I couldn’t get out at lunch, but the weather was so nice in Central Virginia (when I got home from work) that I decided to give them a quick, late afternoon check. I was only going to break a few frames out of the top deep, so I didn’t think it would be a big deal.

The swarm has definitely started to make a little progress on the top deep. They had tear drop-shaped sections of about 3 frames (both sides) drawn and capped with honey. Although the Albo hive had started to work on their honey super at the bottom of the super, this hive started at the top (of the Deep). The sections probably take up about a third of each frame face. Also, a fair amount of each frame also had a lot of area that they were just starting to draw out and (rarely) store a little nectar in.

Once again, these bees did not sting me, but they are definitely on edge. They are nowhere near as gentle as my two purchased, 1 year old hives. There is always a bee checking me out and she rarely bores of this task (unlike the two other hives, where they go back to work after buzzing around me for 15 seconds or so.) I did not use any smoke this time, but was a bit nervous with my shorts on. I am probably being too paranoid about these bees, but they keep the adrenaline flowing!

Put a gallon and a half of syrup in the top feeder and left them be. I must say, they have a ton of bees inside the hive, although they do not have anywhere near the amount of traffic that I see at the Albo and Geronimo hives. I’ll check them again next week. I would sort of like to actually find the queen, just to get a look at her (some folks claimed that the reason that the swarm was on the ground was because the old gal couldn’t fly – I’d like to see if I can actually see some evidence of this problem.)

We received a nice rain over the past few days here in the Richmond, Virginia area. I personally picked up an inch and 3 tenths. This is not a ton of rain, but it literally fell over a period of about 20 hours. It was a perfect rain, soaking in to the last drop. This is going to be a boon for my gardens and, I would guess, the bees, since the nectar producing plants should really have the resources to work at full steam now.

I decided to check the feeder on the Westover Hive, just to see if they were making progress. I do not know what the cause was (either the rain kept them inside, the new brood hatched out and increased the population or they simply decided to start using it more), but they have finished off all of the syrup. A gallon in a week and a half is pretty good, for this time of year. I am now wondering how much of that second deep they have drawn out. It is really impossible for me to entertain the idea that they are going to fully draw that out before the end of May, but who knows. I like the thought of a bunch of country (feral) bees working their tails off.

I’ll make up another batch of syrup tonight and give them a look see tomorrow or Friday during lunch. I know it is not drawn out yet, but I need to know what kind of progress they are making. This daggone hive could swarm again if I do not keep an eye on them!

I was working in my yard today and a neighbor from about a half-mile down the road came driving up, saying he had a bee hive in his garage! He mumbled something about insulation, but I dismissed it and hopped into my car to go have a look. When we got there, I could see that he was doing some renovation on the building. He moved to a piece of wall and pointed at it, ‘They’re in there!’

I looked around and could not see a single bee in the air. Then I looked at the wall panel quizzically. Looking at me like I’m an idiot, my neighbor pulls back the wall panel and then points, before rushing back a couple of dozen yards. I moved up and looked, and it was nest of about 10 bumble bees…. Oh well. I thanked him anyway. I would rather he call me to have a look, as opposed to just killing anything that looks like a bee to him.

On my bee front, the bees are really working hard. The Geronimo hive has a continual inflight of 5 to 10 bees landing and taking off every couple of seconds. They are rolling in and out. The Albo hive has a lot of activity, but probably at about half that of the Geronimo hive. The Westover Hive only has a few bees coming and going, but they are still in build up. Every bee that I see is a bee that I moved from Charles City County. There’s a slight chance that some new bees will be out of their cells by next weekend (21 days), which I am guessing will relieve the ‘old’ nurse bees to do what they were made to do at their age (forage!)

Finally, the bees are sucking up water all over the place. Every rooting or seedling that I water ends up with a couple of bees landing on the wet potting soil and sucking down the water. I am guessing this is due to the heat and a general need for water.

With the recent disappointments of slow build up in my established hives, today was a great boon in my first ‘real’ inspection of the Westover Hive. I actually found eggs and they were working on their seventh frame already!

A week-and-a-half ago, I captured my first swarm at Westover Plantation. This hive I am calling the Westover Hive. It is a new experience for me in more ways then one. To begin with, this swarm was a feral swarm, so no breeding for gentleness has been done. I can observe them from a foot away with no worries, but both inspections have been a bit hairy. Some folks recommend requeening a swarm (with a queen from a proven breeder of hardy, gentle bees), but I am leaning towards letting them be (unless I take a lot of hits from them over the Summer!) The big bonus of a feral hive, in my mind, is that these bees have been making it in the wilds without the bumbling hand of a beekeeper. No chemicals. No sugar dustings. No screened bottom boards. No feeding during tough times. Even so, they have survived mites, wax moths and a whole slew of other things. They not only survived, but they did so well over this past (rough) winter that they thought a swarm would be a wise move! I have to believe that this gene pool is a boon, not something to toss because of a couple of stings.

After I got them back to Varina, I tried to follow the generally accepted practices and put syrup on them by day 2 and was waiting for this past weekend to check for eggs. Unfortunately, it was very windy and intermittently cloudy. Folks say bees get cranky in these conditions and these bees definitely didn’t like it when I pulled the first frame. They were so agitated that I simply put that frame back and left them be. I received no stings, so we are still in the testing phase. Hopefully, they will calm down on a better day (plus, bees might be overly anxious when they are trying to build up a new hive and some joker keeps poking around in their new  home.)

So, we were getting out to 10 days since I picked them up and I had not done an official inspection. Why is this a concern? When you get a swarm, you really do not know if you have a queen or not. Plus, their cranky nature could be another clue that the queen was missing (I’ve read where folks say that bees become very agitated when they do not have a queen.) I needed to confirm this. So, today was the day. It was very sunny, but equally windy. There was nothing for it, so I put on the full stormtrooper suit and went at it. I decided not to use smoke, as this can set them back a bit.

A few were still taking syrup, but I will probably not have to refill until late this weekend. I removed the top feeder from the hive and exposed the crew working on the frames. A good point was that no guards ran up to hamper me. But, there really were a million bees on those frames. Most of them were looking at me, lined up on the frames (a bad sign, or so I have been told.) I gritted my teeth and went onward.

At this point, a buzzing erupted right in my ear! I steeled myself for a sting, which did not occur. The buzzing was a weird, high-pitched whine and sputtered like my old outboard. Several times, I stopped and tried to look around my veil, to no avail. It was not until the end that I determined it was a daggone mosquito! The thing must have been sleeping in my veil before I put it on! Oh well…

I went to pull the first frame and, wouldn’t you know it, I got it about an inch up before I dropped it back in the hive! I have not fumbled with a frame since last year! These daggone gloves were making it difficult and now the entire hive was giving me a good loud buzz. Several were flying about, bouncing into my veil, but I was determined to move on. Fortunately, I was able to get the frame out (northernmost frame), examine it (nectar being cured and some stored pollen) before dropping it in the frame holder.

The next frame was the bonus frame. It was fully drawn with fresh wax (thus, it was as white as it gets.) Seeing eggs in these white cells is difficult for anyone. Add this to the fact that I seem to have difficulty seeing eggs at all, and I was a bit worried. But, I put it real close to my face and held it in the sun and, lo-and-behold, there were eggs! But, I was not done yet. Everyone talks about ‘laying workers’, which happens to queenless hives, when workers start laying useless eggs. But, the sure sign of this is that they drop several eggs in the same cell (I am not sure if the same worker lays multiple eggs or if different workers each lay one egg in the same cell.) So, I continued to scan. The whole frame had cells with a single egg in each. This was a GREAT sign!

So, the primary goal was attained. I had planned on looking at each frame, but there were a couple of  squadrons buzzing around me at this point and I decided it was time to cut bait. I got the frames back into the hive and then did a count of the frames that actually had some drawn wax on them. Seven! Wow. These gals were really drawing out some comb! I wish my other hives worked with such diligence!

I decided to drop another deep on them and move on. At this point, I will probably move them to the 2 week schedule and only check the feeder more regularly.

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!

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.

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.

The temps have popped up to 50 today in Richmond, Virginia and my honey bees are showing a bit of activity. The weak hive is showing the most activity, bringing in some pollen resources it would appear (and probably some training flights.) One of my large Maples has just started to bloom a bit (1 in 20 buds have broken), but I did not see any honey bees working it.

The strong hive (as of last year anyway) did not show as much activity this time, but I am not at all worried about these discrepancies anymore.

After a little over 3 weeks (I think), the bees finally were given a pass to take a Bathroom break today. The temperatures made it into the lower 50’s, although I saw them milling around the landing board and doing cleansing flights in the mid-40’s this morning. Basically, the little wenches have been in a tight ball, staying warm, for 3 solid weeks. Since they do not use the bathroom in the hive, they had to hold it the whole time! As my wife might say, that sounds awful!

At any rate, both hives had some activity, although Hive 1 was clearly stronger this time. To begin with, it’s outstanding to see that both hives have live bees. I could be off, but I believe that my risks are decreasing substantially now. The bees are starting to ramp up for the coming nectar flow and I just need to help them get through this last leg now.

On Sunday, the temperatures could hit the mid-50’s, so I plan to break the hives open and find the clusters. To date, neither of them have appeared to make much a move into the upper deep. I wonder if the Sunday check will show something different!

To finish this journal entry out, I actually painted 4 Deeps and 1 screened bottom board today. With the weather, I am hoping to work on a few more tomorrow and get everything back into the garage before Monday’s rain. My experience with paint, rain and these temperatures has been pretty bad (I have had painted, outdoor fences long before I had bees!), so the plan is critical. The good thing is that I learned a lesson from last year. In 2009, I didn’t get around to painting the things until April. In May, when I started to use them, the paint was not really dry enough and the bottom boards and the deeps stuck to one another. This year, I expect the results to be much different!