Hive Inspection 10/17/11

NUC #5
Sunny
75°F

The only nuc i have left and the first one i have ever tried to take through Winter.  She is from a wild hive and may be Survivor bees.  They have about finished their one gallon of 2:1 syrup medicated with Fumagilin.  Since they are a nuc that's all they get.

Top Box DNB2: frames
1 - Backfill, honey, empty
2 - Mostly drawn, backfill, SHB (1)
3 - Mostly drawn, backfill
4 - Backfill, honey, SHB (1)
5 - Mostly drawn, honey, backfill

Bottom Box DNB1: frames
1 - Solid Honey
2 - Honey, backfill, brood, pollen
3 - Honey, backfill, brood (eggs) - QUEEN (marked)
4 - Honey, backfill, brood
5 - Honey, brood, pollen, backfill

Bees on all the frames of the bottom box

Population seems to only be fair.  I'd like to see more bees in here.  They have four frames with brood and that's a good thing.  Honey stores could be higher too.  There are a couple of feedings left so hopefully that will do it. 

Queen of Nuc #5 (Mab).  Sorry for the blurry pict

At least these bees know to move the brood nest to the bottom box.  I wont have to manually move them down like the others.  I will also need to insulate this nuc and get a HTF for warm weather feeding.

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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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Nuc #5 Swarmed

This year has been the worst swarming year since I've started beekeeping.  At this point I'm more of a bee-releaser than a beekeeper.

We noticed a swarm yesterday coming from the direction of the neighbors apiary.  We banged some pots together to get them to ball up.  It was a very small swarm and it settled in a tree overhanging my side apiary.  The neighbor checked her hive but found nothing to indicate the swarm came from her bees.  I was confident it wasn't from my yard as all the hive have plenty of open space in them (Ha!).  There are three other apiaries within a mile of our two.  We all thought the bees came from somewhere else.

Swarm in a Sourwood tree

Today i went to look into the Nuc & Mary.  I've not been in them for a while and i wanted to make sure the swarm didn't come from my yard.  As soon as i opened up the Nuc i saw an unmarked queen running around the top frames.  She was on top of two frames in the top box that have brood.  The brood on those frames is very young.  I wasn't wearing my glasses so i don't know if there were any eggs in there.  Again the larva were very young looking.

I need to find out when an existing queen swarms in relation to the emergence of the new stay behind queen.

The brood patterns in the nest was weak & spotty but that's the nature of brood during a swarm event.  I'll check in a week to see if i can find eggs.  The new queen was enlarged and good size.  It may be her that made the larva i saw.

New Queen ready to be marked

The clincher was the three used swarm cells on the fourth frame in the bottom box.  I have been peeking in this hive almost each week.  There has been plenty of room for the combined bees to live on.  The two nucs together equal only ten frames yet i gave then another five with foundation.  Which they've been drawing on.  The frames were not honey bound either.  idunno!

The culprit cell

It is late in the year for queens to be mating.  Not a lot of drones out there.  Yet this queen my have made it under the wire.  The population isn't actually low now after this swarm. If this queen is fertile she has two months left of laying before normal cluster time. Their population can be on track to get them through winter.  That and after all it's a nuc.  They only need to have ten frames of bees and they almost have it now.

This should not have been a surprise AND I should have bee looking out for this.  Both nucs that were combined to make this large nuc were from swarms!   So I essentially Doubled Down on the swarming bet.  I'm going to start keeping better, visual, track of how my colonies formed.  These aren't bees.  They're swarm monkeys.

...and then there was this guy

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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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Hive Inspection 8/24/2011

MYRINA
Mostly Sunny
84°F

When feeding Myrina the other day I saw a Wax Moth & a SHB in her.  I wanted to see if she was in bad shape or not.

Not what you want to see but they did a great job a cleaning it!

The first thing i saw were bees in the HTF.  So there must be a hole in the screening in put in but i couldn't find it.  I'll make some more and scrap the ones in here soon.

DHB2: frames
1 - Filled with brood & eggs
2 - Brood, eggs, some stores.  Spotty pattern. Queen (marked)
3 - Brood, eggs, some stores
4 - Pollen & uncapped honey
5 - empty.  Starting to add honey
6 - Uncapped Honey
7 - empty
8 - Full of uncapped honey
9 - some Honey
10 - Full of uncapped honey

DHB1: frames
1 - 1/2 pollen
2 - Brood & eggs.  Spotty pattern
3 - Brood eggs, pollen
4 - light pollen & honey
5 - pollen
6 - empty. little honey
7 - empty
8 - empty
9 - Some honey (SHB x3)
10 - some uncapped honey

Her population is smaller than i like and her stores are light too.  She is, however, adding brood & stores at an acceptable speed.  Plus, this inspection includes the first feeding.  A spotty brood pattern is typical for Fall yet she has several frames filled with eggs.  Interesting to note that there didn't seem to be ANY Drone Cells.  Though I did see a few drones walking around.  Another check in a week or so will confirm the end of Summer drones.

Filthy Rotten Bug! - Small Hive Beetle

The presence of the SHB is troubling.  fortunately i only found three of them.  I added a beetle trap to help the bees out.  I might put more in later.  No Wax moth were present.

The Slatted Racks are a Big Hit with the Ladies!

There wasn't any bridge comb and the frames looked clean.  The bees were calm and moved off nicely from the smoke.  I'll keep an eye on this queen hoping she can belt out a bunch of brood soon.

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Hive Inspection 5/25/11

Nuc #4
85°F
Partly Sunny

The poor & lowly Nuc #4

This Nuc makes me feel like a slum lord.  I was out of equipment when i caught the swarm.  I had to use whatever scraps could be found.  The cover is Mary's original cover from 2008 when i purchased her.  It has spent the last two years as a tomato starter, essentially a flower pot!  The Deep box was Myrina's.  The one that had so much mold last Winter the knots started to weep.  The bottom board was also Myrina's and was in storage yet covered in dead bugs and spiders.  To make thing worse it's a 10 frame set up when all the small swarm needed was at most a 5 frame box.  I didn't even have 5 frames so they got 4: 1 plasticell & 2 foundationless all undrawn.  I did add that brood frame from Nuc #3 but it is a Medium.

I put a entrance feeder IN the hive to keep the robing down.  I know the flow is on but these bees couldn't defend a drop.  The bees haven't touched the syrup.  They continue to act strangely all huddled together and barely flying.

They haven't started on the fourth frame yet.  I don't know what they're doing on the plasticell frame.  Making a mess i guess.  Just a weak performance all the way around.  And still NO eggs!

Today they got a little break.  I purchased one of those plastic nucs.   They get a newer, cleaner home and a fifth frame too.  Almost like real bees.  The plastic nuc isn't great but its a mighty step up from what they have now.  They can defend it & control the climate whereas the 10 frame was too big for them.  These plastic jobs are stamped out of one piece corrugated plastic.  It takes a little to fold it together, the directions are Useless.  These are a one shot deals.  No adding on or feeders.  I think they're more for selling nucs than Making nucs.

Movin' on up!

The good news is i might get some time this weekend to start making the real nuc equipment.  Hopefully that can be completed before these bees drop dead.

The queen still looks unmated.  Her abdomen is not growing any bigger.  If there is no change she will be replaced, soon!

That's the Queen!

To add to this menagerie of gloom look who popped out for a walk during the inspection.  Is this really necessary?

SHB

If this nuc lives it will be by luck and a miracle.  I will do what i can but if they don't start behaving like bees and working they're done for.

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