Happy Anniversary! 3 years

May 5th of 2008 is the day we acquired our first 2 hives, Mary & Myrina.  2 old souls just needing a place to be.  How they have changed our lives.  We plant more for the bees now than we do for the vegetable garden.  The neighbor was bitten by the bee bug and now has 4 hives of her own.  Every January is spent planning for the coming bee year.  In March & April I'm too busy with the bees to do anything else.  I've met countless people who graciously lend their advice and support.  All in all it's been great.

I had hope to celebrate by taking the wife to town for a couple chocolate shakes.  Instead, on a whim, i put the veil on and looked into the 3 nucs.  It turns out All 3 now have laying queens.  One i knew about, the other 2 are new.  So to celebrate I got to mark 2 new queens.  Just as I finished that up the neighbor pulled up with the bee packages we had ordered; she got 2 and I 1. 

Going into the fourth year will be 3 hives and 3 nucs.  Although I might make a forth nuc out of frames from all 3 nucs.  Then make Nuc #3 a full hive; they're comb building fiends.  A guy at work has a bee tree of Survivors.  He said I can set up swarm traps at his place any time.

Should make for a busy forth year.

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Inspection 4/21/2011

Nuc #1, Nuc #2, Nuc #3
70°F
Sunny
Slight Breeze


A quick look at the Nucs before the monthly Club Meeting.  In case there was an issue i needed to ask the membership about .  Fortunately I didnt see anything that look like a problem.

Nuc #1 is looking great now with 3 frames of eggs & larva.  The pattern looks as solid as it can be.  I did see a cell with 2 eggs in it but only once.  I'll check again this weekend to look for more.  I don't want a laying worker problem.  

3rd row of eggs, 3rd cell from the left;  2 eggs

The larva was on each of the brood frames.  She must have begun laying soon after the first inspection.  No capped brood yet but that will happen soon.

Larva from Nuc 1

The brood looked good so it was a surprise to see the they're Superseding.  When the Nuc was first made the bees my not have begun to make queen cells for a day or more.  That would allow any fresh eggs to become older and less likely to form into a good queen.  The best queen cells coming from day old eggs to 3 days old at most.  This queen seems alright but the bees know better.

Supersedure Cell

I'll check this nuc every few days to see what happens with the queens.  Once the new bees begin to emerge another Deep box could be put on the nuc.  In the mean time i'll stop feeding them sice they have plenty of food and the Flow is about to start.

Queen bee, perhaps soon to be replaced

Nuc #2 has plenty of capped brood left in her as well as 3 Queen cells.  2 have been capped while 1 is being capped now.  So by the weekend after next a queen should have emerged.  Another week after that, or shortly after, there might be eggs in this nuc.

Queen Cell 1

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Queen Cell 3

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Queen Cell 2 with a....'What is that!'

I took this picture of the queen cell as the bees were capping it.  I didn't see the image until later.  Which is when I noticed the odd looking bee in the blue oval.  It appears that her abdomen is elongated like a queen.  She doesn't appear to be bigger than the drone either.  If it was an obvious queen i think i would have noticed her.  I'll check this nuc this weekend as well to see if i can find anything else.

One more issue was the mesh reducer on the entrance.  Because of the threat of early robing i cut a mesh reducer to fit a single bee.  I didn't think about drones & queens at the time though.  I found frame 5 completely covered in drones.  Just sitting there doing more nothing then usual.  I realized then they might not be able to get out of the hive; though i saw no bee waste stains anywhere.  It also means a queen couldn't get out of the hive either.  I made the entrance bigger and left it at that. 


Nuc #3 had lost most if it's swarm cells.  They had been torn down and replaced with regular comb.  I looked and looked for a queen but never saw one.  Hopefully in a few days i will find a bunch of eggs.  Then I'll know she has a queen.

Bunch 'o bees

Her population is great for a nuc but shes is in a 10 frame box not  a 5 frame nuc.  They wont be able to defend their space as well but have no pests yet.  

Both Nuc #1 & Nuc #2 had their Inner Covers finally put on. 

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Inspection 4/15/2011

Nuc #1 & Nuc #2
68°F
Sunny
Calm

A queen should have emerged in Nuc #1 last weekend.  I went in today to see if she had begun to lay eggs.  The first frame had no new eggs and all the capped brood had emerged.  Frame 2 Also had no eggs or brood but did have the New Queen.  Though my colonies have generated many queens this is the first one I meant to make.  Woohoo! it worked

The marking tools are always in the work bucket.  It took a bit to get her in the tube though.  A worker bee always trys to get stuck in there with the queen.  2 small dots of white paint and a minute of drying later shes marked.

Marked Queen Bee

She went back on the frame then scurried out of site.  The other frames had no eggs either.  I posted a question on the forum asking how long it takes a new queen to start laying.  They said it can take up to 2 weeks.  I'll check again next weekend to see how they're doing. 

Still making Mating Flights

Meanwhile they are bringing in plenty of nectar & pollen.  They could potentially become honey bound before she begins to lay.  If so I'll swap out a couple of frames for empty drawn frames.  Plus I put the Slatted Rack on.

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Nuc #2 had 3 Queen cells on the first frame I pulled out.  Only 2 were capped.  There was still plenty of worker capped brood on that frame too.  I didn't look any further and closed it up. 

The nucs are looking good so far.  Once a queen begins to lay I plan on adding the second nuc box with filled honey frames.

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Heiress Presumptive

On Saturday I noticed what appeared to be too much activity at the entrance of Nuc #1.  I would have checked the Nuc then but the air temp was too cool for opening up a queenless and brood poor nuc.  It was also VERY windy. The forecast called for today to be warmer and calm so I waited 'till today to go into it.

When I got out there today I saw much more activity at the entrance.  It's open only enough for a single bee at a time; yet was covered in bees.  I figured the Nuc had died out and was being robed.  The weather here has been terrible since the nuc was made.  We've had snow and lots of cold windy days.  Overall, bad conditions for a few frames of bees trying to cluster around what little brood they have.  It's a nuc so I wasn't upset, but i wasn't happy either.

Fortunately the nuc was better off than it seemed.  Once opened I could see lots of bees.  I checked the frames looking for shredded comb, a sign of robing, and found none.  The comb was in good condition with some capped brood still waiting to hatch out.  There were also 4 Queen Cells.  2 were not yet capped but the other 2 were.  If the nuc was made 12 days ago the capped cells might be 11 days old.  So in 5 more days I should have a Virgin Queen.  The first Queen intentionally made in this apiary.  Woohoo!

All the Queen cells were high or in the middle of the frames.  The 2 capped ones were next to each other.  So they could feasibly emerge at the same time.  That would cause a fight between the 2 queens which could lead to the surviving Queen becoming injured.  I could mash one of the 2 but will not.  It would leave only a single good cell for the nuc.  There's a risk either way but let's see what nature has in store.

The Nuc was being robed though.  Not for the honey but the syrup in the Boardman feeder.  So I took it off.  The nuc still has a good bit of honey and pollen left.  With the field bees it has it should bee OK for starters once the New Queen begins laying.  There are some reserve frames still left over in the frezer in case they run low on stores.  All in all I think this Nuc might make it. 

I have a Slatted Rack for this nuc but until the population begins to increase I'll leave it off.  The Rack is not a lot of extra space but these bees can't yet defend their little nuc.  If all goes well I'll add the second nuc box with 5 frames of honey on drawn frames.

Myrina's Nuc will be next in a week or so.  

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Early Nuc & Snow

Sunday's weather forecast showed morning snow and a high in the mid-thirties.  Not ideal for the new Nuc i made on Tuesday.  The nuc is a small space and easy to heat.  The bees, though, are too few and already stressed from being queenless.  Not knowing whether clustering longer than a day would harm them more I brought them into the garage Saturday night.

Almost melted away

The bees stayed the day in the heated garage helping me make a few Slatted Racks.  They wanted out of the nuc in the worst way but the #8 mesh kept them from flying around the garage.  At one point they were able to lift the mesh enough to allow a couple of bees room to almost crawl out.  Luckily I noticed it and was able to fix that right away.  

I thought about leaving them in the garage for a few days but the forecast improved the next day.  At noon on Monday i put them back on the stand outside.  It was warm and they were already active from being in the garage.  They were piled up at the entrance ready to fly.  I pulled the pins on the mesh but knocked the mesh off with a long stick.  They didn't buzz me but they poured out.

I realize that making a Nuc too early can lead to weather problems.  I've not made one before but will not forget this lesson.  In my defense Mary was brooding up fast with the added population from the Fall combination.  I was anxious about her swarming and so guessed at when to make the nuc.  Though it's still cold at night and the bees are probably clustering anyway.  I was afraid they might not be able to properly heat any queen cells they have in there for the day & a half.

The next Nuc will be from Myrina.  It will me made after I hive a package I'm suppose to get the weekend of April 2nd & 3rd.  I wonder if the current Nuc has an extra queen cell if I can put it in the next Nuc i make?  That would speed things up a bit.  Of course that's IF the current nuc HAS any queen cells...

...Too much shooting from the hip.  I have some reading to do.

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Nuc #1

Well, I did it and I hope I did it right. One down and, at least, one more to go.

My First Nuc

I made this Nuc as Swarm Prevention for Mary.  Her brood up has been strong this Spring (she currently has about ten full brood frames in her).  My understanding is that replacing a few brood frames with undrawn frames alleviates to urge to swarm. In that they then have new frames to draw out in the brood nest so still have room to grow.

Before I could take any frames Queen Mary had to be found.  I went through each frame looking for her and noting which frames had the freshest eggs.  The top box looked good with frames filled with eggs, larva, pupa, drones, pollen, & nectar.  The bottom Deep had a larger percentage of eggs and, no surprise, the Queen.  I left her on the frame she was on because I'm not comfortable with handling her if I can avoid it.  I also had the two adjacent frames filled with eggs to use.  I looked at the eggs to make sure they were still standing up and not laying down, a sign they are over three days old and too old to make a good queen.  Then i took a frame from the top box with all the pollen & nectar.  All three went into the Nuc along with a frame of honey and a frame of pollen which came from Duchess's old hive.  Additionally, all the bees left in the Quiet Box afterward got shaken into the new Nuc as well.  I figure maybe up to four frames worth of bees went into the Nuc.

After all that the Nuc went out to the new stand.  I added a half gallon of 1:1 syrup on a boardman feeder.  The syrup contained a drop of thyme oil, a drop of peppermint oil, & a tablespoon of Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar.  Then the entrance was reduced to only allow a single bee at a time.  The tie down strap went on and it was a done deal.

Now to wait & watch.  In ten days I'll go into the Nuc and hopefully see a bunch of Emergency Queen cells.  I've been told to secure the biggest one and destroy the rest.  This keeps the queens from fighting and getting injured if two emerge at the same time. I could maybe cut out a queen cell and use it elsewhere but i need to read up on that first.

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A Quick Look

A cool 48 degrees & sunny today. An OK fly day for the bees. I went down to the hives to check activity. I closed off the entrance. Then waited to see what the foragers were bringing in.

Mary's girls were bringing back some wax from that old frame I left out. No pollen. Plus I checked under her SBB and still see signs of CB. I will lay a stone pad beneath the hives this winter to reduce ambient moisture near the hives next year.

Mary's girls coming home almost empty handed

Myrina's bees, of course, were returning from somewhere with some bright orange pollen. I have no idea whats blooming but something is. Even our mums are gone. I'll guess at somebody's potted flowers and leave it at that.

I count 6 with pollen

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Also I took their Fall pictures:

Mary ↓

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And Myrina ↓

Both have double deeps, HTF, Inner cover, Vent box, T-cover, & a tin top sheet. Mary has her SBB while Myrina has a Solid BB. Myrina will get her SBB as soon as I make it. Winter will see even more reduction.

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The November meeting was last night. We hosted a panel of 3 experts to pose questions to. Two local guys and one man from N.C, a Bob Cole. Mr. Cole made the point that we should be raising our own Queens. That plus what else I've read convinces me to do just that. I'll need to read much on the topic this Winter to make a successful try at it.

That and 2 splits will make for a very interesting year in 2010.

aun Aprendo