Laying Worker/Workers, Dud Swarm and World Record

The temperatures to the east of Richmond, Virginia felt like 200 degrees when in full sun, in my bee gear. Makes me appreciate some of the advice that I received early on (and foolishly dismissed): bees may like it in full sun, but I like to be in the shade when I do my inspections, an experienced beekeeper once told me. Normally, I set my hives with their northern/northwestern backs to a good, deciduous tree, which gives me a bit of a break from the heat in the late afternoon. But, in my Nuc Yard (where I keep all young hives, Nuc’s or otherwise), I have to place them where I have space, which is frequently in a Sunny position all day long!

Normally, I do not do a full inspection of my entire Nuc yard every week (I did one last weekend and the next one is scheduled for next weekend.) I do check my regular Nucs every 4 to 5 days, but the rest do not get checked as frequently. But, after the bee inspection, I had to get in there to straighten the frames and square them (the inspector was not as particular about this when he was going through my hives…something I obviously noted and needed to correct this weekend.) It was a fairly eventful inspection, to be sure.

My first check was the Estes Swarm, a swarm about the size of a pine cone that I ‘caught’ (maybe the term is ‘pocketed’ for this size swarm…) after I noticed the queen crawling around on my hand after I broke the branch off that the bees were hanging on to show to a friend. Maybe I never caught the queen (I never laid eyes on her after I got back home) or maybe she was a virgin that never returned from her love voyage. Either way, it has been over 3 weeks since I caught them and I should have seen eggs (and I should have seen her by now, given the size of the bees.) I ended up combining them with a teenage Nuc (basically a Nuc that had done well enough to advance to a Deep and was on the verge of needing a Medium.

My next inspection was worse news. I had created a Nuc with two deep frames of brood, both of which had at least one swarm cell. The problem, I think, was that I overloaded the thing with Nurse bees shaken from a couple of hives. The thing was busting out on Day 1 and I should have done something about it (lesson learned.) I am pretty sure they swarmed (maybe twice) when the queens came out as the bee number reduced a lot in about 10 days and I never found a queen. I haven’t reviewed my bee log, but I know that I had identified the problem over two weeks ago and given them a frame of eggs from a proven hive (Apache). I noticed a queen cell sometime later and hoped to find a laying queen today. Instead, I find tons of capped drone…tons of it. I see eggs laid dead center of many cells but cannot find the queen to save my life. With all of that drone brood, I was suspicious, so I started to inspect lots of ’empty’ cells. Finally, I find the tell-tale sign of a laying drone (probably more then one) – 3+ eggs in a cell. I checked the hive (a third time) for a queen (hoping against all odds) and found more of these daggone cells with multiple eggs. I have notes about what to do in this situation and now laugh at them (I wrote them without much experience). There is no way that I am going to put a frame of brood/eggs into this Nuc every week for 3 or more weeks (I might as well create 3 new Nucs instead.) I think this advice is if you have a full hive that has laying workers – it doesn’t make sense to do this with a Nuc. So, I combined them with a nearly mature hive (mature means a Deep and a Medium that is a week or so from being moved to an outyard.) I marked the queen in that hive, so we’ll see if they combine well or not (you gotta learn sometime.)

So, two Nuc’s (well, 1 real Nuc and 1 swarm that was in a Nuc) were a bust and those were the first two hives I inspected. Not a good start. Fortunately, the rest of the inspections went fairly well except for two near miss issues with marking new queens (I fumbled BOTH jobs and ended up leaving the ladies alone for a later marking – all the while hoping I didn’t damage them.) One Nuc is ready for sale, which a fellow is coming by to get tomorrow. I also upgraded 1 to a teenager (moved to  a full Deep.) The rest are doing fine with good laying queens that should be ready for action within the next two weeks. I want to get these done with by July 1, when I will embark on my Overwintering Nuc program.

One really positive note is something that I honestly would have a hard time believing if I read on someone else’s blog, but I am going to relay it anyway. On May 23, I received a call from a beekeeper down the road that one of his hives swarmed (I had already picked up a swarm from one of his hives earlier this year, so this was number 2). I couldn’t believe the size of this swarm (I will get a video up on it shortly.) This thing was big by my standards and  it was tough getting them in the single deep that I brought along. When I went to pick them up, a solid pound of bees or more were hanging all over the front of the hive (I have never had this happen before.) Since they were not in the hive, I couldn’t tape them up, so I gingerly strapped the hive together and transported them in my car, while they hung on the front (thankfully, I did not get into an accident…) The next day, there were still a ton of  bees hanging all over the front, so I decided to give them a Medium of foundation. I was a bit concerned about this, as I was basically giving this hive a full deep and a full medium of foundation – that’s a lot of space for a new swarm. What would they do? Would they just draw out the center frames of each box? Would they only focus on the top Medium (just below the feeder)? I gave them a single gallon of light (2 parts water:1 part sugar) syrup (all I had mixed at the time) and watched them occasionally during the week. The inspector passed over this box, so I had not looked in them since the 23rd. Today, I checked. To my complete amazement, they had drawn out every single frame on both boxes (although the outer frames on both supers were only half drawn)! I was amazed. They filled out a full brood chamber (for me, which is a Deep and a Medium) in a little over a week with ONLY 1 gallon of syrup! (It should be noted that the inspector was surprised by the nectar my bees were bringing in – he has a yard at VSU which was not bringing in much, a surprise to me). The wild thing was that I did find the queen but she had only started laying eggs – not even any C-shaped larva (that I could find, anyway.) Normally, I would have expected to see something just about capped at this point. It must have been a virgin, which is hard to believe – this could not have been a ‘secondary’  swarm. The hive that cast a swarm this big as a secondary swarm would have to be 10+ supers tall!

But, it was two weeks ago (I think) that the same fellow called me about a swarm, but when I got to his house, he advised that they had all just flown back into his hive. It makes me wonder if the old queen was in that swarm and somehow died or failed to make it to the initial landing branch (and perished in the process.) Maybe she was with them and when they went back to the hive, the virgin killed her. Who knows (I certainly don’t.) In the end, I put a shallow on them just in case and now have to figure out when I will move them to an outyard. I rarely have a hive this big that I have to move and am pretty certain it will break my back.

In closing, it reminds me of the old saying that a swarm in May is worth a load of hay, a swarm in June is worth a silver spoon, but a swarm in July ain’t worth a fly! This was definitely a silver spoon (and maybe a fork too!) In my book, it is a World Record.

 

Apiary Inspection & First Nuc Sale

If you’ve followed this blog over the last couple of months, you know that I have been blessed (or was it cursed?) with several very strong hives that tried to swarm throughout late March and early April. From these events, I created a multitude of Nuc’s, experimenting with each start. My goal was to really learn about Nuc Creation by doing what is recommended and many things that are not. I started some with lots of resources and some with next to no resources. I played with the amount of Nurse bees and the amount of capped brood. I knew that I wanted to sell Nuc’s in 2012 and I wanted to start to get a feel for it.

The problem with this plan is that I started more Nuc’s then I really wanted to increase my hive count by this  year. At the time, I figured that my success rate would not be that high, so it would work itself out in the end. But, my success rate was higher then I had thought. In the end, I started 14 Nuc’s. Of those 14, 10 made it (when I was expecting 5 or 6.) Of the survivors, 6 or 7 are showing the kind of strength that I would be confident to pass along. So, that left me with at least 1 or 2 extra Nuc’s, beyond my increase goal. Since several folks have contacted me about getting Nuc’s, I decided to sell 1 (and may sell a couple more over the next week or so.)

When you sell a Nuc, you have to get your apiary inspected by the state Apiarist. He came by this past week and went through a majority of the starters that I have in the backyard. This was no small task, as I have 17 starters (caught swarms, trap out Nuc’s, my Nuc’s and 1 cut out.) In the end, he passed my apiary and said things looked great. He did find small hive beetles, but I told him that they were pretty much in all of my hives, but not to any great degree. Interestingly enough, he conceded that they were in most folk’s hives, but they were more like a Wax Moth. As long as you have healthy bees in a space that they can maintain (i.e. you don’t super them too  soon), the bees keep them in check. All in all, it was an interesting experience.

A new beekeeper, by the name of Wade, showed up to get his bees and we moved the frames from my Nuc to his hive. I am glad that I could sell him a Nuc as he may have resorted to a package next year (as mentioned a lot on this blog, I am not a fan of packages at all, especially for new Beekeepers.) The Nuc was great. The queen was working on her 2nd batch of brood and two frames were wall-to-wall capped brood on both sides. One contained some capped brood along the edges and lots of eggs/larva in the center. The final two were resources. Basically, this Nuc is getting ready to explode (I had wanted to sell the Nuc last weekend, but the timing did not work out right for the purchaser – I was worried that I would find swarm cells!) I am confident that this Nuc will do very well for Wade and his family. It’s a queen off of Larry, so it’s some of my best stock.

Another Trap Out Nuc

This  year, I started a trap out in a nice neighborhood in Richmond called Windsor Farms. A couple were moving into a house last Fall and discovered a bee hive in a huge tree in their backyard. Although an avid gardener, I am not an expert on trees, so I do not know the name of it, but it has very deep, ridged bark. This is a very important point for trap outs, as I was to come to find out.

At any rate, I advised the home owner that a trap out last Fall wouldn’t work (might as well kill the bees.) It had been a horrible Summer with very little rain and I had my doubts that a hive could build up enough stores if you trapped them out at this time. He was very cool about it and said we could knock it out the following Spring (2011).

Trapouts basically utilize a rolled-up cone with wire that is about a quarter inch square. The whole idea is that the bees crawl from the tree (the wide end of the cone) to the exit (a narrow end, about the size of two drones) and leave the hive. When they return, they go back to the base (but on the outside) and cannot figure out how to get back into the hive (smell drives them to the base of the cone.) It’s like a crap trap, but in reverse.

The beekeeper then sets up a hive with the entrance right near the cone and the bees, after failing to get into the hive all day, go into the hive (or trap out.) Most beekeepers put a frame of capped brood into the hive with the bees to entice the ‘trapped out’ bees to stay in the trap hive body.

Last year, a fellow in Buckingham introduced me to a slightly modified version of this trick. Instead of running a cone out of the hive, you run a piece of PVC out of the hive (tapped up all around it so that this is the only way the bees can leave) into the bottom of the trapout Deep. The bees have to climb through your foundation/comb to get out and cannot get back in.

I took an old Medium and drilled a hole for the PVC into it. I then placed my ‘cone’ so that bees leaving the PVC pipe would have to go through the cone and would not be able to return in this fashion, being trapped in my hive. The real benefit of this method (or so it is said) is that the queen will eventually leave through the pipe and remain in your hive (you get bees as well as  the great genetics of a wild hive.)

Well, I set this up in late March and started to watch. This is where the ‘ridged’ tree comment comes in from before. It was extremely difficult to block up the ridges and the bees continued to get back into the tree hive (a bad thing, as the hive in the  tree is only going to leave once their resources dwindle.) After about a month, I figured I had it blocked off. I took four frames of bees from them 10 days ago and another 4 frames last weekend. The first 4 I gave a frame of eggs and they raised it  nicely (some of the foragers must have converted back to Nurse bees! The second set I actually gave a frame while they were in the trapout and they raised their own queen.

The crazy thing about all of this (and it was a bunch of bees that  I took each time) is that the owners pointed out a new hole in the tree (some 5′ below the original hole (now taped up and funneling bees into my hive) and on the backside of the tree. The hive was doing just fine, based on the bee traffic. I have glued this up now, but it probably needs another round of silicone, wire, tape and staples.

It’s been a fun experience and I hope to get a couple of more Nucs off of them before I get (cross your fingers) the original hive and (maybe) the queen. I will do a lot of things differently next time, especially if it is a deeply ridged tree.

2011 : Banner Year for the Ladies

It feels like I start every post with this but : everything continues to hit on all cylinders for honey bees in central Virginia. A long time beekeeper in our bee club (the East Richmond Beekeeper’s Club) mentioned that this was the best flow since 1993 for our area! The ‘flow’ simply refers to the time of the year when the most nectar is available in the flowers. For us, it is really the Spring. The state apiarist indicated that we used to get a Fall flow, but haven’t had one since the 90’s. The bottom line is that your bees have the best opportunity to build up some honey for the beekeeper at this time of year.

I’m not sure about how good it is compared to previous years (this is the first time that I have really collected honey off of my hives), but the hives appear to be doing well. As mentioned previously, those hives that successfully lived through the Winter, but had no other outstanding quality, were targeted for honey production (those with other qualities were used for Nucs and increase.) All of these hives have finished a Shallow, a few have finished a Medium and one is finishing its second Shallow. The fellow near Hopewell (old-timer who indicated it was the best flow in many years) mentioned something about 150# honey on his hives. I can pretty much guarantee that I do not have that much honey on my hives. Regardless, I should definitely have enough honey for personal consumption and for gifts, which is my main goal.

I am really interested in seeing how long ‘the flow’ lasts this year. I have heard folks say that it pretty much dribbles out by early to mid-June. July 1 is the target day for removing honey (I purchased my first extractor a few weeks back – hope I didn’t jinx myself!)

This coming week, I will have my first ‘inspection of the apiary’. Due to the extra increase, I have decided to sell at least one Nuc this year (I am thinking I will sell 5 before it is all over). You have to have the state apiarist come check out your gig when you sell bees, so I contacted Keith Tignor on Thursday and he tentatively agreed to come out during the coming week. It should be interesting to see how this goes.

Nuc building, Patience with Queens & Laughable Errors

It’s been one heck of a Spring. My beekeeping pretty much consumes 80% of my spare time, although I have managed to get my garden in the ground. The weather in Richmond, Virginia has been super, in my area. We could use a bit more rain, but we’ve definitely had enough to keep the flowers blooming and full of nectar. Holly started blooming nicely in my area and the Tulip Poplar has been putting on a real nice bloom the last week. My supers are filling up quickly.

But, there have been quite a few lessons along the way. I learned a good lesson with raising queens from swarm cells. I cannot simply put a frame with bees and a queen cell into a small (3 frame) Queen Castle section and expect good results. In most of the sections, I only included that frame and a frame of honey and one with pollen. The problem, I believe, was not including a full frame of capped brood with each one. Of the 6 that I started, only two had a decent amount of brood (the rest where queen cells on the bottom of honey frames). Those two ended up with laying queens. The other four ended up with nothing that I could find. In all cases, I saw the queen the first couple of weeks after she hatched, but somewhere along the way, she vanished. Without the capped brood, I suppose there were not enough bees in the cell to tend to her needs. I may have monkeyed with them too much too, as I was enthralled with watching the progress (and those 6 starters were just experiments anyway – I wanted to learn.) On a positive note, all of the queens that I started normally (in Nucs with 1 brood, 1 pollen, 1 honey, 1 partially drawn empty and 1 foundation) have done very well. In fact, one of them is literally building up almost as fast as a swarm! That queen is on steroids. I only had one queen that I was not happy with (poor brood build up) and I killed her, letting them raise another one as we speak. The bottom line is that I am very comfortable making Nucs now and will definitely make a few to sell next year (I will probably sell a few this year, since I have more then I want at this point.)

Another lesson that I learned was to have patience with the queens. Most of my queens do not start laying on Day 25 and one waited until Day 41! I do think that I ended up losing a couple of viable queens due to my impatience this year (there were TONS of dead bees after two of my combines) and, looking back, I only gave the queens 31 and 34 days to show signs of laying. I really need to have patience with everything related to bees. I have been told that I have the patience of Job, due to the projects that I start related to growing trees and shrubs, but that is clearly not the case with the bees. When you know that the flow is on, you want all of your bees to be kicking at 200%. I am constantly worried that I need to do something with a hive or queen to make sure they are hitting on all cylinders. I need to remember my lessons from last year – let the bees do their own thing and stop messin’ with ’em!

I will close with a dumb error. The Westcastle swarm was building up strong. It was definitely the original, old queen (as opposed to a secondary swarm with a virgin queen) and she pretty much started laying on Day 1. Those bees were taking down the syrup nicely, as they build up all of the fresh wax. After about 10 days, they were 90% done with the deep and I dropped a medium on them. I put 2 gallons of syrup on them, thinking it would tide them to the next weekend. Once the week was up, I went to check the feeder and expected it to be empty so that I could give a peak inside (this hive was going to get moved to an outyard back on the 22nd.) But, only about half of the syrup had been taken… This was a drastic slowdown, but I figured it was because the main flow was on. Finally, I checked yesterday and there was still about a gallon left! Frustrated, I gingerly removed the feeder and attempted to pour it into a nearby pitcher. Finally, I could check on the hive. What the heck!?

To my dismay (cheered on by a couple of foul words out of my mouth), I had put a super full of empty, foundationless frames on them! Good lord. They had drawn wax all over the center of the frames, exactly perpendicular to how the frames sit (across several frames.) I had to pull it all out and put it in a tray in front of the hive. They began to work on it (getting the honey out to take back into the hive), while some tried to work on me (for messing up all of their hard work.) I marked the queen (Blue, for last year) and put a super of foundation on them. I’ll check the feeder in a couple of days to see what we have.  Hopefully, they will go back to consuming a lot of it and drawing out the Medium. I want to get a frame of eggs from them to secure the bloodline and then move them to one of my Varina outyards (aka my honey and drone yards for the Nucs that I raise in my backyard.)

I guess that was not my last point, as it occurred to me that I have one other big lesson for this year. Four times, I have noticed swarm prep (either actual swarm cells or back-filling of the brood nest.) In all four times, I took the old queen and (in some cases) half of the queen cells. In all cases the bees swarmed anyway. Although I will take old queens with solid history in the future, it will not be because of a swarm management strategy. I will try something else on that. I can say that the one time that I did prevent a swarm (and who really knows if they were going to swarm or not) was when I took the old queen at the first sign of massive drone laying (something I had learned, this year, was a precursor to other swarm prep), it did stop the swarm and the bees appear to have built up nicely even without a queen through late March and early April.

But, who knows. I might be learning the exact wrong things. Regardless, I will continue to use my experiences to drive my adventures and mishaps!