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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