Hive Inspection 9/7/11

HELÉNA
Mostly Cloudy
80°F

It's the first time I've been in Heléna since the Combinations.  Her population is Very High.  There are bees everywhere.  I can't even see the frames through the bees.  The population going into winter is supposed to be as high as one can get it but i wonder if there are too many.  A swarm this late would leave too few bees in the hive.  Plus the swarm itself would never make it.

Both Heléna & Melissa have high populations from the combining.  Neither colony had drawn out a second Deep box.  The supplemental bees from the nucs only added ten frames into each big hive.  Which just equals another Deep box.  The two big hives should then only be the size of regularly seasoned hives.  However these two colonies seem to have more bees than anticipated.

Bottom box loaded with bees

On Melissa I added a undrawn Honey Super to give the bees a little more room.  She has now drawn out two frames and filled them.  She continues to draw more frames too.  I've been feeding them so the stores on these frames are the Adulterated stuff.  Which works great for me.  I'll take off the super when they go into Winter Cluster and feed it back to them come Spring.  Once the bees have emptied the frame they'll have more drawn Honey frames for next Summer.  So I'll put a Super on Heléna too since it seems to work.

We are in a Nectar dearth but pollen is plenty available.  The bees are sucking down the Syrup.  They'll take a gallon in a day.  When i looked into Heléna i saw no empty cells.  Either nectar or brood filled them all with a frame or two of pollen.  It concerns me that they may become honey bound inciting a swarm.  At some point the the queen begins to lay fewer eggs.  Those cells are then back filled with honey.

I did see nectar in brood areas.  Though, i don't know if the bees are back filling or they had nowhere else to store the syrup.  I plan to feed next week then hold off 'till October when I give them a Fumagilin treatment.  I'll be looking for a reduction of the brood nest.

Back to the inspection.

Top Box DHB2: frames
1 - Solid honey
2 - Solid honey
3 - Beautiful, solid capped brood
4 - Beautiful, solid uncapped brood
5 - Honey, Nectar, fresh brood
6 - Brood, honey, some back fill
7 - Brood, Drone cells, nectar, honey, back fill
8 - Brood, Drone cells, nectar, honey, back fill
9 - Back filling with Nectar & pollen
10 - Solid honey

Bottom Box DHB1: frames
1 - Not fully drawn nectar
2 - Mostly drawn honey
3 - Fully drawn nectar & honey
4 - Nectar & honey, some back filling
5 - Solid capped brood & Queen
6 - Solid capped brood & some honey
7 - Brood, Drone Cells, honey
8 - Pollen & honey, little brood
9 - Pollen, brood, little honey
10 - Solid pollen

Which gives them eleven frames of brood.  The colony looks to be doing well and is very strong.  Pests are at a minimum.  I did find a single SHB on the outside of the hive afterward.  It was dispatched.

We never used to see these here

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Dividing Melissa's Medium frames

As planned, today the Medium frames in Melissa were removed.  First the four frames were removed from the hive (bottom box).  Then the extended comb attached to the bottom bar was cut off.  After which the comb was set in to a deep frame.  In the end the neighbor got her frames back with brood, stores, & bees.  Melissa got four frames reduced in size giving her bees more room to expand.  Which i hope will reduce the colony's need to swarm.

Beautifully extended comb on a Medium frame

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Back to a Medium Frame

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Extended comb placed into a Deep Frame

I used rubber bands to secure the comb.  They had to be tied off in the middle to keep the comb on top.  From what I have read the bees will eventually chew through the the rubber.  By then the comb should be attached to the top bar.

Don't let the pictures fool you.  The frames were swept of bees before the surgery took place.  So there were plenty of bees flying around.  Add to that the honey spilled cutting the comb and there were Tons of bees flying around!

Here's an exercise everybody should try to improve their bee handling skills.  Tie a square knot in a single rubber band with your gloves ON!

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Hive inspection 8/28/2011

MELISSA
Sunny
85°F

Going into Melissa to check on the handful of Swarm cups i saw the other day.  Swarm Cups are what I call the little queen cups formed on the bottom of the frames, or in Swarm Position.  She seems to have many bees now.  I would say her population is High.  I need to know if she is honey bound or just has no room left on the comb for the bees.

DHB2: frames
1 - Back filling with Nectar
2 - Back filling with Nectar
3 - Back filling with Nectar
4 - Solid eggs & larva
5 - Honey & Nectar
6 - Brood & some Drone cells, 4 swarm cups removed
7 - Brood & eggs, 3 swarm cups removed
8 - Solid eggs & larva
9 - Back filling with Nectar
10 - Back filling with Nectar, mostly full

DHB1: frames
1 - Back filling with Nectar, broken frame is fixed
2 - Medium Frame, mostly honey & back filling
3 - 1/2 Brood
4 - Medium Frame, brood & 2 swarm cups, drone cells
5 - Not fully drawn, 4 swarm cups, some pollen
6 - Brood, some pollen
7 - Medium Frame, brood & 2 swarm cups
8 - Pollen, little brood & honey
9 - Medium Frame, mostly pollen & honey
10 - Pollen, mostly honey

All the cups in the top box (DHB2) were removed.  That way i can tip up the box later this week to see if the bees made more swarm cups.  If they do it will be strong evidence of an intent to swarm.  Which may lead to a Fall Split; that I really don't want to do.  Fortunately the queen has yet to cease laying; a sign the colony is preparing to swarm.  This, then, may be a false alarm.

Fall Splits are common and used by many beeks.  I am unfamiliar with them, though, and don't want to learn about it offhandedly.  To that end i have talked to the neighbor and she will take the four Medium frames back and use them to bolster two of her colonies.  These were the original frames used to make the Spring Split that became Melissa.  They came from one of my neighbors colonies back in May.

The bees took a Medium frame and made it a Deep frame

The bees need more room.  Normally one can add an empty frame in the brood nest.  Then the bees perceive extra room.  That can quell the urge to swarm.  These Medium frames offer more than just empty frames.  I will cut the extended comb off the bottom of the frames. Then rubber band the comb to the empty frames.  This way the frames will already be accepted by the bees and provide additional space to build comb on to complete the frame.  We'll try to get it done this week. 

News just as big is the dramatic lessening of Drone Cells.  There were very few left in the hive.  I do not recall seeing any that were uncapped.  I didn't have my glasses on so couldn't tell if any adult drones were walking around.  It appears Mating season is coming to a close.  This is another reason I'm not fond of creating a Fall Split at this time.  The possibility of too few drones left to properly breed a new queen formed from a new split.  A Virgin queen, or badly mated one, will not be able to take a colony through Winter.  They'll all die off after a few freezes.  If i were to make Fall Splits I would have done it at the beginning of the month.

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Afterward the news paper in Nuc #5 was removed.  I didn't look through the colony but did see where the bees might be drawing out comb.

Additionally every Colony was feed one gallon of 1:1 syrup today.  Each gallon also had 1 tbsp of  Apple Cider Vinegar and a drop each of thyme & peppermint essential oils.

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Inspection 5/16/11

Mary & Nuc#3
72°F
Sunny moments in between rain showers

Since Myrina swarmed I've wanted to inspect Mary.  For a while there she was showing lots of Chalkbrood dropped out in front of the hive and the amount of field bees seemed diminished.

The honey super was a sad sight.  The bees are now drawing out the comb, but slowly.  However they are making many drone size cells so the comb will be great for honey production.  I moved the drawn or drawing frames to the side and placed the empties in the middle; trying to spur the drawing out of those frames too.  Beautiful new wax

The Top brood box looked like this (from left to right):

1. Plasticell - little honey - open cells - Brood
2. Plasticell - little honey - open cells - Brood
3. Plasticell - little honey - open cells - Brood - many swarm cups/ removed
4. Plasticell - little honey - open cells - Brood
5. Crimped wire - little honey - open cells - Brood
6. Plasticell - honey - open cells - Brood
7. Natural comb - no honey - open cells - All Drone frame/comb cut out - Queen
8. Plasticell - little honey - open cells - Brood
9. Plasticell - honey bound
10. Plasticell - honey bound - returned to position #1

Not much in the way of honey or pollen.  Plenty brood both young and old.  Very, very little chalkbrood.  Both Mary and her spun off nuc have the CB.  For some reason Mary always has it.  The solid drone frames have been popping up lately.  I cut off all the comb but left enough at the top for the bees to have a guide.  This, i hope, opens up the brood nest enough to dissuade them from swarming.  The copious amount of queen cups in the swarm position was unnerving.

Bottom brood box:

1. Plasticell - honey - pollen frame
2. Plasticell - little honey - pollen frame - Brood
3. Plasticell - very little honey - open cells - Brood
4. Crimped wire - very little honey - open cells - Brood
5. Plasticell - little honey - open cells - Brood
6. Crimped wire - honey - open cells
7. Plasticell - honey - open cells
8. Plasticell - honey bound
9. Plasticell - honey bound - returned to position #2
10. Plasticell - honey bound - returned to position #1

More honey and less brood in this box.  There is enough open cells & undrawn frames in this hive to keep them from swarming, i hope.  With some of the honey comb reaching the bottom of the frames I'll add an excluder soon.  If it looks like it's getting crowded I may replace a honey bound frame with a foundationless one.  The colony looks OK for now.  The plan is to requeen her anyway.

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Next was the split made from the neighbor's colony that i call Nuc#3.  These bees are the hardest working bees I know.  The first to flight each morning and the last to rest every night.  The Nuc, a 9 frame deep box, is full with brood and honey.  Sadly the parent frames are Mediums.  The bees have taken to drawing comb tangentially to the bottom of the 5 smaller frames.  I cut it all out then rearranged the frames so each small frame was bracketed by larger frames.  That should straighten out the bottom comb.

The bees have little room left though.  I need to add another deep as soon as I can.  This was suppose to be a Nuc but she's turned into a full colony.  I guess that happens when you start out with 5 frames of bees.

There's a hitch to it though.  I am going to requeen Mary with the queen from Nuc#3.  Then let Nuc#3 make herself another queen.  Mary will then become as productive as this awesome Nuc/Hive.  I plan on requeening this weekend.

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The Split Before the Swarm

One of the Neighbor's hives had a false start to swarm today.  I was home for lunch and went out on the back deck to look at my bees.  As soon as i walked outside i heard that Jet Engine sound of a swarm (a sound i became all to familiar with back in '08).  I followed the sound to my neighbors hives.  There the bees were flying in the typical manic sphere of Doom 20 feet across and pouring out of the one hive.  I watched and waited to see where they would eventually perch; while calling the neighbor at work.  They didn't go anywhere and all came back an landed on the outside of their hive.  Even after they came to rest on the hive they continued to stampede in then gush out of the entrances.  An hour later everyone had gone in for good.  The hive then resumed regular daily activities.

On their way back in

We split out the hive late this afternoon.  The brood nest was opened up with drawn and undrawn frames and an undrawn wax foundation honey super was added.  All the frames with swarm cells where pulled out (5).  We searched & searched for the queen but she was better at hiding then we were at seeking or she's not there.  All fingers are now crossed hoping it did the trick.

We are confident that the colony had not yet Swarmed.  The hive was packed!  Each frame had a pile of bees on it.  We couldn't see the comb without moving the bees away.  Even the newly place undrawn frames were quickly submerged in bees as we traded out frames.

Which left us with a Nucs worth of brood frames and bees.  Most or all of which have multiple swarm cells on them.  The neighbor didn't have any extra woodenware but I did.  She asked me if I wanted them to make a nuc.  I said sure!  So now I have another Nuc.

All the woodenware i have is from Duchess which was a double deep.  The frames I got from the neighbor are mediums.  So I put the medium frames in a single deep with 5 empty and drawn deep frames.  It may be a bit too much space so I need to get another nuc set up soon.

We plan to inspect these hives on Sunday looking for the parent queen.  Hopefully the she is still in the main hive and has started laying again.  We'll see.

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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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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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