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.

Bringing in the Pollen

Since about Sunday the Silver & Red Maples have been in bloom. Both Mary & Myrina have been bringing it into the hives. Fresh pollen will stimulate the queens to begin laying eggs. This will be a turning point for Mary. She can now replace & increase her population. Once her numbers are big enough I can requeen her with (hopefully) a new queen from Myrina.

Mary still has a few other obstacles. The Nosema continues to affect her. She would be OK if the bees drank the medicated syrup but they won't touch it for some reason. Her population is so low it will take a while for her to increase in size. To do that she must replace the worker bees faster than they die off . Unfortunately, as evident from last year, her egg laying ability is weak too. So it will be some time before Mary is out of the woods (or should I say 'garage'). The next good sign is when I find she is actually laying eggs in a good pattern. When I see that and the weather has permanently warmed up I'll place Mary's hive outside again.

Here's a quick video of Mary's girls...

Mostly what you see are several bees taking their Orientation flights. Important stuff since it tells them where their hive is located. The bees that flew off are fledged field bees going to get pollen & nectar.

Myrina is doing well of course. I have no doubt that she'll brood up as fast as she can. What I'm looking for in her are Swarm Cells. Some time in the next few months she might produce some. These Swarm cells will contain the queens I'll use to requeen Mary and split Myrina to make another colony. That plus the packaged bees I will get from the Beginners Class and I hope to have 4 strong colonies at he end of the year.

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My new Beekeeping Assistant
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Guarding against Robing

My one cat likes Mary's ICU hive in the garage. Maybe it's the sound, the smell, or the heat lamp but I catch her there each day. She mostly loves watching the bees fly in & out from the safe side of the window.

Modifications & Some Success

The bees in Mary finally found the window entrance! I'd like to congratulate Mary on this but likely it was Myrina's robed bees that figured it out. Today was in the high 40's which is a little too cool to fly. I figure they were OK to fly because the hive sits in a heated garage. They weren't bringing in pollen but taking Orientation flights. THAT is the success part. Myrina's bees could have flown back to their hive. Instead they have accepted Mary's ICU hive as their home. The orientation flight is a bees way of learning were her home is located so she can always find it after a days hard work.

Home Sweet Home

There were also some cleansing flights. This is an important step in Mary's survival. Now that they can go outside to work they can tend to the colonies needs. Which is better that relying on me to guess what they need next.

I had to modify my original ICU setup before the bees found the entrance. The aluminum tube was long and dark at first. I put a bend in it to act as a heat trap. I though it important since the cold air would otherwise flow over the little cluster. The bees never ventured into it to find the light at the end of the tunnel. So i shortened it and made it a straight shot directly to the entrance. 2 days went by and no effect. Last night i stuck a row of nail holes into the top ridge of the tube. Then put the shop lamp directly over these holes. Now with light streaming into the hive from the entrance tube I believe the bees saw the light and followed it out.

Top Perforated Entrance Tube

Also, here is the top syrup feeder I added a to the cover. The bees still haven't found it yet. I do not know why. I'm still working on it. It may be a gap issue. There is still a entrance feeder in the original entrance too.

We are looking at 50 degree weather next week. The maples will bloom and Mary's bees will have a chance to improve their lot significantly. She's not yet out of the woods though. Mary has a weak queen. The queen will need to start laying eggs to further her survival. As soon as I can steal a swarm cell from Myrina I will requeen Mary. That Queen will be strong and hygienic like Myrina and most, if not all, of Mary's problems should go away.