Hive Inspection 10/15/2011

MARY & MYRINA
Sunny
67°F
Slight Breeze

Mid-October is the traditional time for final inspections before Winter.  Both colonies have received one gallon of 2:1 syrup medicated with Fumagilin.  The second gallon will be fed to them in the next day or two.

Starting with Mary.  Last inspection she had little brood and i never saw the queen.  After checking records I learned i have no record of seeing Mary at all this year. 

Top Box DHB2: frames
1 - Solid honey
2 - Solid honey
3 - Honey & brood (eggs)
4 - Honey & brood (eggs)
5 - Brood & honey (eggs) - QUEEN (unmarked!)
6 - Backfill & pollen
7 - Backfill & pollen
8 - Backfill & pollen
9 - Backfill & pollen
10 - Solid honey

Bottom Box DHB1: frames
1 - Honey & backfill
2 - Honey & backfill
3 - Honey, pollen, backfill
4 - Pollen, backfill, brood
5 - Pollen & backfill
6 - Backfill - most
7 - Pollen, backfill, honey - most
8 - Honey & backfill - most
9 - Honey - most
10 - Honey - most

Three weeks ago this colony had nine brood frames.  Now it has only four.  The brood frames it does have are beautiful with solid laying patterns.  Brood production always falls off at the end of the year.  Usually the Queen completely stops laying eggs around mid-December.  It may be that these bees have slowed down a little early but the last week has been cool and solid rain.  The nightly lows have also been in the high forties since the first of October.  Which might lessen the queen's urge to lay, maybe.  The population is good but not high.  I would have liked to see more bees in this colony.

Bees on every frame of the top box

 Long live the Queen.  We found her walking around frame #3 in the Top box; and she was unmarked to boot!  I thought this colony had requeened in Spring but i could not find anything in the records about it.  The last entry involving Queen Mary Actual was last year and stated she was marked blue.  So my record keeping needs some honing. This pretty Queen was treated to a quick marking with white paint and released.

2011's Queen Mary about to be marked

 The bees are nicely backfilling the brood nest.  One or two more feedings should top them off.  They are still up in the top box.  I hope they plan to move down to the bottom box soon.  Last year one of the colonies Wintered in the top box and did fine.

Backfilling the Brood nest

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Myrina was a surprise.  Her population is in the tank.  SHB all over the place.  Only as much stores as so few bees can muster.  She couldn't even finish off her Fumagilin syrup before it crystallized.  What a mess.

Top Box DHB2: frames
1 - Backfill & fresh brood (eggs)
2 - Backfill, pollen, honey, brood
3 - Honey & backfill
4 - Honey, backfill, pollen
5 - Backfill, honey, SHB (10)
6 - 1/2 Backfilled
7 - empty
8 - Mostly backfilled
9 - Empty & SHB
10 - Mostly backfilled

Bottom Box DHB1: frames
1 - Pollen & backfill
2 - Brood, backfill, pollen - QUEEN (marked white)
3 - Backfill & pollen (dropped & placed in 4th position)
4 - Backfill & pollen (placed in 3rd position)
5 - Some pollen
6 - empty
7 - empty
8 - empty
9 - empty
10 - empty

Whoa!  Not at all what one wants to see at this time of year.  This is the first time since i got Myrina in 2008 that she isn't the strongest colony.  In fact she's a wreck.  I had to add two more SHB traps for now.

Choices are few but at least we have some.  To address her small population she will be broken down to a single Deep box.  A better fit there will help her deal with the cold Winter temps.  It will also help her control the Small Hive Beetles.  If her population is big enough i can add a Medium Honey Supper filled with honey.  Then they would be in great shape going into Winter.  I hope to do all of this tomorrow.  Plus I'll add a regular Bottom Board to replace the Screened one she has now. 

I could also combine the extra swarm into her.  That would boost the population but not by the amount she needs to stay in the Double Deep.  I'll have to think that over some more first.

For what it's Worth, there were no drone cells on any of the frames i saw today.  That's the first time that's happened going into this Winter.

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Summer Update #2 - A Bee Log

In late July a logger buddy of mine told me they had found a bee tree.  Unfortunately they didn't know what it was until it had been cut down and dragged to the deck.  He said they moved it off to one side.  I was able to check on it and saw lots bees still working.  It looked like the colony wasn't too badly damaged.  It was a week before i had the time to get the bees.  During that week a skidder operator dragged it across the clearcut before being told to take it back to where he had found it.  A lesson in MARKING a bee tree so people leave it alone!

These poor bees had been cut down then dragged twice across the mountain.  If you've ever been dragged by a skidder up & down a mountain twice you'd know how bad that is for the integrity of wax comb not to mention the loss of field bees.  When i finally went to get them, July 29th,  their activity was greatly reduced.  There were tons of hornets working the hive too.  Still we cut the nest out and took it home.  Best to try.

They looked good for the beating they had taken

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Cutting out the nest from an old Virginia pine tree.  The nest was around 20ft up when the tree was standing

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Had to guess where to make the bottom cut.  The nest went a lot lower than i thought it did.  Shaved a foot off the bottom.  The comb in this area was soaked with honey and blocked with nest debris.  The bees weren't getting down here at all.

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Some of the mashed comb i inadvertently cut from the bottom of the nest.

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You can see how big the entrance hole is.  Not sure how to plug it for the drive home so we wrapped it in a bed sheet instead.

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First we VERY slowly rolled it and the sheet into one.  Then we tied rope around the folded ends and middle to hold the sheet in place.

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The log weighed over a 150 lbs. so it took a little to 'ease' it into the truck.

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Long & slow 23 mile ride back home and we set it up in the yard that night

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The next day with an obstacle at the entrance to induce reorientation.

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Had to cover the big original entrance due to constant robing by other bees & hornets.  A bunch of flashing and roofing tar with a wood entrance in the middle.  Can you see the half gallon mason jar stuck in the top of the log.  The jar fit perfectly into the tree cavity when feeding.

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It took the bees a while to find the new front door but they did.  Sadly the robing continued as these bees weren't defending the entrance.  The only times these bees would fly was during feeding.  They took a half gallon each day.

Today there is almost no activity.  The bees act as if they have no queen.  Which is a Very good possibility considering what they went through.  I can still see some bees in the log when i look but they're not doing anything.  There is comb in the nest but i don't see the bees working it. I also feel that when i feed them most the bees i see are robbers.  I think this colony is done for.  If I had some extra brood come i could cut a strip to put in the log to spur thing on.  But there's a better chance it would be robed out too.  Plus adding bees, brood, a queen, & comb into a depleted log nest this close to winter doesn't make sense to me.  It would be like throwing away the resources. 

I'll leave them in the yard until spring to see what happens.  Then probably move the log to the back woods.  hopefully it might draw in a swarm next year.

The only consolation is that I've since found two more bee trees in the wild.  They're both standing and not near any logging operations.  The bees look to be happy, in good number, and are very busy.  Nothing i would want to get bees from directly but an area to set swarm traps in the future for some good old Survivor bees.

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Requeening Begins

The time has come to requeen both Mary & Myrina.  Mary has been weak since last Summer.  I didn't requeen her then because I didn't know about that kind of stuff.  By the time I figured it out it was November and to late in the year.  Myrina was strong, productive, but old.  This is a good time to do her as well.  However, last inspection I could not find queen Myrina & the bees weren't acting queen-right.  Both Mary, since last year, & Myrina, from the last inspection, have had spotty brood & chalkbrood. 

I had meant to requeen in April but the local queen supplier didn't have any ready just then.  After which a bear shredded his apiary.  I've been waiting on his next batch to requeen.  When Myrina went south I decided to do it now.  Unfortunately I could not locate any queens.  So I had to wait some more.  Then last week the email went out that another beek had available queens.  I made the call & will pick up 2 VSH Italian queens Tuesday morning.

Which means i need to pinch any queens in the targeted hives.  Both have marked queens and Myrina should be queenless.  Or so I thought.  First into Myrina.  I wanted to make sure she was without a queen.  Suiting up in 98 degrees and inspecting 20 deep frames is no picnic but it must be done.

I had a Medium honey super on Myrina but they hadn't touched it.  So off it came.  Her population was down too and I noticed the Chalkbrood had vanished.  The amount of frames with brood had increase as well.  And many 'Eggs'.  Uh oh. Continuing the search found the capped brood to still be spotty but lots of eggs & larva.  The residing queen was eventually found on the second to last frame in the bottom box.  UNMARKED!

So apparently they had replaced or superseded the last marked queen.  Enough time has gone by.  I never did find any queen cells though.  I did watch the new queen for a bit.  she was scrambling around the frame randomly dropping eggs out her hind end.  Not putting them into cells at all.  Are they supposed to do that?  Well enough for me.  Myrina has always been very defensive.  Even if she's been trouble free I'm tired of putting on armor every time I want to look at her.  This daughter of her's would likely bee a good queen but still as mean as her mother.  So I removed her from the hive.

Mary was much easier on me.  She was on frame #2 in the top box.  She was easy to spot with that big blue paint dot on her back.  She was pulled from her hive as well.  Though I saw no signs of chalkbrood in Mary either.  Which is strange since she's always shown some sign of it over the last 2 years. 

So 2 queens out of their hives and into the freezer.  The freezer because I had no heart to mash them.  The bees will realize they're queenless tomorrow.  Tuesday I will place a new queen in each hive.  If all goes well the break in brood will only be a week.  Which Myrina has already done when she made the last queen.  Each will be back up to par before August, so should be set for Winter as far as population goes.  I'll update as the requeening progresses.

Also, Myrina's Bottom Board was replaced with a Screened Bottom Board.  That should help with keeping the hive cool.  The temps this year have been way up in the 90's each day.  3 old crimped wire frames in box 1 & 3 plasticell frames from box 2 were replaced with undrawn crimped wire frames.  The old frame because the bees had stopped using them; they were completely empty.  The Plasticell frames because the bees were also ignoring them; never drawn out.  The crimped wire wax foundations should entice the bees back to using the frames.

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Inspection 5/20/10

Mary
68 f
Cloudy

Mary has been busy lately.  She spent a almost 2 weeks at my place of work before being moved to a new Stand in the back yard.  While 'at work' she was in full sunlight.  Something we don't have here in the yard.  She used it wisely too.  Her activity level increased remarkably so her population looks good now.  The spot at work is a good one.  I'd like to use it all the time.  Right now it serves as only a temporary spot for moving hives & swarm catches.

The bees are working all 10 frames of the single Deep box.  The population has filled the box.  The number one reason I went in was to check for Swarm cells.  None were found but there were some queen cups in the 'swarm position' on frame 6 & 2 cups in the 'Supersedure position' on frames 1 & 2.  Right now 6 frames are filled with eggs, larva, & pupae.  There was a handful of drone cells.  Mostly on the bottom of frame #6.  There were a few isolated drone cells mid-frame in a few spots too.  They have even filled the end frames with fresh honey.  For a week colony they are looking about as good as they can.

Chalkbrood is still an issue.  A little on every brood frame.  Frame 2 is half gone with it.  Hence the dire need to requeen her.  I'll be seeing a beek this weekend who has queens.  I hope they're ready.  Although I couldn't find the queen today at all.  My beek neighbor helped me look but neither of us could find her.  I was ready to mark her but no luck just yet.

The bees are making lots of bridge comb.  The frames aren't too bad but I'd like to see less of it.  I scraped the propolis off each frame a while back to maintain the right bee space.  Yet every frame had a spot or two of it.

After all that it was time to add the second deep box.  This is almost the same box & frames she had on her last year.  I took them off when her population crashed last Winter.  After it came off the frames went into the freezer and the box was retired.  The box was original equipment from when I bought the hives.  I wanted to put it back on last week but after I thawed the frames the Wax moths found them.  I had to refreeze the frames for a few days to fix that problem.  One frame has a new wood part after I dropped & broke the old one.  I just transferred the old comb (plasticell) right into the new frame. A few others were cleaned up a bit with a sander.  The box is new.

The frames in the second Deep Box

Before I put the frames in the box each one got sprayed with sugar syrup.  As soon as the box went on the bees started to move up into it.  I didn't pull any of these out to look.  I'll check them in a week or so.

I put the hive top feeder on with a gallon of 1:1 syrup in it.  I hope that will help the bees produce extra wax.  That way they can quickly repair the wax moth damages cells in the second box.

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New Brood Boxes

Yesterdays inspection showed that the New Colony (Duchess) needs an additional brood box.  Today I assembled the crimped-wire wax foundation frames and sprayed them with sugar syrup.  I finished painting 2 Deep Hive Bodies a day ago.  One is for the new hive and the other is for Mary.  I filled one with the frames and put in on the New Colony.  I used the smoker but didn't need it.  The bees were very calm.  The Hive top feeder was full, so that slowed things up a bit.  The 2010 package is now a Double-deep hive.  Moving right along.

I wanted to add-on to Mary today as well but couldn't.  I took her stored frames out of the freezer a few weeks ago to thaw.  Today when i opened the trash bag they were in I saw wax moths.  Dang it!  So i put them back in the freezer for a few days to kill them off.  I thought the trash bag would protect them but was wrong.  Oh well, lesson learned.

Mary's new DHB replaces an old DHB only; no new frames.  It will be filled with the established frames from the old DHB.  It was removed when Mary's population crashed last Winter.  She was reduced to a single DHB at the time.  The established frames are almost full, with honey & pollen.  Though there are some bare areas where I scraped the wax moth damage off.

I'll inspect Mary in a day or so when i can put the new box and frames on.  I expect to find the she has filled her current brood box.  If so it won't take long for her to fill the holes in the second brood box.  That being the case I could feasibly start adding honey supers to her if her population grows fast enough.  Her re-queening is still on schedule as soon as the breeder has them available. 

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Inspection 4/29/10

Mary
75 f
Sunny

At least she's consistent in her problems...

I took off the T-cover to look at the Hive Top Feeder.  It was about a quarter full of crystallized sugar.  All of that was dumped on the ground away from the hive.  The ants & dogs will appreciate that.  Though there were still some bees in the HTF working the candy.  It will be put away for now.  The nights are now in the 50's & 60's so the bees won't be clustering anymore.

Beneath the HTF was the brood nest in the deep hive box.  The population looked great.  Few of the bees stolen from Myrina are left.  They still make their presence known during inspections by becoming hyper-defensive.  The rest of the girls are Mary's.  They have 4 full frames of capped brood right now.  Unfortunately the brood pattern is spotty.  Which is a sign the Queen is weak.  I have already talked to a local queen breeder about buying one as soon as he has some.  Mary was weak all last year.  I didn't understand that until late Fall when it's too late to requeen.  Now is the time for that.

Another sign of a weak queen is chalk brood.  Which i found several cells worth in the middle of the nest.  I knew it would happen.  That's why I talked to that queen breeder 2 months ago.  But I must say for a fading Queen Mary is doing better than expected.  If she can keep it going for a little while longer she'll have done her part.  After which with the new Queen the spotty brood & chalk brood will go away.

Speaking of which Queen Mary was found on frame 5 milling about.  I meant to mark her today but forgot to borrow the marking pen from my neighbor; now a new beekeeper herself.  I mark her next time.

I have been wondering how the bees will handle making drone cells on Plasticell.  It's cell size is smaller than drone cell but not by much.  Mary's girls made some drone cells on the bottom of 1 frame; not unusual.  However, they half attached it to the imprinted Plasticell foundation & half on the wood frame.  That way they could make it that little bit bigger that they needed.  I've not yet found any drone cells in the middle of the frame.  I'm thinking they won't but am waiting to find out. 

Also on the bottom of the frames I found a few Queen cups.  These differ from the queen cups in the New Hive due to their location on the frame.  Queen cups on the bottom of the frame would become Swarm cells.  When a Swarm cell hatches the OLD queen takes half the colony and leaves the hive for good.  They then setup shop elsewhere as a new colony.  The New queen from the swarm cell stays in the original hive to carry on the where the Old queen left off.  Not enough space in the hive is one reason for a colony to swarm.  This may be a indicator that this hive needs another deep hive box put on the hive.  With extra room for brood the colony will be less likely to swarm.  So I'll put another brood box on this hive this week, as soon as it's painted.

Finishing the inspection had a slight bump.  Without the HTF i need to put the Inner Cover on.  I don't have one I'd use.  Mary's old one from fall was puled off when I moved her back outside.  It was plastered with crystallized sugar & Nosema droppings.  The leaking syrup also warped the cover.  I'd rather burn it than use it.  For now I'll leave the HTF on but with water in it.  What rock sugar i couldn't knock out will sweeten the water.  I'll make another IC this week and put it on next weekend.

To review:
Spotty brood & chalk brood.
She needs a DHB and a IC.
Oh...and a new Queen!

Inspection 4/1/10

Mary
81 f
Sunny

Long Live the Queen...She pulled it off! Mary lives for another season!

I opened up Mary today to see how she's doing. They have taken about half of the medicated syrup. It has begun to crystallize on the surface. Pulling off the HTF showed the still messy frames from where the Nosema caused problems. The bees where testy and did not like the intrusion. Many are from Myrina who is normally defensive. It is really a sign of how stressed they are having such a weak Queen. I used my smoker a lot.

I went through all the frames in the single deep hive. 1 through 3 were mostly honey, some old pollen, & emptied cells. Frame 4 was the same on the outside. The inside was half capped brood & fresh maple pollen. There was also a good showing of eggs and larva. Frame 5 was also half capped brood & fresh pollen but on both sides. I found Mary herself slowly walking around on the outside of 5. She was looking for a cell to lay in. I watched for a moment hoping to see her lay an egg. But then gave up thinking I may be hindering her. Frames 6 through 10 were again mostly honey, some old pollen, & emptied cells.

So, the brood nest is small. Oddly the pollen was being stored beneath the brood on the frames. I believe that is a result of the colder 30's & 40's night time temps. Again she is only in a single deep right now. However the temperatures here have finally broke. Night time temps are now in the 50's and up. The bees are now free to go anywhere they want in the hive. The brood pattern was beautiful; almost complete with very few holes.

I removed the SBB so to clean the dried sugar off it. It was replace with an unused BB that was meant for the new hive for the up-coming package. Inspection of the wood beneath the SBB showed the Nosema has gone away. It has been in place for 10 days. I saw no stain from the Nosema. The Fumagilin did it's job. I'll leave the HTF on for another week or two. Myrina's bees (they get all the credit) have done a great job cleaning up the cells. Rotten pollen, Chalkbrood mummies, & wax moth debris had been pulled from the frames. Now I hope they can start making some new wax.

The hive body itself was in terrible shape. It was very dirty from the Nosema & the dry sugar. I will consider whether to replace the wooden ware or not. Two frames did need replacing now. The top bar had split from the side rails. Frame 3 & 5. 5 has brood so it will stay in the hive for now. Frame 3 came out. Replaced by another honey filled deep frame. It was salvaged from Mary's second deep body removed in November due to Wax Moth. All of the frames in this deep came assembled from Dadant. They apparently didn't use glue. I was surprised to see the side staple pull out. Something else I'll need to fix.

About the brood. I did not see any Drone cells. I did see them when Myrina had only a little brood. All the frames are Plasticell. I don't know how much of an effect that will have. The cell size is standard not small cell. Curious to be sure. Mary, though, may not yet be in the mood to make drones yet. I'll check again next weekend.

She's still in the temporary location. I'm second guessing where to place ALL my hives. Wherever they end up will be decided soon. Before the package arrives.

I'm sorry for not taking any pictures this time. I was in a hurry.

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.

Inspection 3/1/10

Myrina
48 f
Sunny

To aid Mary I need to rob brood or bees from Myrina. I should have done it a week ago. The temperatures have been to low to crack into Myrina to do it. Today though was close enough.

As I opened her up the bees were calm but it didn't take long for the girls to come out in force against me. It's a pain but I love this colony. They clung to my sleeves and veil in clumps. Later I checked the shirt for stingers and found none. As usual their primary target was the smoker. I think I need to relocate this hive to a sunnier spot were they might act less defensively.

Intimidating but I am getting use to Myrina and her antics. So off comes the T-cover & the Vent box. I saw that many of her girls were hanging out on the dry sugar. Many more were on the bottom of the IC. The majority of bees were milling about on 5 to 6 frames of the top Deep. They were not clustered but the bees covered the frames top to bottom.

Unlike the previous inspection there were a few dead bees to be found. The hive & frames still looked clean though. Stores were good in the top box with only 3 empty frames. The bottom box has been depleted of it's reserves. I was able to look through each frame of both boxes. Population is good for this time of year but moderate overall.

Two high points. There is capped brood on frames 2, 3, & 4. A small patch on each. I did not see any uncapped brood but the bees were very thick on the frames. Also I finally found Queen Myrina herself.

Queen Myrina

She was running around frame 3. I did not see her lay but it seemed like she was looking for something. This is the first time I've seen Myrina, or any queen from this colony. I love finding the queens. Always a thrill.

Queen on Plasticell Frame

I enjoyed a moment of watching her walk around then carefully put the frame aside to continue the inspection.

After finding the queen I felt better about which frames of bees to take out and give to Mary. Frames 5 & 6 picked the short straws. Each was 3/4's to 1/2 full of bees with enough capped honey. I slid them out and into a nuc. I replaced the frames with empty drawn out frames. These frames had clean fresh wax in them from last year. They were honey frames I culled to lure a swarm that never showed up. So I left them out in the yard last fall for the bees to pick through. They've not been used for brood yet. I read that a queen prefers fresh comb for laying eggs. I hope Myrina likes these.

Everything looked good down to the bottom board. All that was on it were cappings and dead bees. I gave it a good scraping and put everything back together.

After all this I threw on 2 pollen patties (Mega Bee) and added an entrance feeder to the hive. It's filled with a light 1:2 syrup now. Not medicated since I've not seen any problems. She got a good stirring today but it looks good for now.

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Adding the 2 bee filled frames to Mary was easy. Pull out 3 frames, add the 2 frames donated by Myrina, then put back 1 of Mary's frames. No one gets mashed or ruffled. Drop & close. I honestly do not believe that Mary is going to live but it's worth it to try. She also got 2 pollen patties and she's had syrup since I moved her inside the garage. Although I did locate a feeder to the top of the hive. They've not yet found the lower entrance feeder. I hope they find one of them soon. I trust Myrina's bees will find what they need to survive.

Time will tell.

Mary in the Intensive Care Unit

Mary is failing. Her population is to low to survive another month. She has plenty of stored honey & pollen but the cold is killing her. From occupying a double deep she's down to a corner on 3 frames. There is only a couple hundred bees left. Why she's crashing is anybodies guess. Bad genetics, poor hygiene, Nosema, Tracheal mites, who knows. I'm not giving up on her just yet though. So it's time for extraordinary measures. On Tuesday i brought Mary's entire hive into the garage. She will stay inside this improvised Intensive Care Unit until the colony improves or it dies out.

Containment,
First, being inside the house she will need a new entrance to the outside like a Observation Hive has. I fit a stretch-tube to a plank of MDF on top of the hive then ran it to another plank set in the window. Now the bees can go outside when they need to. It's longer than I need but the extra length allowed for a heat trap. Just a bend in the tube to keep the cold air out & the warm air in. It's 20 F outside at night. I'd like for that cold air not to flow over them from the new window entrance.

Not a Dryer
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New Window Entrance

Also I closed off the hive's usual front entrance with #8 hardware cloth. They need to be outside, not in the garage. I may need to close it off with a solid block. The bees have ganged up on it once or twice. Trying to get out and fly I think. Right now it serves as a useful window into their activities. They may forget about it after they discover the new entrance up top.

Have a peek

What I'm doing Now...

Heat,
Now that the hive is in a controlled environment I hope to help the colony back from the brink. As I see it the main issue is heat. To that I turned on the space heater in the garage and placed it near the hive. If the area can stay at about 50 F the bees should not cluster. Out of cluster they can roam freely to get what food they need. Their energy can also be put towards working the queen. Getting her to lay eggs is the one thing that will save this colony. If not they're dead. 50°F is also cool enough to keep them from getting too antsy to fly since it's still 30 F outside. I hope.


Syrup,
In the garage moisture won't be a problem so I'm feeding them with 1:1 syrup. The light syrup promotes brood rearing so they're going to get a lot of it. I'm using the Boardman feeder in the old (original) entrance. I wanted to use the hive-top feeder but that would interfere with their New entrance. I'm not sure if they've found it yet. With so few bees it would take a while for the syrup level to drop enough to notice. There were signs of possible Nosema during the last inspection. If I see more of it I'll medicate the syrup.

Food,
The bees have not wanted for honey or pollen. When they weren't to cold to get any that is. Empty frames have been rotated out for filled frames all Winter. Yet at this point everything must be tried. Though the frames are filled I will start adding pollen patties immediately. Pollen starts the queen to laying so the more the merrier.


Light,
The amount of Sunlight available to plants & animals is dependent on what time of year it is. The bees thinking it's Spring instead of Winter might be further spurred towards brooding up. Plus bees love the sun so I've put 3 shop lights on the hive for 15 hours a day to mimic later in the year.

Population,
When it gets warm enough to go into Myrina, still outside & doing fine thank you kindly, I'll rob some of her brood or bees and place them in Mary. The beeks I've talked to said 2 frames of bees or brood, with nurse bees, should do the job. The boost in numbers will significantly help this colony survive.

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The point of it all...

If this colony dies out I'll have a nicely primed hive ready to accept a package of bees this Spring. They'll be way ahead of the curve if they start with a hive filled with honey & pollen. Honey in spades for sure. So why all this trouble then. For starters a package costs money; minor but important. The big reason is that I can take a swarm cell out of Myrina and put in in Mary. If Mary is still here that is. Then all the problems of Mary can go away as the new queen produces more bees. Replaced with Myrina's superior genetic traits that have kept her healthy & strong for 2 years now. Also gone will be drones carrying Old Mary's genetics to other colonies polluting them with lousy hygienic tendencies. I know first hand that Myrina is a master at dealing with all local climate & pest issues. I'd have to guess, fuss, & worry about a package from somewhere else.

They say breed your own local queens. That's what I aim to do.

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Oh, did I mention I saw a bee come out, fly around, and go back in the window entrance today. Hope she tells the others.

Inspection 2/21/10

Mary & Myrina
54 f
Sunny

Really...it's 54 degrees. Really!

Mary-
She is in her last days unless I do something drastic. Even then she might not make it. Her end is at hand. Poor Mary, she never could figure things out.

Before i opened the top there were only a few girls flying around the hive. The first fly day since mid-January. One would expect there to be tons of bees taking cleansing flights. When the cover came off I saw hundreds of dead bees covering the sugar on the inner cover.

95% of these bees are dead

This sugar was put on the inner cover Jan 18th. It had hardened over from the moisture in the hive. The brown stain is bee waste. It could be Nosema but I'm not sure. When I cleaned out the entrance lots of dead bees fell out. Maybe it was clogged, so the girls had nowhere to go. I regularly clean the dead bees out the entrance. They are apparently dying faster than I am cleaning.

Nosema or clogged entrance?

This is the Vent box. Very messy. The Inner cover was stained just as bad. If you click on the image a larger image will open. There you can see where the girls chewed the styrofoam around the vent holes to make them bigger.

Now I got a good look at Mary's cluster. What a sad sight indeed. A couple of hundred bees is all that remains of Mary. Her cluster could fit in a two cup measuring cup. She can't possibly generate enough heat to survive these cold Winter months now. Egg laying should be starting soon if not already. Without sufficient heat to rear brood, let alone lay eggs, Queen Mary won't have a chance to replace the dead bees with new bees. She is over the edge. Past the point of no return.

The Last Stand

I pulled out all the frames to see what's going on. Four frames were light on stores so I replaced them with honey & pollen frames I had in waiting (The cleaned Wax moth frames from this post). The remaining frames had plenty of honey in them. Plenty of dead bees too. Two types of dead bee. The 'Starvation bee' & the 'Cold bee'.

Symmetry in death

The 'starvation' bees are tails out of the cells. They were inside the cluster when they died. The 'cold' bees died on the outside of the cluster where the temps were coldest. They were likely too cold to re-enter the cluster to feed. You can see the outline of the cluster at the time these 'cold' bees died. Oh, might I add a giant 'I Think" to the above hypothesis.

Also I found where Mary's girls were storing the sugar in one of the frames.

Sugar in cells

Notice how they put it in the brood area of the frame. Apparently beneath where they were clustering. Must have been done on a few warmer, but not fly, days. I replaced the hard messy sugar on top of the inner cover with fresh sugar. I hope it helps.

I've posted a question about their plight on the BeeMaster web forum. Lots of ideas there. I'll post what I do with sad, sad Mary.

Queen Mary nearing her end

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Myrina
What's to say about an aggressive clean freak who's population is sky-high. Other than she's doing fine if not great. Popped her cover to find thousands of bees moving freely around the inner cover where i put the sugar last month. I swear one of them yelled at me with a Brooklyn accent "Hey yous,..Shut dat door...We's workin' here". These bees came out of that hive like it was on fire. All of them head-butting me to move me off. I can't imagine how bad honey collection is going to bee in July when it's hot.

Myrina

The best part of this was that I could not find ANY dead bees. All her dead have been removed with the efficiency of a well oiled machine. Note that you do not see any bee waste anywhere. These are some very hygenic bees.

Next I took off the inner cover to look at her population. After all those bees came out to greet me I didn't think I needed to but should just to make sure.

Myrina's Legions

I don't think Myrina knows it's Winter. Just thousands of bees busy with hive chores milling about. Remember she's a double deep so there is much more than you see here. Again, not one single dead bee was to be found. I began to pull a frame to check for brood when another cloud of bees came at me. I realized I did not have the smoker with me. I didn't bring it thinking it was to cold to need it. Again Myrina always likes to prove me wrong. I called it a day and closed her up. I'll check her brood on the next warm day instead. She's healthy & strong. No need to pester her just yet.

Inspection 1/15/10

Mary
57 F
Sunny

The second fly-day in a row a good time to check the bees. This is my second Winter with bees so one might think it would be easier on me but it's not. I think last Winter I was too inexperienced to know what was happening. Fortunately it was a mild Winter. Yet, this year Winter has been very harsh and I now know just enough to be worried all the time, Ha ha. The girls just spent a month in cluster with daytime temps in the 20's. However, next week's forecast calls for lows in the 30 & highs in the 50's. A warm spell sure would be welcome.

First a quick note about Mary- Weak, under productive, & limping along. SBB (closed), Single Deep, IC, Vent box, & T-cover.

Now back to the inspection. Approach at mid-day, bees flying around the hive. Veil and gloves but no smoker today. Much more evidence of cleansing flights today than yesterday. Good thing I'm wearing the veil. A cloud of bees takes to the air as I remove the T-Cover. A couple hundred bees had congregated inside the vent box above the IC. Yet i still see several bees holding on to one another as if they're still in cluster in the IC opening. Once that comes off i see where the majority of bees are on the top of the frames in the middle of the Deep. Not a great amount of bees, population somewhat low in numbers but I still think they'll make it

For orientation I stand behind my hives and number left to right; more or less. Frames 1 & 2 are still filled with capped honey as are frames 9 & 10. Frames 3 & 8 have capped honey corners and partial pollen filled centers. Frames 4 & 7 are 2/3's empty. Frames 5 & 6 are too busy with bees to check. I replace the frames in this order: 3, 4, 2, 1, 5, 6, 10, 9, 7, & 8. Bees on moved frames were brushed onto 5 & 6 to keep them together. Then it all got put back together. I'll replace the empties with full ones soon. I figure the bees will bee balled up in the middle for now anyway.

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Issues.
*Moisture & Condensation. -Again with the puddle of water in the hive. They did this last year too. So over Summer I replaced the solid board with a SBB. I added a Vent cover above the IC with 1.5" holes in it. And all the wooden ware is new. Not much water probably several table spoons worth resting on the luan beneath the SBB (and dripping out the back!) . The T-cover was dry. The IC was dry. As far as I can tell the bees were dry. So why is there water puddling in rows beneath the frames? 8 out of 9 vent holes were closed off so I opened one more, left side, to increase ventilation.

Water leaking out the through the closed SBB ^

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Two puddles on the left side beneath the SBB ^

*Heating. Passively that is. -The vent box is 2.5" tall. Heat escapes upwards of course so this box draws heat away from the cluster. To fix this I bought some foam insulation to fill the box. I'll leave enough room, or channels, for the humidity to escape through the vents though.

Vent box currently ^

*Dead bees. -2 kinds of dead bees. The ones that are still standing where they were in the cluster when they croaked. And, of course, the bees that starved head first in a cell. Very few dead in the cells. More dead from the cluster locations.

All dead ^

Starvation ^

Then there's this bee. I believe she wandered away from the ball during a warm spell. Found a whole frame of honey to eat. Then didn't make it back to the cluster before the temperature dropped at night. Poor girl.

(click to enlarge) ^

I did not get into Myrina as I ran out of time. I'll try to inspect her within the week. Although Myrina almost never has any problems.

aun Aprendo

Wax Moth & Mary

At 60+ degrees today I went into both hives to remove the HTF's. Lots of crystallized syrup. I broke it up on to a cookie sheet & left it for the bees. However, in Mary I found 4 frames infected with Wax moth. 2 frames in the top box & the 2 adjacent frames in the bottom box. The frames had pollen & some uncapped honey. The frames had to go into the freezer; which would leave a substantial hole in the hive. So I broke Mary down to a 1 brood box hive. All I had left to do was pick the 6 additional frames to remove. I left Mary with 5 honey frames, 2 pollen frames, & 3 brood frames. She has a smaller population so the 1 deep should be better. It may be that she had too small a population for the 2 deeps leading to the wax moth problem anyway. When I checked her 4 weeks ago I saw NO Wax moth. I thought After a few freezes I wouldn't need to worry about Wax moth any more. Oh well...

Wax Moth web & frass ^
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Wax Moth mining pollen ^
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Wax Moth webbing ^
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Mary with 1 deep & the crystallized syrup ^

Myrina looked fine with a good population and plenty of reserves. I also closed off 6 of the 9 holes in each of the vent covers on both hives. 3 holes should be enough to vent the humid bee breath. I'll monitor for condensation throughout winter.

The Meeting

After 3 months I made it to a meeting. It happened to be the Honey tasting meeting. Oh darn! I met with some life long keepers. I asked some questions & got some good answers.

• Two brood boxes is a little much down here.
• Mary is Queen-less or weak Queened.
• I will combine Mary & Myrina for the Winter.
• I will separate each brood box into it's own hive next year.

Much work ahead of me. I will do an inspection this weekend plus the combination. Wish me luck.

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UPDATE, 11/23/09

I did not do the combination. The populations in each hive were better than advertised. Reserves were also adequate. I will begin feeding them pollen in January the increase brood up. After which I will split them in Spring.

Medication

I pulled off the last honey super on Mary. Not enough to bother with. Brood cells are being filled with honey in the brood boxes. Very little brood. Still signs of chalk-brood. I don't know where she went but I don't think there's a Queen. There are still the incomplete queen cells from last week in the brood boxes. I don't know what to think. I put the honey super frames in the freezer for now. All my honey supers are in storage.

I talked to someone who thinks my major problem is mold. Remember it has been endlessly rainy here. NO one is harvesting much honey at all. Last year we had a terrible drought. We also had lots of honey.

I'm mixing up all the Fumagilin-B I need to medicate both hives. At the two gallons per two box hive autumn rate I'll need four gallons. I am using a 1:2 solution. It's really still summer and I want to promote brood laying. I still plan to use the fumagilin again late this fall before they ball up.

I will put the Apistan strips in next weekend or so. I did not see any today but I know they're on the rise in Mary. I want to put them in as late as I can for winter but I may need to get them in there sooner. We'll see.

I suppose I should be happy that I haven't lost all my bees but it's been a terrible year.

Inspection 8/9/9

Mary & Myrina
95 F
Sunny

Mary
Many bad things here. Varroa mites, watered bee bread, chalk-brood, many dead bees in the hive, little to no new brood, spotty pattern, two possible supercedure cells. Am I losing her? Did I accidentally mash the queen during the last inspection? I think it's time to be in panic mode.

(click me)
Red circle = Withered wings

Green circles = Chalk/Foul brood
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(click me)
Green circles = Varroa mite
Blue circle = Dead bee

She is now down to two brood boxes, an excluder, & a honey super (1/3 full)

Myrina
It seamed like I've seen more bees working at the entrance. Yet there is very little new brood in the hive. I will keep an eye on her to see if she develops similar symptoms to Mary.

She has drawn no honey comb this year. I took off the honey supers. She's only two brood boxes now.

Inspection 7/25/9

Mary & Myrina
89 F
Sunny

Mary - The honey frames that where filled with nectar are now partially filled with brood. Not much but some. Enough to tell me the young queen is very healthy. Perfect brood pattern. Also much of the honey is now capped. So I put that honey super back on top and reinstalled the queen excluder. I then put the undrawn honey super from the top down between the brood boxes. Hoping for similar results. This Plasticell really doesn't do the job.

NO boiling over of Mary during smoking. However she seemed more aggressive than usual. This is honey season so I think it will pass.

Myrina - Still has not drawn any frames. She is still badly understaffed from the late swarm. There is uncapped brood in a weak pattern in the boxes. I'm sure there are also eggs in the boxes but without glasses I can't say positively. Will leave everything alone for now. All I'll do with her is monitor her activity. I did pull out some more bur comb though. Also I put in a longer sceened reducer at the entrance.

I used the syrup water on Myrina again, along with the smoke. Heavy, heavy, heavy spray. I'm very impressed with how well it works on the mean bees.

I've taken to feeding the bees syrup every time it rains. Which as it turns out is almost non-stop. The rains continue here even though we are in our dry season. I saw a few girls up in the Ventilator box on Mary. Hopefully they are propolising all joints finally.

Varroa Mites

Over the Holidays we had many guests show up to visit. As usual I showed off my bees with an inspection one warm afternoon. Each person gets their photo taken holding a deep frame plus a spoonful of honey off that frame. Lots of smiles and frantic laughs (not all are comfortable around bees).

While looking at the images a day or so later I saw them. VARROA MITES on the backs of a few bees. I hate reminders that I've been beekeeping for less that a year. Should have put in strips back in November. Anyway I go to the local Dadant store only to learn they can not sell chemicals anymore; or until they get a pesticide license. So now I must do it online. Fine the order has been made.

However while in the Dadant shop I talked to a guy with 160 hives, he said he was not commercial. He told me of a devise he bought that cleans or disinfects hive with vaporized vinegar. Some machine he bought from its creator in North Carolina. He told me that by pumping the vapor into a hive for 30 seconds just about everything would be cured. He then went on about how we use too much chemicals in our hives as it is. I'll need to research this some more of course.

The practice of using powdered sugar came up as well. I don't think, though, that Mary would survive it.

Anyway the strips will be here soon and the hives will be treated. I'm not big into chemicals but without the experience I'll keep to the tested ways for now. Mary's re-Queening never took. There was a Queen in the hive that I could not find. SO, Mary is still quite weak. Bad brood quantity and patterns all last Fall. Plus she continued with that odd trait off pouring out onto the ground during inspections (hence thumbs down with powdered sugar as the nights are in the 20's). Myrina still seems in good condition.

I am looking forward to next year. I have already though of acquiring 2 more hives.

New queen for Mary

With what I've learned since Spring I now realize I should have done this sooner. The colony showed signs of being weak from the first inspection. Unfortunately I didn't know what I was looking at then. It came out of Winter with a weak queen. It seemed in May that a new hive bred queen swarmed with half the hive. I was ready to buy a queen then but the colony made a new queen before I did. Chalk that up to inexperience. They did well after that so I thought all was fine. Alas two months later the colony was showing signs of weakness again. I don't know what happened but something did. They had plenty of room. Two hive bodies & two honey suppers. The top of which they never fully drew out. I've seen no evidence of diseases or pests, except for the recent minor Wax moth infection. In the end though I still have a colony that may not make it through Winter.

So I ordered a new queen. Italian, and marked. I'm not sure about clipping them. Still reading on that. She got here a day before I thought she would. Good service from Rossman. A drop of water, a drop of honey. Pop the candy cork and in she goes above the few brood left.

Was there a Queen in the hive? I took out every frame and looked for her. Not only did I not find her but I found no evidence of one. A handful of capped brood and a few uncapped. No new eggs. I'll check on the condition of the new queen on Sunday and remove her cage.
Crossing my fingers.