Hive Inspection 4/23/13

LITTLE MISS & ROZINA
70°F
Sunny
Calm

A View of Little Miss from Rozina

Rozina was a bit defensive when i opened her up.  Her gallon of 1:1 syrup had crystallized.  It looked like she took maybe half of it before it hardened.  The bees were mostly up in the top box still.  frames 2 & 3 had capped worker pupa & eggs, nectar, pollen, & honey.  Frames 4, 5, & 6, were solid eggs or larva.  Frames 7 had a bunch of eggs too but the queen had put more than one egg into a few cells.  Young queens will do that from time to time.  The workers sort it out afterward.  The queen should stop doing that soon.  The Queen was on frame 9, a nectar frame.  This box had plenty of walking Drones too.  The ones that came in with the package.  The population in the top box was fair.

Bad habits of young Queens

The bottom box was being back filled with pollen and nectar.  The Queen hadn't got down there yet.  Plus, there are still lots of empty cells for the queen to use.  The worker population in this box was poor.

For a new colony she is doing well.  I don't know why she moved up to the top box so fast.  Just as long as she moves down again instead of swarming once the top box is filled.

Little Miss was very calm in contrast to Rozina.  Lots of activity in her new top box.  Frames 5, 6, 7,  & 8 had eggs, larva, & pupa.  The Queen was on frame 5.  The population in this hive was OK.

A very good Queen Miss

The bottom box had 4 frames of brood; 5, 6, 7, & 8.  Though frame 6 is almost a solid frame of drone cells and they've begun to emerge.  The brood pattern was spotty but those are the over-wintering frames.  Productive but not uniform.  I believe they'll work it out but i'll keep an eye on it.  Also patches of new honey being capped on the outer frames.

Almost solid Drone Frame

Both colonies look good for now.  They need to continue brooding up.  Still hoping to make some splits if the population grow fast enough.  Still waiting for Rozina to find the bottom box.

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A Week after Instalation

Took a quick look into Rozina to remove her Queen cage and check progress.  The bees were introduced down in the bottom box.  Which is where i thought i might find them.  However they released the queen then proceeded up into the top box. 

Used Queen Cage & empty Frame?

This left the introduction frame oddly empty after release.  From experience, the queen usually starts laying on this frame first.   These bees have started their colony in the top box instead.  Where the queen has laid eggs on three frames.

Worker eggs in Rozina

The bees are heaviest in the top box but some manage to venture into the bottom box performing hive duties.  The population is low but that will turn around once the new bees emerge.  I'll closely monitor for hive pests.

Frame in top box

They are bringing in much nectar and pollen.  We seem to be in a heavy Spring brood flow.  The syrup i gave them last week is only half gone and currently seems ignored.

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Also took a quick look into Little Miss as well.  She still has the three frames of brood she had when she was hived last week.  I did notice she is making Drones now.  Quite a few of them on a single frame.  Seems that some of the drone have emerged too. 

The Drone cells are the ones that stick out

Which means it's about Queen rearing season.  Come May i'll start making splits and new queens.  I'm down four hives so i have some work to do.

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Hiving a Nuc

The time has come for Little Miss to be a full hive.  She has a box of bees, a box of honey, and a great laying queen.  The bees fill both 5 frame boxes so she needs the expansion.

The yellow full nuc next to the white new equipment

First i took out the honey frames from her top nuc box.  They became frames 1, 2, 3, 9, &10 of the bottom 10 frame box.  Then all the frames of the bottom nuc, the brood nest, filled the gap between 3 and 9 of the same 10 frame box.  The result is the same brood nest packed with double the honey on the ends.

To fill the new second 10 frame box (Top box) i used filled or drawn frames from previous dead outs.  In this case 6 frames filled with honey & pollen and 4 frames of empty but drawn wax.  This gives the bees plenty of stores and room to lay.  What would take them weeks to over a month to produce they have right now.  Their energy can go towards brood yet requires less work from the field bees.

New hive in place

The new hive consists of:
Telescoping cover
Inner cover
10 frame medium
10 frame medium
Slated rack
Solid bottom board

No hive top feeder for them because; 1- The spring flow is strong and these girls are known not to take spring syrup;  2- They are not an over stressed package that just got shipped across country to be dumped somewhere strange.  Other than the new equipment nothing has changed for them.  They'll keep on taking nectar like they've been doing.

Ideally i can put on a 3rd box soon.  As a hive of mediums all they need for over wintering is 3 boxes.  If they can fill their 3rd box with brood before May i can add honey supers to the hive.  Winter ran a month late in ending.  So i don't know how that will affect the flow or whether these bees will have the time to produce surplus honey.  I'm looking forward to favorable conditions.
 

Queen bee from Little Miss

Meanwhile, queen Miss is a pretty girl of moderate size with an all black thorax and non-striped, sepia abdomen.  We are in our first week of warm weather yet she already has several frames of brood from side to side and a handful of scattered Drone cells.  She'll be marked when i feel assured i can make more queens.  Maybe in a month.

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Hive Inspection 4/2/12

All Hives (six)
65°F
Sunny
Calm

Didn't mean to do them all but that's the way it goes sometimes.  It has been almost a month during an early Spring since we last looked in the bees.  Not a good idea but we have been terribly busy around here; did i mention we have chickens now?

Melissa has six brood frames in the top box and four in the bottom box.  Good brood pattern and a high population.  The bees are calm.  Saw Wax Moth larva in the detritus below the screened bottom board; that's a new one.  The moth larva posed NO danger to the hive and were fed to the chickens.  The bees finished off the last gallon of syrup.  The feeder was removed and a partially filled Honey Super from last season was added.  In a day or so an undrawn Super will be added as well.  Did not see the Queen but plenty of fresh eggs.

Nuc #6 (Gumption) also had a Moth larva under the Screened Bottom Board.  That too was cleaned out.  Her bees have not yet begun to draw out the new Medium brood box.  They have, however, finished their syrup.  The population is good but her productivity is low.  There is a Supersedure cell being drawn out on frame #5.  I left it in.  The bees know best.  It wasn't planned but her still empty new brood box was hastily donated to Nuc # 5.  I'll make her two new ones this week.

Nuc #5 (Mab) is on fire when it come to making bees.  The three week old New brood box was fully drawn & filled with capped brood, drone cells, pollen, & honey.  The best looking Spring frames i've ever seen.

All five new frames, front & back

The population is still heavy now that they have used up the new box.  As previously mentioned i borrowed the empty box from Nuc #6 to give this one room.  However, it is to late!

OOPS! First Swarm Cell of 2012.  Three weeks in a new undrawn box

The Queen cell was cut out and placed in Myrina who needs to be requeened anyway.  Many believe that once the Swarm cell is capped the bees will swarm no matter what.  I've done this before without the bees swarming so i hope to do it again. As soon as these bees fill up the new box they will be hived in a regular medium two box hive.  The feeder is still on and they'll get some more syrup.  So i'm guessing two more weeks.

Heléna has twelve of twenty frames filled with brood.  Her population is high and getting higher fast.  The Queen was in the bottom box as the top box was full.  So her feeder is gone replaced by a drawn honey super.  More Wax moth under the Bottom board but they were handled.  The brood frames are picture perfect.  Sadly it was late and too dark to get the image.

Mary is a surprise in non-productivity with only four of twenty frames having brood.  Her population is only fair with very little Drone comb.  The top box is practically honey bound.  So i will spin several frames to give them room to grow.  If she doesn't take to it she'll be requeened.  Her feeder came off too, but she hadn't finished the syrup in it anyway.

Myrina has only taken half of her syrup.  The population is fair with only three of ten frames in brood.  A Wax moth was found in the hive on a frame; one worm which was dispatched.  This colony is Very weak.  She began the downward spiral last Summer.  Then entered Winter diminished.  She got through Winter but she's going nowhere fast.  To remedy that the Swarm Cell from Nuc #5 was placed in this hive (frame 5) After i pinched Queen Myrina.  I'll check the hive again in a few days.  The Queen Cell was capped and due to hatch soon.

Note the Spotty brood of the previous Queen

This weekend i'll make a few more brood boxes and sufficient frames.  I'll put more undrawn Honey Supers on Malissa & Heléna too.

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Hive Inspection 3/11/12

MARY, MYRINA, HELÉNA, MELISSA
Sunny
62°F
Breezy

The first warmer weekend we've had in awhile.  I gave every hive a gallon of 1:1 syrup.  If they take it then they'll get more.  If they don't, like last year, then they are on their own for nectar.  Took the opportunity to inspect the big girls. 

Myrina has only two frames of brood.  Not a great surprise since she has been crashing since last August.  We will requeen Myrina this Spring with genetics other than her own.  She still has a single Deep brood box.  Frame one through three are the brood nest.  I moved them to the middle of the box to help her spread out.  As weak as she is she had a handful of Drone Cells.

Queen Myrina on frame #2 - paint dot almost gone

Mary had only three brood frames but her population was much better than Myrina's.  Most of her bees were in the top box around the brood.  The bottom box had some bees but plenty of old & new stores.  The boxes were reversed placing the brood nest on the bottom and the extra stores above the nest.  The bees will have to fully expand into the new top box before they feel like Swarming.

Queen Mary on frame # 5

Heléna had five frames of brood also all in the top box.  The big surprise here are the walking Drones and lots of drone cells.  There are plenty of worker cells too.  The colony is brooding up quickly.  With as many drones as she has Swarm season must be starting up.  Fortunately everyone has plenty of space in their hives.  Heléna's boxes were reversed too.  Her bottom box had stores but was a little light.  Nothing to worry about seeing as we are in a good spring flow.

Ton o' Drone cells in Heléna

Melissa had six brood frames loaded with workers and drones.  Again the top box looked great with lots of bees, pollen, & nectar.  Her bottom box was practically empty though.  Again her boxes were reversed like the others today.  She'll be fine and load up the empty box in no time.

Quiet box atop a brood box being reversed (Mary)

All in all the bees look good and the year is starting off strong.  The plan is to honey the three Big hives, Mary, Heléna, & Melissa; while hiving the other three small colonies.  I do not want to add any more colonies but that, as you know, is up to the bees.

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Hive Inspection 10/16/11

HELÉNA & MELISSA
Sunny
73°F

Heléna looks great.  Lots of brood, honey, & pollen.  A few SHB's but they're everywhere now.  Heléna was the last Georgia package i will ever buy.  Lots of people around here are blaming the Georgia apiaries for transporting the SHB to us in out bees.

Top Box DHB2: frames
1 - Solid honey
2 - Honey & backfill
3 - Honey , backfill, brood
4 - Honey & brood (eggs) - QUEEN (marked)
5 - Honey & brood
6 - Honey & brood
7 - Honey & backfill
8 - Honey & backfill
9 - Honey, backfill, pollen
10 - Honey & backfill

Bottom Box DHB1: frames
1 - ½ Drawn, honey, backfill, empty
2 - 4/5 Drawn, honey, backfill, SHB (2)
3 - Honey & backfill
4 - Honey, backfill, pollen
5 - Honey & backfill
6 - Honey & backfill
7 - Honey, pollen, backfill
8 - Honey, pollen, backfill
9 - Pollen, honey, drone cells (2)
10 - Pollen & drone cells (2)

Heléna's Bottom box

Her population is where i like to see it at this time of year.  It was mighty high a month ago but they never got honey bound then swarmed.  This is actually the only package i have.  The previous one didn't make to last Winter.  She requeen via swarm a while back.  The new (local) queen has done well.  This colony also had Myrina's nuc combined into it.  Which did well and really helped the Georgia girl.

Queen Heléna - She's a quick one, hard to photograph

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Melissa has a mother and sister in the neighbor's apiary.  Both are doing very well.  Melissa could be doing better though. Too many empty frames.  These frames weren't empty before.  It happened as the bees relocated the stores around the brood nest and the cool weather has caused some clustering.  Which may have used up some the stores. 

Top Box DHB2: frames
1 - empty, backfill, honey
2 - Honey & backfill
3 - Honey & backfill
4 - Backfill, honey, brood
5 - Brood (eggs), honey, backfill
6 - Brood, honey, backfill
7 - Brood (eggs), honey, backfill- QUEEN (marked)
8 - Brood, honey, backfill
9 - Honey, backfill, some brood
10 - Honey, pollen, backfill

Bottom Box DHB1: frames
1 - empty
2 - empty, ½ drawn
3 - empty
4 - empty, ½ drawn
5 - empty, ½ drawn
6 - empty & backfill
7 - Backfill, empty, 3/4 drawn
8 - Backfill, pollen, brood
9 - Pollen, backfill, 3/4 drawn
10 - Pollen, honey, backfill

Empty frames but lots of bees

Her population seems fine.  The bees are busy every day.  Why the bottom box is so light i don't know.  I don't want to break her down like i did Myrina.  Nor do i want to combine the two of them.  I'm in this stage where i want to maintain the most amount of genetic diversity in the yard.  I think I'm in denial about losing a strain.  To combine Myrina & Melissa would mean one of the queens has to go; it would be Myrina.

To remedy her issues i will exchange her empty frames with ones that have been filled with syrup.  It will add some moisture to the hive in cold weather but that location is a dry one.
 

The framed comb from beneath a medium frame

The bare comb that was framed with rubber bands did OK i guess.  All of it was attached to the frames but none of it was completely drawn out.  It worked but the bees ran out of time it seems.

Queen Melissa

Seven frames of brood is the best in the yard.  She really means to make it.  With enough stores i wouldn't worry but she'll need some help.

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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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