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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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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Inspection 3/20/2010

Myrina
72 f
Sunny

A perfect day for an inspection. Lots of activity as I opened up the hive. The bees had chewed farther through the styrofoam insulation in the vent box. Its debris was scattered on the inner cover & looked like sugar. I may need to change to a different product next year.

After the inner cover was taken off I could see that the bees were not eating the pollen substitute I had left them. It had flowed/melted down the frames some. So that's it I'm done with it. I scraped it all out and chucked into the woods. Maybe they don't need it after the Maples bloom or I'm making it wrong. Either way they won't be seeing it anymore.

Unwanted Pollen Patties

Looking at the frames was good. They are beginning to store pollen and nectar next to the brood frames. It's mostly from the Maples and is consistent in color.

Maple Pollen & Nectar

Since the population is less than in Summer it's easier to look at individual bees. One thing about Myrina's girls is the difference in colors between them. Some are dark & others are brighter. I figure the instructors at Bee class can explain it. I hope.

Sisters

The bees were mostly in the top box. The brood was still only in 3 frames, like the last inspection, but occupied 1/2 to 3/4 of each frame. My reading glasses made seeing the eggs much easier. Lots of little eggs expanding outward on the frames. The larva looked great too. The bees had loaded them up with royal jelly. I never realized how much of that stuff goes into a cell. The capped brood was plentiful and in a solid pattern. I also saw several drone cells.

I pulled an empty frame and replaced it with a Pierco Drone frame. I only have one per hive right now. I'll pull them out, freeze them, then place them back in the hive. I may get one more per hive so that I can replace a drone frame 'with' a drone frame. As long as I don't forget to change them out I should put a big hurt on the Varroa Mite.

Overall, such a healthy colony is a beautiful sight after such a bad Winter. This next image is for every beek still waiting to get into their hives.

Eggs, Royal Jelly, & Larva
(click for close up)

Myrina is sure doing her job. I tried to get a blue queen marking pen yesterday but Dadant was out of them. I did buy the queen plunger which I can't wait to use. Right now it's easy to find the queens. A month from now it will go back to be almost impossible. Neither Myrina or Mary are marked; both being children of swarms. Until then I hope to see lots of this.

Queen Myrina on frame #3, with pollen & capped honey

So the top box is where all the action is. This means it is time to reverse boxes. Not a difficult task. It will lessen the need to swarm and contribute to build-up. I get another chance to clean off the BB. It wasn't very dirty at all just cappings mostly. The top box gets switched to the bottom and the former bottom box is now on top. Where I can now pull it's frames to see what is going on there.

This box has really gotten away from me. All but one of the frames are the old farmers frames. A bunch of old and black crimped wire wax frames. I have culled many new Plasticell frames that are drawn out and with some honey & pollen left over. Those will replace these soon. Though old these frames currently hold a good bit of honey & pollen. Bees in this box are occupying the frames that were beneath the brood. Frames 1 & 2. The girls have started this year on the Eastern side of the boxes.

Other than the old frames propolis is a slight issue right now. What the girls are doing is adding a layer of propolis to each spacer on every frame. This increases the space between the frames and leads to more bur comb. I scraped all 20 frames in this hive. Put them back in the boxes and squeezed them tight toward the East side. I hope the bees get the idea now.

Old Propolis on a Old Frame

After all that everything went back together. With the addition of the Hive Top Feeder. I had made a shim box to put it in but I found the Vent box does the same job. I'll drill holes in the shim boxes and turn them into Vent boxes too.

HTF with Syrup

The HTF was filled with a gallon of 1:1 syrup with a Tbs of apple cider vinegar. The inner cover & T-cover went back on and the day was almost done. I checked the lean of the hive. It had settled back some. I added a couple of shims to the back under the Bottom Board. Now it has a slight lean forward again. After about 30 minutes the bees came out in force for the rest of day. I believe they found the syrup and had at it.

The Event-log was updated (here)