Myrina's Nuc & New Queen

Today's weather was Sunny & warm which is what I've been waiting for to make the second Nuc.  Myrina's population is increasing rapidly and I've been worried about her swarming.  I did not plan for a full inspection.  Only to make the nuc and close everyone up afterward.

As I took it of i saw the bees had not begun to draw out the Honey Super.  Oh well!.  I started removing the frames from the top brood box.  Lots of bees, lots of capped brood cells, & lots of drone cells.  To look for eggs I had to push the bees around on the frames to see into the cells.  I was also looking for the Queen of course.  I meant to locate then isolate her before i took any frames for the nuc.

It didn't take long.  Queen Myrina was in the top box on frame #5.  Not the blue marked VSH daughter from 2010 but a new Unmarked queen!  Whoa!  I grabbed the marking tube from the tool box and chased her around the frame for a few seconds before i managed to catch her.  She was laid to the side for later.  Then I took the frame she was on and the 3 adjacent frames and put them in the Nuc; they had plenty of eggs.  I put an extra honey frame in the nuc and it was full.  A towel was placed over the nuc while I finished up with Myrina.

All 4 frames were replaced with drawn crimped-wire frames saved from Duchess.  The remaining brood frames were checker-boarded some what to move the end frames into the brood nest.  Then I marked queen Myrina with a white marker and let the paint dry for a minute.  After which she was released back onto a brood frame.

The New Queen Myrina

At this point I closed up Myrina and grabbed the nuc to take to its stand.  The Screened Bottom Board & Telescoping Cover were waiting there for the Nuc.  All of it was assembled and there sat Nuc#2.

A Nuc from both Hives

As I closed the cover on the new Nuc I noticed that the bees were Very quiet.  Hopefully by next weekend they will have a handful of Queen cells made.  Also the Slatted Rack was added at the start.  I hope it will allow the bees to keep the bottom of the frames warmer so they have more queen cell candidates.  I should have done that with the first nuc.  Nuc#2 has 4 full frames of bees in it.  Which is what I've been told is a good amount.

The New Queen Myrina.  The last time I saw the blue marked 2010 queen was in October.  Yet all spring there has been plenty of brood.  I feel like she may have been replaced after the boxes were reversed.  I couldnt have been last year since it would have been to late for drones to be around.  There was also no problem with egg laying early this year.  There was a slow down after the reversal.  I assumed it was related to the reversal but it may have been when the supersedure occurred; or she died and was replaced.  I havent seen any queen cells yet this year.  A full inspection is in order now.

The good news is that Myrina is requeened.  I'll not worry as much about her swarming now.  The new queen performance is Fantastic.  The brood frames were filled from edge to edge with brood.  The pattern was completely solid.  Possibly the best looking brood frames I've ever seen.  I hope the queen in Nuc#2 ends up the same.

On a final note the beekeeping neighbor and I both noticed TONS of drone cells in our hives this weekend.  Almost entire frames of them.  All our queens are local to this area.  I hope it is normal for here but I do not recall so many drone cells before.

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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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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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Myrina's Brood Boxes

Myrina's brood nest is at the top of the top box, a deep.  I expect her to brood up quickly; since that was the warning from the guy I bought the queen from.  I wanted to get it down into the bottom box like Mary so today I reversed her brood boxes.  Now she has an empty box, mostly, above her ready for the queen to start laying in without having to move downward.

Once the cover came off I could see 7 frames worth of bees in the top box.  It was too cool outside to pull the frames so I didn't look.  I think that at lest 5 of them might be brood frames.  The bottom box had only a handful of bees in it.  They weren't doing much.  I didn't feel like there was any brood down there.  With both boxes off i could see the SBB.  Lots of cappings and some dropped pollen but no problems. 

Myrina's Top Box

I wish I had the Slatted Rack ready to go but it hasn't been delivered yet.  Today would have been perfect for installing it.  It should arrive next week.  Then I need to make several more and paint them before they go on.  They will allow the queens to lay eggs lower on the bottom frames.  They also reduce some of the colony's pressure to swarm.  Right now I'm sure the bees will work upward into the top box.

The HTF still had a little syrup in it that was beginning to crystallize.  We're looking at steady temps in the 60°'s for the up coming weeks.  I don't think they need to syrup any more.  I'll take it off when it's empty or fully crystallized; maybe next weekend.

I stop using the double Vent Boxes on the HTF too.  I removed the one with 3 holes and left the one with 9 holes.  The heavy condensation went away with the double setup, but i want to see what the one with more holes does on it's own. 

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