the box.  It does the same thing while allowing for additional ventilation.  I'd rather keep the sides of the hives closed off.  The gap opens up the outside & the top of the last frames.  It closes off the inside of the last frames and everything in between.  When placing the chilled frames back in I saw the bees actively passing through the gaps.

Myrina is still having a problem drawing out honey comb.  To motivate her more I put her Honey Super in between the top & bottom brood boxes.  I'll check back in a week for improvement.

The Small Swarm:
Nuc #4, this swarm nuc was still doing nothing.  To boost their instinct to act like bees I added a brood frame from Nuc #3 and an entrance feeder.  A check in a few days will tell me if it worked.  Fingers crossed...

* ____________________________________________________________*

A Few Observations

Lately I've been going into the hives every other day or so checking for laying queens, comb drawing, etc.  The bees seem to be doing alright.  There are a few things i wanted to put into the record.

Mary's bees are closer to drawing out the honey comb in the super.  I had added 3 partially drawn out plasticell frames to spur her to draw out the rest.  I don't know if it was those or the main flow starting but some comb is now being drawn.

Drawing Foundationless Comb

Each frame has a small piece of Crimped-wire foundation stuck to the top bar.  You can see the wires in the above image.  I use that as the seed strip to guide the bees.  The strips also get sprayed with syrup.

The bees have begun to bring in nectar and store it up in the honey super.  Though the frames aren't fully drawn out yet.  The wax bees seem to keep just ahead of the field bees.

Uncured Honey

This is one of the plasticell frames.  After this season i hope to have enough foundationless honey frames around to chuck the last of these. 

In the Brood boxes there is some odd looking debris in some of the cells.  I think it's either bits of mold or maybe SHB droppings. 

Dirty looking stuff!?

There was a SHB in Duchess's hive last Fall when I did the combination with Mary.  Maybe there were some more that made it through Winter.  To check I put a Beetle trap in Mary's hive and filled it with Mineral Oil.  To my surprise the bees went nuts and ganged up on the trap.

Why are they doing this?

Was I supposed to use Vegetable Oil instead?  I'll ask the question in the Forum.  The bees cant physically reach the oil in the trap but it looks like they're trying.  They immediately clustered around the trap as i was adding the oil to it.  Perhaps it should go in any swarm traps I make.

Mary had one frame that was entirely drone comb.  It wasn't a Pierco frame either but a regular foundationless frame.  It's swarm season and bees need to make lots of drones this time of year.  The bees can change the drone cells to worker cells later when they're over the drone rut.  In the mean time Mary is stuck making tons of drones and Varroa.  To fix that I cut the comb out leaving and undrawn frame.

Ex-Drone Frame

I left a few rows at the top to guide the bees making the next comb.  Which hopefully will be worker comb.

The Nucs look good too.  2 of 3 are broodless but should have laying queens in them soon.  Their populations are good.  Especially Nuc3.

Nuc3 loaded with Bees

This Nuc may end up as a hive this year.  It started with 5 Medium frames filled with bees & brood.  Plus I added an extra 4 Deep frames fully drawn with pollen & honey.  These bees have done well and love to make comb.  If i add another Deep box they might just draw it out before Fall.  How well the new queen does at laying will decide.

To finish I want to post an image of a hatched Queen Cell being torn down by workers.  Most of the time these are gone before i get to see them.  This one is from Nuc2.

Old Queen Cell

* ____________________________________________________________*

Busy with Woodenware

What you see here is about a months worth of fabricated & painted wooden ware.  A few peices are left out but the total this Spring is:

10 Frame
2 - Deep Hive Boxes
3 - Slatted Racks
2 - Screened Bottom Boards w/ IPM board
2 - Inner Covers
1 - Telescoping Cover
2 - Medium Honey Supers
2 - Imrie shims

5 Frame
4 - Deep Nuc Boxes
2 - Nuc Slatted Racks
2 - Nuc Screened Bottom Boards w/ IPM board
2 - Nuc Inner Covers
2 - Nuc Telescoping Covers
2 - Nuc Vent Boxes

This is enough for 1 new double deep hive & 2 Nucs.  It also adds a Slatted Rack to all hives in the Yard, plus some additional Honey supers.  More equipment may be needed if I catch a swarm and I plan to try.

* ____________________________________________________________*

Expanding the Bee Yard

At most three hives have been kept on the current Hive stand in the back yard.  It has better Sun than the previous location and a little less humidity.  All in all i like it but essentially the bees own the back yard.  Not a terrible problem but the property is wooded so they need to go where the Sun shines.

Old Backyard Bee Yard - Fall 2010

The problem is what to do with any new hives once I get them.  If the front yard is the garden the only Sunny spot left is the culvert along the road.  It's on a slope but it's all I have left.

I made a new hive stand but only 4.5 feet wide.  It can hold 2 hives with room to work without placing anything on the uneven ground.  This time i sunk the feet into the ground.  The winds here can be bad and we get a good wind storm every year.  The kind that can topple an unanchored stand.  Instead of 2"x6"'s I only used 2"x4"'s.  I put 6"x6" stones beneath the footers to keep the stand from sinking.  It faces due East so the hives will face the morning Sun and not suffer so much from rain coming from the West or South.

New Hive Stand with it's first colony

The plan is to place 4 or 5 of these stand down the slope.  Which means 8 to 10 colonies.  At first each stand will have a Double Deep and a Nuc hives placed on them.  That will change as more colonies enter the Yard.  Eventually Mary & Myrina will be moved down here too.

This slope sits in full Sun and we've already begun planting it for bees.  Mint, pussy willow, cone flower, Chickasaw plum, salvia, sunflower, borage, buckwheat, plus everything else we end up thinking of.

First of many Hive stands

I have a package coming next month and I will be making another Nuc, from Myrina.  I will also be putting out a few swarm traps near feral colonies.  It already looks like I need to build the next 2 stands.

* ___________________________________________________________*

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.

*

Mildew Damage

In an earlier post I mentioned the presence of mildew in Myrina.  It looked like the unpainted wood sheet used to close off the SBB got wet with moisture and began to mildew.  The stuff then spread up the SBB wall onto the Hive body.  It did not appear to be major then.

Looking at the side of Myrina today I noticed two spots where the paint has blistered.  The boxes are two years old and are long past coat adhesion problems. 

Weeping Paint Blister on Deep Hive Body

I scraped it off to reveal a pine knot beneath.  Gunk was weeping from the knot and collecting under the paint, hence the blister.  So i guess the mildew had begun to trap excess moisture in the wood.  Causing liquid to seep through the exposed and open capillaries in the knots.

Only one side is affected right now.  Next week, when it's in the 60°'s, I can replace the box with a new one and the unpainted wood sheet too.  I'll clean out the mildewy box, bleach it, & set it out to dry for a month.  After which I'll touch up the paint and it will be good to go again. 

If the other box looks bad enough I may change out both boxes.  I have the extra equipment so it's not a problem.

*