An avid gardener and outdoorsman, I started beekeeping in 2009, give or take, and began using this journal as a way to document my trials and tribulations. Over the years, it has become a part of my hobby, recording events here.
I couldn’t stand it at work and had to run home to check the new Westover Hive during lunch. They were busy bringing in lots of pollen and I found a ton of them up in the feeder, drinking the sugar water down. I am dying to take a look inside, but have committed to leaving them alone until this weekend. I’ll probably check the feeder every day, to make sure it does not run dry. Things appear to be working great here, but I am worried since I cannot see what they are doing. Presumably, they have started some comb and the queen has already laid in it. It will be amusing to see if they have already laid in the honey frame that I dropped in there to entice them into the hive.
I also did a quick spot check of the Albo hive to see if they had started to draw out the honey super. Nothing yet. Didn’t even see a bee on any of the frames (I just removed the inner cover and did a spot check.)
The swarm, which I am now calling the Westover Swarm, is finally back in Varina, Virginia! It was a bumpy ride, but it appears to be 1 in the Win column for me.
When I last signed off, I had a bunch of bees outside of the Deep that I had laid down beside the swarm. The next morning, I arrived early to move the hive and place it right next to the remaining clump. I brought along an extra, empty deep and some swarm pheromone in case I needed to try something else. As it turned out, I did. The minute that I put the box down next to the small clump on the ground, several bees came out of the box and stopped on the landing board to fan INTO the box! I am clueless, but I am pretty sure this indicated that the Queen was in the clump outside (and the bees inside had lost some of that queen scent.) In seconds, the bees started pouring out of the box like mad!
Bee Fanning Scent
As mentioned, in retrospect I think they were rushing to join their queen (which they had lost during the night.) But, at the time, I pretty much freaked out, thinking that a scout had returned with a good location and they were getting ready to swarm. There was no way that I could follow these gals, as they could go over the James River or Herring Creek, two nearby obstacles that could not be traversed on foot. Without any idea what to do, I grabbed my empty Deep and planted it square on top of the bees remaining inside. I then detached my Deep, with half of the feral bees in it, from the bottom board and placed it on top of the empty deep. Most folks reading this probably think I’m crazy, but I had no idea what to do and just acted on instinct. Maybe they would climb up into the top deep and I could get them that way. At any rate, I returned to Varina to do some gardening.
A little after lunch (some 4 hours later), I returned to check on things. The bottom line is that I could not transport them like this (with no bottom) and I was hoping most would be in the top deep and I could reattach the bottom board and wait for evening when all of the scouts would have returned. This was not the case at all. A large percent of the bees on the ground had moved up onto the side and corners of the empty deep. They really looked more like a swarm now, but in my daggone empty deep! After a moment’s thought, I removed the top Deep (with the frames of foundation and one of honey – assuming they hadn’t simply eaten the honey) from the empty and placed it back on the bottom board. There were still a few bees in here.
Then, I opened up the top of the Deep with frames and pulled 4 frames from it. Holding the empty above it, I shook down hard and most of the bees simply plopped into my hive! They didn’t really fly around much. They just plopped into the hive like a pancake in the frying pan. I was very nervous and put the top back on before getting the frames back in. This caused some bad words to come out of my mouth and I pulled the top off again and gently pushed the frames back into the hive (the queen may be in that mass and I was worried I would squish the old gal.)
Now, I had 90% of the bees in my hive. But, there was still a small mass outside that had not come up onto the side of the empty deep. There was what appeared to be a ball of bees – it could very well be the queen. This mass of bees was starting to annoy me. I went back to Mrs. Fifer’s method and placed this nearly full hive right up next to the small mass.
Amazingly enough, a bunch ran out on the landing area and fanned right towards the ball! In seconds, this small mass finally started to move towards the hive. I watched for a bit as nearly all were in. At this point, I was feeling great!
So, Sunday evening (24 hours after this adventure began!) I headed out to Charles City. I stopped off at a Swarm Trap that I am trying near Sherewood Forest Plantation to put some Swarm Lure that I had purchased into it. It smelled like Lemon Pledge. Supposedly, Bees love this smell (I need to test it with my bees sometime.) After that, I went to my swarm to check her out. On the way, I called Fred and Muschi Fisher to let them know that I was coming by (it was about 8:10 PM) to get the bees. For some reason, I hit a rough spot in cell coverage and I could barely hear Muschi. What I thought I heard was, ‘you’re too late, they flew away’, then the call dropped. You want to talk about deflation? I was devastated. Regardless, I pushed on and tried to keep a positive outlook.
When I arrived, I literally ran over to the hive, flashlight in hand. I could see no bees on the ground, but all seemed dead. Had I missed my chance?! I knelt down and put my ear to the hive. ‘Bzzzzzzzzzzz’ A low drone of buzzing! I had ’em! YES!!
I taped up the entrance with hardware cloth and duct tape (the very same hardware cloth that Tom Fifer used to seal up my first hive when I picked up the Nuc from him.) I then used my ratcheted strap and secured the top, bottom and deep together. Finally, I moved them to the car (this was a harrowing journey in the dark – of course the Westover grounds were flat, but I was so paranoid about dropping these things that my heart was going a mile a minute!) Once in the car, I listened for the sweet sound of buzzing once more before heading back to Varina!
I set them up and removed the tap and strap. These I set facing to the Southeast in an area that received a great windbreak from some ancient burford hollies. During this past Winter (with the many snows), I kept a sharp eye out for the locations where the snow melted first. This was always first, sometimes by a week or more. I placed them on a stand where I will also place my Nuc’s later this month.
Honey Bees Returning Home
Today, I checked them in the mourning. It was in the 40’s and not a bit of movement or even noise… My other hives had a few bees moving about. I was not worried, but it was not the best sign in my mind. So, I had to come home at lunch to check again. This time, bees were all over the place. It appeared like a massive Orientation Flight (I call it a training flight when it is young bees, but I am guessing a lot of these bees are old pro’s at scavenging.)
This evening, I returned home (left work a tad early and made it home by about 5:15 PM) and checked again. Less bees doing orientation flight and a few were bringing in pollen! Clearly, some believed this could be the new home (I have no experience with swarms, but I have read where some folks lose them after catching them – although this may be more of a problem down south, where the absconding african bee gene is more prominently in the gene pool.) I open the top quickly to straighten out the frames and put a top feeder on. Bees were on the inner cover by the hundreds. I hope this doesn’t mean they need more space.
Now, the plan is to check the feeder again tomorrow just to see if they are taking it (this is more of a check for me then anything else.) The real schedule will be to check the syrup again in 3 days or so (and add it if needed) and then look for eggs next Sunday. The syrup is to help them build out the comb if they need it. If they don’t take it, nothing lost (well, a gallon of sugar syrup will be lost.)
It should be noted that the bees were not very aggressive. A few checked me out and landed on me, but none tried to sting me (of course, I was not breaking out frames).
Finally, one interesting thing to note is that these bees may be distantly related to my bees. Tom Fifer used to keep 8 hives at Westover Plantation (something that Fred and Muschi said that I could do now!). So, these bees may be distant offspring from a swarm that one of his hives cast! Pretty cool.
Since before I picked up my first two hives, I have been dreaming about the day that I would find and collect a swarm of bees somewhere in the Richmond, Virginia area. In all honesty, I figured it would most likely be down in Charles City, where I grew up, as a lot of those folks know that I am keeping bees and looking for swarms. Regardless, I figured that it was a slim chance at the moment, as the word is only starting to spread.
So, when I received a call at 5:45 PM this afternoon about a ‘swarm of bees’, I was elated. I cannot remember being so excited (well, I was more excited a few months ago when I found out that my wife was pregnant – but outside of that, nothing comes to mind.) I ran into the house to check my notes. Despite all of the reading and research that I had done, my mind went empty when my wife said ‘swarm’ and I couldn’t remember the first thing that I needed to do! Fortunately, I have been keeping notes in this blog and was able to get my ducks in a row and strike out for Charles City (the swarm was actually located at a plantation nearby, called Westover Plantation – a grand, old home on the James River where some good friends of my parents live.)
So, here we are, headed out to Charles City, about 15 minutes from the house, when my wife casually mentions that Mushi (one of the owners of the home) had called another beekeeper before me, but just left a message. This was a real blow. Was that other guy (or gal) already out there getting those bees?! I had a hard time not putting the pedal to the medal at this point.Fortunately, when I arrived there was no other beekeeper in sight, so it was time to go into action!
Now, back to the swarm. When my wife relayed the message to me, she mentioned something about a ‘swarm of bees on the ground.’ I didn’t question her, but figured that she (or the initiator of the message) had gotten it wrong. Bees swarm on branches or some other obstacle they can hang on. They do not swarm ‘on the ground’. Per usual, the bees proved me wrong once again. Here was a pile of bees, smack dab on the ground at the base of a tremendous tree (perhaps 200 feet high.) Way up in the tree (well, about 50′ up), you could see a hole with bees going to and fro. But, here on the ground was a mass of bees (and hopefully a queen!) What in the world was I to do now? I had tons of notes, but not one of them mentioned ‘how to get them on the ground.’ In all cases, you were getting them off of an object, typically a tree. Life is never easy…
After thinking for a second, I decided to call Tom Fifer, my bee expert (well, he’s the expert that I bug with all of my crazy questions.) As fate would have it, he was out! On a whim, I mentioned my delimma to Mrs. Fifer and, much to my glee, she knew of a similar situation that Tom had and the solution! Put an empty hive with a couple of frames of honey on the ground near them and they will march right in! I had brought only one frame, partially full of honey (I do not have the resources that Tom has yet). There was nothing to be done but give it a go.
I set up the Deep right by the swarm (a hair from the edge of it) and dropped my frame of honey a little to the left of center. In seconds (and I mean seconds), a couple of bees went in and then the whole band started moving in. First in four’s and five’s, then by the droves. As I watched, you could see a few of them mill about on the landing deck and fan to send the sent to the rest. As a mass, the whole thing started moving towards the hive. It was truly amazing. An event of nature that few folks see, I am sure. I will never forget it.
At this point, I had an engagement with my wife at a friend’s house, so we skedaddled, with the intent of returning after dark to get my new hive of bees. You’d think I would learn. When we returned, around 9:30 PM, two-thirds or more of the bees were in the hive. But, a good mass of them was still outside of the hive, on the ground nearby! My bee luck never fails. I have no idea what to do now, but will go back out tomorrow morning and hope that they have gone back in by then. If they have not, I might take an empty deep and place it on top of them, with the deep of frames placed on top of that. I considered trying to scoop them up when I found them after dark, but decided that I would try to let nature take its course.
Why are there two sets of bees? If the queen is in the hive, the other bees should have joined her! If the queen is outside, why didn’t all of the bees in the hive go back out to her? These little critters continue to throw me curve balls.
The worst thing about this is that it will get down into the low 40’s tonight. I hope the ones outside can survive.
If I had a dime for each time I went into a hive and found what I expected to find, I would not have a single dime. As my Pop likes to say, if you do the same thing again and again, expecting different results, it is a definition of insanity. Per my post this past weekend, today was the day to go in and find the capped queen cell and create my first ‘split’. As I should have expected, that did not happen.
Hive 1 – Geronimo Hive Queen: No sign of the little wench
Brood: 6 to 7 frames of brood, although a lot has hatched out
Eggs or Larvae: Lots of Larvae
Population: Monster drones!
Misc: Found 3 Queen cups. Changed entrance reducer to the larger entrance.
There is no activity in the new honey super, but I am not too surprised. It did get a bit chilly the last few days, so the bees are probably not getting too crazy yet. The top deep continues to fill up with honey and nectar (curing).There really were not a ton of bees on these frames, but it could be that most were out and about today.
Now, the business end of this thing was in the bottom deep, or so I figured.The first thing that I noticed were some monstrous drones! I have seen drones before (both earlier this month and last year), but these things looked HUGE. I actually thought one was a bumble bee for a moment. It was probably my state of mind, but I swear these things were bigger then I had seen before. I should have grabbed one to practice for grabbing the queen, but my mind was on ‘split making’.
After checking the first couple of frames, I came to the one with the queen cell that I found last weekend. The way I figured it, this thing would be capped by now (and emerging within the week.) But, nothing. The cell (really a cup, see later) was in the exact same state that it was before. This time, I had some sunlight and was able to look into it. Nada. It was bone dry. One of my warriors sort of mocked me by crawling by and looking into it as well, as if to say ‘what are you looking at? nothing in there, bub.’
I had been doing a lot of reading on the internet and had come across the term ‘Queen Cup’, referring to partial cups that the bees create to ‘prepare for a rainy day’. By that, I mean, ‘ready to make a queen at a moment’s notice if that moron that keeps opening our box every few days accidentally kills our current Lady!’ As I went through the hive, I actually found 2 more of these things. Empty little coffee mugs, hanging from the bottom of the comb, aimed straight down. I am now coming to believe that there was no cause for alarm. I lost my original queen last Fall, or sometime after July when I last saw the green-spotted Lady (I do wonder where she is today – in another beekeeper’s hive (caught the swarm that I cast) or in some tree out there…)
At any rate, I think the Geromino Hive is doing fine. They never went to the top deep, but there are tons of bees and lots more on the way. When I check in a couple of weeks (right before I get my 2 new Nuc’s from Tom Fifer!), I expect them to be up in the honey super (I might peak in, without breaking frames, between now and then to be sure.)
Hive 2 – Albo Hive Queen: No sign. She is like a Ninja Queen. Hiding everywhere.
Brood: 6 frames of brood, although a lot has hatched out
Eggs or Larvae: Lots of Larvae
Population: Several drones
Misc: Found 2 Supercedure cells.
It’s been 11 days since I last checked this hive and I just wanted to see how they were doing. I did find two Supercedure Cells (or cups), but neither had been drawn out. I could only see into one of them and it was empty. As I said last Fall, I wanted them to overthrow this queen, so this is all good by me. No queen cups on the bottom of any of these frames, but the bees appear to be thriving.
I did swap out their bottom board for one of the nicer screened bottom boards. I have painted this one and it has a removable plastic tray that will let me do some mite counts this year.
The other irritating thing about this hive is that they had once again built up a ton of burr comb between the top and bottom deeps. I actually saved the stuff this time. Maybe I’ll make a candle or some chap stick. I put the honey super on this one and let her be.
One final note regards the honey super and Brushy Mountain. I purchased a ‘spacer’ from Dadant last year, under the assumption that I would go with 9 frames in my honey supers. Fortunately, my bees were never strong enough to draw out these supers. It turns out that you can end up with a real disaster using these spacers on foundation (something that Brushy Mountain makes clear in their catalog and Dadant fails to mention.)
It is not my intent to do another major investigation (breaking apart all frames in the hive) for at least another 2 to 4 weeks on either of these hives. I think I have bothered them enough for now. Plus, I have two new hives coming (and a third that Pop is going to start up) at the end of April, so my hands will be full at that point.
The ERBA had its monthly meeting tonight, focusing on the inner workings of the hive. Tom Fifer gave most of the talk and it was good. I opened my big mouth, primarily because of my general excitement about bees. In retrospect, I probably had the least experience of anyone in the room!
The problem centered on questions about ‘what to expect when you open the hive’. Well, I can tell anyone reading this blog that you can throw that out the window. I would say that about 50% of the time, I see what ‘people tell me to expect’. The other 50% of the time, I see things that no one prepared me for. As Tom Fifer said at our meeting tonight, ‘my bees didn’t read the same book that I read’. So, I was dying to speak the whole time, as if these folks gave a hoot what I had to say! Heh.
Regardless, I wish the talk had been on creating splits, like I thought it was going to be. I have a bunch of scenarios that could pop up in the next 72 hours that could require this knowledge. I have been combing the internet and trying to prepare myself, but who knows how it will go.
Of note, Tom did give me one tidbit of knowledge that I had not picked up before. To begin with, he only drops one frame of bees with the queen cell into the hive, adding a frame of honey and a frame of pollen to get them going. He doesn’t add more. I’m guessing this is partially due to the fact that he has that Deep divided into 3 or 4 sections that will only take a few frames. Regardless, the real bit of knowledge was what came next. You need to move your split at least 3 miles from the original hive. Any foragers that you move will simply go back to the original hive if you do it closer. I am guessing this is because the average foraging distance is about 2 miles. Go 3 and the foragers will not be familiar with the area. This is good info, as I had planned on placing my split about 3 feet from the original hive! It would have been yet another costly venture. I suppose I will have to move them out to Charles City and start my beehive out there.
Well, back to researching splits. The next post is likely to be a doozie…
Hive 1 : The Geronimo Hive Queen: Found (unmarked, new queen)
Brood: 5 to 6 frames of brood
Queen Cell: Found (could be old or new)
Drones: Flying now, only a few about (maybe a dozen or so)
Drone Cells: In the corners and thereabouts
Hive Components: One frame, an original from Tom Fifer, on verge of needing repair
Actions: Switched entrance reducer to the larger opening
The inspection today was the most frustrating inspection that I recall. My primary goal today was to change the entrance reducer to the larger opening. I also wanted to check for possible swarming activity. My last check was 15 days ago, so they should not have been able to raise a queen unless I missed the queen cell on my last inspection.
To begin with, the bees are filling up the top deep. The last inspection had 2 frames of capped honey. This inspection had 4 full frames and several that were partially capped. The bees are using everything but the outermost frames and even some of them are getting a little use. Nectar is being cured and honey being stored. This meant it was super time.
When I got to the bottom deep, I went to work inspecting them one frame at a time. There was still a lot of capped brood, but there were also a frickin ton of bees. A couple of them became a bit grumpy, but no one stung me. I wore shorts and my bee jacket & veil, with gloves, as I seem to be a bit more nervous then I was last year. One frame was trying to come apart (as it did on my last inspection), so I swapped it with a couple of other frames, moving it out a bit from the center. It had brood in it, but I need to move this one towards the outside so that I can hopefully replace it.
About 5 frames in, I came across a queen cell. It was like a small volcano with a hole in it. I marked this frame towards the outside (North side of the hive) and kept going with the inspection. At this point, I was a little excited. I was thinking that I would do my first split this year after all and put those new Nuc’s to work! Regardless, I needed to see if they were building other queens. I also decided that I needed to find my queen this time. I had seem some larvae, but no eggs. Plus, I was going to have to locate her when I did the split, so this was where the rubber met the road. Much to my chagrin, I did find her. But, it wasn’t the queen I started with. This one did not have a bit of paint on her.
Now, my dilemma. I have not really seen the queen in this hive since last Summer. Did they swarm last year and I missed it? If so, the queen cell that I found is indeed a new queen coming and I need to do something about it pronto. If not, then this queen is from a swarm that my hive cast off within the last month. I find this very hard to believe, as Drones have just started to come out. Plus, this hive had a ton of empty, drawn comb above them. They should not swarm with so much empty space (of drawn comb) above them! Or, that’s what I have read and have been told. The bees never even went up into the top deep!
So, ever hopeful, I am hoping that the new cell is a queen on the way. This Wednesday or Thursday, I will do a split if the queen cell that I found today turns out to be capped then. I will need to research this more.
I did put a medium super (all foundation, unfortunately, as that is all that I have right now) on this hive so that they can fill that out if need be. I also need to schedule a time to get into my weak hive. They may be getting ready to swarm too! ARGH!!!!
My cousin, in Charles City County, picked up two bee hives right around when I did (Spring of 2009), except that he ordered packages from somewhere, whereas I picked up Nuc’s from Tom Fifer, a beekeeper in the Richmond, Virginia area. He received his packages in early April and I received my Nuc’s in mid-May. This gave his bees a distinct advantage (in Nectar Flow time), but I rationalized that I would be getting the stronger bees for the long haul (local bees that have not been overly treated in the last year or two and should have a superior chance of surviving our Winters and our pests.) Over the Winter, one of his hives died, whereas I still have both of mine. But, to be fair, I nursed my weaker hive along and I do not think it would have made it otherwise. He did not do much nursing.
But, he is not sure what is going on in his remaining hive and would like to find the Queen. I told him that I would be happy to lend a hand and have a look. After Easter Church Services, I dropped by his house and we got ready to do the investigation. He immediately suited up, from head-to-toe, in bee gear. He was armed for bear and made no bones about it. He said that one nailed him beneath the eye the other day and he was just walking by the hive! Needless to say, this tidbit had me a tad worried. I have never had them get angry by just hanging around the outside of the hive! So, I did put on my veil and lit the smoker (figured I should be prepared, just in case.)
We opened the hive and began the inspection with little ado. I did note that he was smoking them a bit differently then I did (more smoke, with a lot of little puffs, whereas I simply give it one or two long pulls and typically leave them be.) Regardless, we were able to get into the top deep and immediately discovered empty brood areas in several frames. This was odd to me until he advised that he had done a reversal about 10 days earlier. He simply did it because someone said it should be done in March. This was probably not a good idea (I’ve always been told to go by what your bees are telling you, not by someone else’s schedule.) Regardless, I do not think it did much harm, as this hive had more bees then either of my hives. They were everywhere. There were so many of them that I was sure we would find swarm prep in progress.
The hive inspection was interesting, in that he had made the same error that I did. Lots of propolis was built up between the frames and had to be removed. We also found where his bees had build drone brood comb between the hive bodies. We had to destroy this (to totally do our Spring cleaning.) When lots of drone pupae were exposed, I commented that you could sometimes see mites (or so I had been told) and, lo and behold, I saw one! There, right on one of the drone pupae, was a bit, nasty mite. Upon closer look, I could see the thing moving its legs! Truly a nasty little creature.
By the time it was done, I could see a ton more pollen in his then I had seen in mine. He had about the same honey left (2 frames of capped honey) and, maybe, the same capped brood. He only had one frame that was chock full of capped brood. I think that his reversal may have gotten the queen and the bees a bit out of whack. He asked if he should re-reverse them, but I advised to leave them be for now. We never saw the queen and I was not sure where she was. Regardless, the hives are good and clean now and it will be a breeze to investigate them next time. I figure two weeks and I will go out and have another look with him. This will keep us on top of any possible queen cells and hopefully enable us to find the queen to determine whether another reversal is needed or not.
He also advised that the bees didn’t seem to get riled up, like he was used to. I will say that they got a bit angry when we were destroying the comb between the brood chambers, but they did get over it. I would call these bees gentle. I am guessing our next inspection will be a bit easier.
For the past several posts, I have been sweating about the fact that I could not reverse my bee hives in my Richmond, Virginia area. To begin with, I was worried because it seemed that March was when it should be done for my area (based on my internet forum browsing – I do my beekeeping in Varina, Virginia, just outside of Richmond, Virginia, in a Zone 7 area) and my bees had not gotten to that state in March (both the Geronimo Bee Hive and the Albo Bee Hive are in the bottom deep.) Secondly, I wanted to clean up the bottom Deep’s, because of all of the burr comb that I thought was all in between the frames.
Well, to the second point, it appears that my main problem was that I did a terrible job of keeping the propolis off of the frames last Summer. The gals would gunk up the area where the frames touch and I kept letting it build up. Each time I inspected the hive, I would remove the frames and then push them back together (without removing the propolis.) As it so happens, the frames were slowly getting further and further apart, as the propolis kept building up. Over the past two weeks, I have removed the majority of this propolis and effectively dealt with that mess. I also learned a valuable lesson about ongoing maintenance as you inspect your hives! Clean off that propolis! It’s fairly easy to do anyway, taking just a swipe of the hive tool.
But, the first point is still a problem. Only now I have read where other folks are talking about reversing now or even in mid-March. Many of these folks are in my area or zone. So, now I am wondering if my bees are doing everything right. Only a week will tell, but if this turns out to be the case, I will find the queens up in the upper Deeps laying (well, I might find a new queen in the Albo hive, who is not laying yet.) If this turns out to be true, I may still reverse yet (although probably not until two weeks from now or so.) One poster indicated that he reverses when the main dandilion bloom comes on. I am close to that, as more and more are showing up. I am not cutting my lawn because of that (although my wife believes it is a convenient excuse…)
Today (actually, 10 minutes ago), I took on the first major hive inspection of the year, focusing solely on Hive 1, the hive that I have started to call my Geronimo Hive. As per my last post, I had lots of expectations for this inspection. Given the fact that folks to the North of me are talking about reversing already, I went in prepared for Bear. Outside of my normal gear, I brought with me:
One of my new Nuc’s, in case I found queen cells
A brood chamber full of frames with foundation, to replace any frames that I removed from this hive, in case I had to
A top board, as I was definitely going to remove the feeder, which they were not using at all (two idiot bees had ventured into the mix and drowned, of course)
A capping knife, to cut out any major burr comb that I came across
A new, painted bottom board (the current screened bottom board is not painted and I want to paint it this year, plus it will be easier to clean it away from the hive.)
The goal of this inspection was to figure out what was going on, find the queen and clean up the bottom brood chamber. For the most part, it was a success.
When I opened up the hive, I removed the feeder and dumped it on the ground nearby. I then removed the Imrie shim and I found one bee eating on the pollen substitute. I think it was wise to drop this in here, although I probably should have done it early (like early February) instead of early March. They had eaten half of a full patty, but now were finished with it. As I found out later, they were bringing in more then enough pollen to feed themselves (and natural pollen surely tastes better then the stuff that I gave them.)
Wonder how this happened?
I removed the pollen (tossing it on the ground nearby), and started my inspection of the top brood chamber. There were a fair number of bees about the place, although all of the honey towards the south of the hive was gone (except for a couple of patches). In one frame, I found two bees that appeared to have died of starvation, with their tails sticking out of the comb (of course, I forgot to poke them, so I am only assuming they were dead.) On the north side of the hive, I found 3 to 4 full frames of capped honey. For the most part, this hive body was fairly clean. So, I put it aside and began to examine the motherload.
This time, I lit my smoker and hit them with a few puffs. There were tons of bees (I should have grabbed a picture of them.) I think they covered 6 or 7 frames on the top (and I mean tons – not just a few wandering about – head-to-tail, thick). The frames in this hive have no space on either end, due to my lack of experience last year. One of my goals was to remedy this.
What the heck are they doing here?
I began to remove the frames, one-by-one. What I found was interesting. What I did not find was irritating. The hive had a couple of frames with lots of pollen and some nectar/honey-being-ripened (partially full cells). One frame, oddly enough, was eaten up a lot. It was like wax moths had gotten to it, but I found no evidence of them in the hive. As I moved through the hive, I came across 4 or more frames that were stock full of capped brood. There were probably one to two frames with eggs and larvae. Fortunately, there were no queen cells (that I found, anyway.) I also did not find that rascal Queen. But, I did not push it, as the frames with the eggs (where I assumed she’d be), had bees a couple of layers thick, all on top of one another. I figured she could easily be in there, out of my sight. I did find one frame with a few capped drone cells, but it couldn’t have been more then 30 or so cells. This was a positive sign, as I also did not see any drones, so we should not be very close to any swarming activity.
Propolis Scraped from Frames
One of the big things that I learned during this inspection was that my problem with the Geronimo hive was not burr comb, but propolis. I see now that the whole ‘cleaning’ aspect of beekeeping escaped me (my wife would say that it escapes me in life). When I was inspecting the frames last year, I should have been using my hive tool to scrape the propolis off of the sides of the frames (where they come together). Since I did not do that, it had built up a lot between several frames, spreading them out substantially. But, I took care of it at this inspection, scraping the sticky stuff off of the side bars of each frame, so they could come together more flush. In the end, I did have a little space on the ends of the frames (although I will have to continue to clean through the warm months to fully defeat this issue.)
What is this junk at the entrance of my hive?
As I was leaving the hive, I took a quick picture of something that has started to bug me over the last month. It seems to me that they are generating a big mess at the front of the hive. Some of this might have been here all along, but I am certain that it was not this thick. I am assuming it is excrement, possibly due to the lemon feeder I had on top these past few weeks. Regardless, I am watching it (they do get problems with having some kind of bee diarrhea, but this doesn’t look at bad as the pictures that I have seen of this problem.)
Also, this last picture was just an oddity. For some reason, bees from the outside frames that I had put on my frame holder decided to show off and do some kind of bee acrobatics. I am not sure if this is normal or not, but my bees are always putting on this kind of show (they did it last year and the young ones from this year appear to have picked up the same trick. I typically have to hold them over the hive and push them off with my hand.
Both hives showed strong activity this weekend. There were tons of bees on the landing board and all on the front faces of both hives. It’s fun to watch them coming and going when they are active. They are really bringing in the pollen now, yellow’s, red’s and a beige color. I decided not to open them, as I am hopeful that they are moving up into the upper deeps. And this gets to the heart of my worries.
Having checked a few other blogs out in cyberspace and monitoring some forums, there are lots of folks to the north of me that have already done their reversals. Although the weak hive definitely had a barrier (tons of sugar water honey, making them honey-bound, above them), the stronger hive should have moved up. They have lots of empty, drawn comb above them.
Regardless, I have come to learn that there is no correlation between seeing something that I did not expect and the well being of my hives. Said another way, I am typically concerned for naught (and this has frequently driven me to do things that probably annoyed the bee’s at best and set them back at worst!) Even so, I am certain that it is past time for me to actually break the bottom deep’s open. As of now, I have only viewed them from above, since there is so much burr comb in their loose formation (see my earlier post on why this happened, as I cannot bear the pain of repeating my idiocies again!) So, this coming weekend is going to be a big one. As a reminder to myself, my plan is as follows: A few bees finally decide to eat on the pollen patty.
Open each hive and pray that there is some movement into the upper deep’s (by ‘movement’, I mean that I need to see queen activity up there). If I see it, I may wait another week or two before proceeding to the next step. For me, it is critical to locate both queens at this inspection. I have gone 6 months without seeing either of them.
Remove each frame in the bottom deep and do a thorough inspection. Record honey, pollen and brood estimates.
Check for any drone cells. It is my understanding that swarming begins when the drones first emerge. I do not expect to see any this early, but we all know how it goes with my expectations.
Clean all frames of propolis and burr comb. This could get messy, so I hope to bring a little container along with me. I am going to clean up these frames. I might even smoke them for the first time this year if things get hairy.
Clean the bottom deep of propolis and any stray wax.
Take two of more of the oldest frames (the ones that came as part of the Nuc) and move them to the outside of the deep, for removal/replacement next year.
Identify what frame the queen is on and make sure she is not on the bottom. Then, remove the bottom deep from the screened bottom board and replace with my painted, screened bottom board.
Put them all back together.
Hopefully, this will all go well. The strong hive has had a big batch of sugar syrup and Honey-B-Healthy on them for a week now and they do not seem to have touched it. I think this is a positive sign, as they must be finding nectar out in the wilds (I noticed that my plum tree is blooming now.) This is little doubt that there are all kinds of surprises waiting for me, but here are some of the things that I might come across and my plans for dealing with them (I am trying to get these clear in my mind so that I have all of the necessary equipment on hand when I make this dive.)
Swarm Queen Cells: If I find these, I will do a split. I will move the old queen, a frame of brood and a frame or two of honey to a Nuc. If I have more then one frame with a queen cell on it, I might take one of the spare queen cells and also drop it into a Nuc. I purchased two Nuc’s this year for this exact reason. I honestly hope that I do not have to use them…
Supercedure Queen Cells: If the weak hive is getting ready to start a rebellion, I will let them do it. The hive looks strong right now, but they tried to get rid of her last Fall (but I stopped them – or I think I did!). If more then one frame has a queen cell on it, I will pull it and drop it into a Nuc with a couple of frames of honey.
Lots o’ Honey: If the weak hive still has 7+ frames of capped honey, I will take 3 frames of this and put it in the freezer. I will take a frame or two of drawn comb from the stronger hive (putting in foundation here) and drop it into the center of the weaker hive. The goal here is to create some brood-rearing space.
For my Nuc’s, I will use the honey frames from the weak hive. Unless things have changed, I will probably have a ton of them left over. But, who knows what I will find. If my course remains true to form, I will find none of the above and instead something totally odd.
Honey bees in the strong hive begin to venture out in Spring
