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.

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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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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.

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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.

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Heléna - the Forth Hive

The Package showed up on Thursday the 5th.  Today they were hived without any problems.  The bees seem to have accepted their new queen.  She came unmarked.  I'll mark her in a few weeks after they've settled in.  for now the bees are taking to the hive well enough.  They were making orientation flights as soon as i poured then into the hive.

Heléna being Hived

It would have been better to hive them tomorrow but rain is in the forecast.  These bees were starved though.  When I poured the syrup into the HTF they all but swarmed the syrup.  It took a few minutes to get the bees out of the HTF just to close it.

Typically one is supposed to feed the bees Fumagilin at this stage to fend off Nosema (dysentery).  I want to back away from all these chemical treatments so i didn't.  They had Apple Cider Vinegar and Thyme oil added to the syrup instead.  Those will help with both Nosema & Varroa without being too harsh.  If i don't see any signs of Nosema I'll not use the Fumagilin at all.  So far no colony has been given any this year.

This hive is all foundationless.  They should draw it out faster so they will have brood sooner, so everyone tells me anyhow. 

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Inspection 4/28/10

New Hive (Duchess)
71 f
Partly Sunny

They finished their first gallon of 1:1 medicated syrup the previous day.  I added another 1/2 gallon of unmedicated then, yesterday evening.  There were a handful of drowned bees in the HTF then but none today.  I check each day now to see how fast they're taking it. 

Once the HTF was off I was able to see that the bees were working in frames 4 through 7.  I pulled the cage frame and saw the Queen had been released.  They had not built too much comb around the cage.  It came out with only a small tug.  The rest of the frame had been mostly drawn out & somewhat filled with pollen & syrup or nectar.

Bees working 4 through 7

(click to enlarge)

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Almost capped syrup at the top

Frames 4 through 7 were close to being completely drawn out.  Beautiful white wax.  They had also capped a small patch of syrup on frame 4.  The frames were a mix of new wax & old wax.  The bees used the old wax from the rewaxing effort to build the comb down on the lower half of the frames.

Frames 5 & 6 is where the eggs were at.  Closer to the top of the frames mostly.  There was also pollen & syrup on the ends.  The bees obscured the view but I'll say half of the typical brood nest area had eggs on each frame.  The Queen was on frame 5.  Busily laying eggs.  She looks OK and the workers are taking care of her.

Queen & eggs

Frame 7 is the Drone frame.  It has been partially drawn out but the queen has not got to it yet.  In the meantime the bees are storing some syrup on it.  I'd love to use these drone frames in the honey suppers.  The cells are much bigger than normal brood cells.  So more space would be dedicated to honey than comb wall.

On frame 6 there was 2 Queen cups.   At first I thought they were Supercedure cells.  Since then I have learned that they are only 'Cups'.  The bees regularly construct Queen cups.  So if something happens to the Queen they can quickly form a emergency Queen cell.  As much as they are always making these they are also tearing them down.  So there should always be some somewhere in the hive.  I mentioned this to one of the Bee club leaders.  They thought the stress of being shipped was enough to cause the bees to make these so soon.  As of now it doesn't seem to mean anything is wrong with the colony.  I'll be watching for any other signs though.

Queen cup.  Currently filled with pollen

The colony is looking good.  They are building up the comb & population.  They may need another hive body in the next week or two.  She doesn't have a name yet because it's too early to know what she's like.  It'll be 45 days, or so, until all the bees are daughters of the Queen.  Then I can get a good idea of what the colonies personality is going to be like.  I'd settle for calm & productive, but who wouldn't.

Package & Installation

The Queen cage is a small cage containing the Queen and sometimes several attendants.  It is used to ship the Queen either individually or as part of a 'Package'.  

Typically, there is a small hole at the end of the queen-cage for the queen to exit by.  It is plugged with a cork on the outside.  It leads into a larger hole filled with a bee candy stopper (corn syrup & sugar).  The queen is trapped in a compartment on the other side of the bee candy.

To release the queen I remove the cork exposing the candy.  Then set the queen cage into the hive between 2 frames.  After which the bees are added separately.  The bees eat through the candy.  Which in turn releases the queen.

While the queen is waiting to be released the bees feed her through the screen.  This process gives the bees time to acclimate to the presence of their future queen.  Otherwise they could reject her.

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This is the shipping box for the bees. The large can is filled with sugar syrup to feed the bees while they are in the box.  The small silver circle is a flange which is connected to the queen cage.  Before I remove either one, I spray the bees with a 1:1 sugar syrup. I also spray all of the frames with the same 1:1 sugar syrup solution. Then I tap the cage to knock the bees down to the bottom of the box.  After which I remove the queen cage and cover up the hole with the wooden plank.

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Once removed the queen can be inspected.  There may be attendants with the queen or not.  In this case there is a handful but 2 are dead.  At this point the beek removes the cork covering the 'bee candy'.  The apiary these bees came from uses the tin disk that holds the queen cage in place instead.  So off comes the disk.

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Now I punch a small hole through the bee candy.  This tells the bees they can free the queen by eating through the candy.  Some queen cages come with a nail attached.  My Wife lent me one of her sewing needles for this task.  Be careful not to stab any bees!

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Now orient the cage so the top is up.  The top being the end with the bee candy.  Then attach a strip of wire or paper board to the side of the cage.  Paper board is what they make cereal boxes out of and just about everything else in a store that isn't wrapped in plastic (**Update** - use tin or plastic strips, or wire.  These bees chewed the paper board apart).  Make it an inch thick since the bees will be chewing on it.  Secure it to the cage with either a thumbtack or office staple. 

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To hang the cage on a frame, again, use a thumbtack or office staple.  Remember candy end UP!.  the candy side is the exit out.  If it is facing the bottom and an attendant dies she will block the exit.  Then the queen will be trapped. Also make sure the screen is in a direction that will have better access to the other bees.  Perpendicular to the frames will do it. 

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Now take the syrup can out of the big box and shake the bees into the hive directly over the queen cage.  Roll the box from side to side to get the bees out.  Then place the box by the front entrance so the few remaining bees can walk into the hive.  

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When the bees slowly crawl up the frames toward the queen is a good sign.  If they quickly ball up around her is a sign of rejection.  This looks good.

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After which I replace the outside frames and move all the frames back into the centered position.  Slowly!  Then I add the Hive Top Feeder filled with 1:1 sugar syrup medicated with Fumagilin.  I put on the inner cover & the telescoping cover.  Then reduce the size of the entrance.

That's how I hived my 2010 Package!

Hived the Package Today

We started out this morning by hiving my neighbor's package in her Bee yard.  We did everything that was shown to us at the club demo.  Her bees look good and all seems well.

Afterward I got ready to repeat the task over in my yard.  The new package (Duchess) was a good impetus for making a new hive stand.  I put it in a new spot too.  The placement of the first 2 hives was poor. This new spot has lots more Sun and is better drained. The stand is 8 feet long and is 20 inches tall and will hold all 3 hives.  The package will be the first colony on it.  I'll move the other 2 over to it in the next month.  It has room for a fourth hive too. Maybe I'll catch a swarm or start a queen nuc or something.   Once all 3 hives are on the new stand I get rid of farmer Bob's old rickety stand.

 Myrina on the Old Stand in the background

It was great to put all the new hive parts together on the new stand.  It's clean with fresh paint.  The newest house on the block.  I'm still updating Mary's & Myrina's equipment.  Frames are the slowest to update.  I can only take so many in a season.

 I'm trying the Drone frames this year

Once all the equipment was down by the new hive I opened up the package.  The Queen cage was missing it's cork over the candy but no big deal.  This hole was covered by a piece of metal anyway.  There was some wax being built up on the cage & syrup can but very minor.  The Queen looked good but 2 of her 5 attendants had died.  I attached her between the 2 middle frames and poured in the bees.

Queen (soon to be named)

The bees clumped out quickly and many took to flying around the hive.  The rest slowly crawled up the foundation toward the queen.  They seem to like her as there was no balling.  I put the hive back together and added a gallon of 1:1 syrup, with Fumagilin and apple cider vinegar, into the hive top feeder.  Once closed up the bees stayed close to the reduced entrance.  After an hour I checked on them and saw what looked like Orientation flights by many of the bees.  Lots of good signs.

 Before

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After

For this hive I built the Screened Bottom Board, Vent box, & Telescoping Cover.  The Deep Hive body & Inner Cover were purchased from Dadant.  The only prep that was done for the package was rewaxing the frames & spraying then with sugar syrup.

I don't have a name for this colony yet. As soon as she exhibits some of her personality she'll get one.  For now I call her the 2010 package.