This is a post related to an investigation of the hive, which is not simply ‘looking’ at it, but opening that puppy up and taking a real peak.
This morning I filled Hive 1 up with sugar syrup. I put about a container and a half in their feeder. This is not a good measure, as a container is a kitchen pitcher that I have. The next feeding I will use something that I know what the volume of it is.
The goal is for them to eat all of this up (this hive eats like the devil) by this weekend when I hope to get MegaBee supplement into the hive.
With the problems going on with Hive 2, I had the president of the East Richmond Beekeeper’s Association, ERBA, come over and have a look to see what was going on. When we opened the hive, we immediately discovered about a dozen larvae of the Wax Moth. I killed each one and removed 4 or 5 cocoons. I also removed that frame to clean it and subsequently replace it. I need to get it in a cooler.
This was a good lesson, although it was not aimed at me. The key point to this discovery was that no larvae were found on or around any of the frames that had bees on them. The good thing was that the bees on this hive had moved out to 5 frames, which was a first. They have clearly been active. The one problem with all of this is that the bees really have next to no honey at this time. They are effectively eating just about everything that they bring in.
My goal is to get more frames with honey on this hive. I hope to get some Megabee soon and will begin a feeding program to supplement that. I really do feel good about everything else, however. The Robber Screen and feeding have increased this hive’s chances of making it through the Winter. I will be checking them every week, going forward, but not using any smoke. The moment it becomes too uncomfortable (due to stings) to do so, I will reduce my visits to every two weeks and use a tad of smoke.
On a side note, I did also see one small hive beetle in the hive. A bee was chasing him. Beekeeping in Central Virginia is no ‘Walk in the Park’….
Update: On the Wax Moth front, someone on a forum advised me to look for Hive Beetles. He seemed fairly certain that this was more likely my problem.
So, this afternoon, after a stint at the Henrico County Gardening Helpline, I went out to have a brief look. No smoke this time (smoke sets them back and I am not using it again until I am stung), but I did not look into the frames.
I was able to get the feeder and the top deep hive off and finally replaced the bottom board with a screened bottom board. Bees were all over the place, but no one got real cranky and stung me. The hive looked great, with lots of bees on 8 of the frames (I didn’t pull them out, but could see them milling about.) They have not moved to the second deep, which is fine by me, as they are still working on the bottom one.
I did kill a handful of bees, but I hope to reduce this when I get my bee brush in the mail shortly. The little suckers love to run over to the spots where they will get crushed. I am now confident that anyone starting a new hive should feed from the start and put up a robber screen too. This is how a hive can get the best chance of knocking the ball out of the park when it is just getting started.
Tomorrow, we look at Hive 2! David Stover of the ERBA is coming to have a look with me.
It’s been two weeks since the last inspection, so I had to have a look at Hive 2 today, to see how it was faring. I have no idea how much the Robber Screen and sugar syrup feeding played a role, but the hive was looking much better. I found the queen and the bees are clearly working on 5 frames now. They also have been looking much more active at the front of the hive as well, with bees coming and going on a regular basis.
I checked the hive around 2 pm on a sunny day around 85 degrees F. Although I definitely found capped honey, I was unable to be sure about brood because I did not go very far into the hive (once I saw the queen, I closed her back up.) I also realized that there is very little chance that I will be able to see eggs or larva in the cells while I have the cap on. I will have to brave a ‘no hood’ inspection soon, so that I can start to check this out.
I also briefly checked Hive 1 and there was little to say. No work on the new brood chamber yet, but they looked very healthy, still working on 7 frames. I might have jumped the gun with these guys. We shall see.
Weather: Nice but very windy
Time: circa 8 pm
Beekeeping in Richmond, Virginia is a definite adventure! Basically, it was not perfect timing to be sure. Most of the bees had returned from their foraging and where holed up in the hive. You’re supposed to check them between 10 and 5, when all the gals are out working. The wind supposedly makes them cranky, but I have no idea about that. Regardless, I had some real tasks to perform and I could not delay (or so I thought.)
Hive 1
Queen: Check
Frames: 6-7 (some just being drawn out)
Spotted the queen, great brood pattern, drawing out frames 5 and 6 now, with a little work done on 7.
I did not keep track of how much brood vs nectar vs pollen (I forgot!), but it looked really good. In addition, since I had seen several training flights at this hive, I was definitely expecting good news. In fact, I had brought a second brood chamber along just in case. I may have jumped the gun, but I went ahead and put the second box on top and refilled their feeder. I had to brush the bees off of the top board with some straw but I finally got the feeder to sit directly on the box (the new brood chamber that I installed.)
All in all, I am happy with this hive and will probably only spot check (no frame withdrawal) a couple of times over the next month.
Hive 2
Queen: Did not see her
Frames: 3-4
Different story here. Did not spot the queen, but did see a lot of good capped brood. This hive had just started to use the feeder (I noticed the first use of it when I took off the top.) These gals were really not even on 4 frames. I have to hope that the problem is not that my queen died (no sign of any queen cells). I will have to keep an eye on this one, perhaps checking it again in a couple of weeks to see if there has been any progress. I am happy to see that they have at least started to use the feeder.
Of note, they were balling something on the top board when I went to brush them off. I have to say that these gals were pissed about me brushing them off and I received my first sting (on the pinky!) of my beekeeping career. I removed the stinger, just like they say, and all was good. In truth, I was stung at the end of the examination (when I was trying to get those fools off the top board since I was placing the feeder on top of the brood chamber.) I am not certain if this balling indicates robbing or not. I am definitely going to get an entrance reducer on these guys (and probably Hive 1 too, since I do not think it will hurt much) in the next couple of days (and try to level them out a bit more.)
Although I have been waffling on looking at the hives this weekend, I finally decided to basically let them be with respect to an actual frame inspection. I did, however, observe them externally on several occasions and frequently checked the hive-top feeders that I put on them earlier this week. As always, the two hives are not working at the same rate.
Yesterday, I had checked both hive-top feeders a couple of times. I never noticed any bees eating the syrup. In fact, except for 1 lone bee flying around in the feeder section in Hive 2, I never noticed any bees in the feeder section at all. This all changed today (I wish I had snapped a picture of it.) In Hive 1, the bees were in the feeder entrance thick as flees! In Hive 2, nothing. The more that I read up on feeding, the bees take up the syrup to help them build out more comb. Next weekend, I should see a substantial increase in comb. Hive 2 continues to struggle, at least from external observations.
As a final note, I once again found the bees outside of Hive 1 doing the Training Flights and actually snapped a picture this time. The picture definitely does not do justice to this event. Honey Bees are all over the place, climbing on the front of the brood chamber and flying all about in front of the thing. It appears to be a very positive sign.
Well, it’s a learning experience for sure. Today, a bit before 3 pm, on a mostly Sunny day in the low 80’s, I decided to cut my grass. As I neared Hive 1, I suddenly noticed a ton of bees buzzing all over the thing! I cut the mower and got off to take a closer look (maybe the mower had upset them.) As I neared the hive, I was amazed at the number of bees buzzing around this thing!
To put it into perspective, I am used to seeing two to three bees coming and going from this hive every 5 seconds or so. Right now, there were probably a hundred bees buzzing all over the thing. I could see a bunch coming and going, but most seemed to be simply buzzing around the front of the hive, occasionally hitting the landing board and some even crawling around on the front of hive itself!
Needless to say, I thought we had problems. Looking at Hive 2, I could see a small number moving back and forth (maybe 1 bee every 5 seconds, which is par for the course here as this hive continues to show less progress from outside observations then Hive 1.) At first, I tried to call the fella that sold me the bees, but he was not in. I even considered posting on the bee forums (http://www.beesource.com/forums/), but was not really sure that my description would give them enough to go on.
So, back to the hive I went, watching from a few feet away, to see what I could see. Robbing was one of my main concerns, but I could see no fighting at all. Occasionally, one bee would seemingly feel out another bee, but I really think this was typical inappropriate feeling by the bees (maybe transferring pollen or even nectar.) Mostly, bees were just coming, going and flying all around the front. As far as I can tell, they were all workers. I did notice that some appeared smaller then what I was used to seeing (or so I thought).
Unfortunately, I had a dog issue today and had to go to the emergency vet at 3:30, so I was unable to readdress the issue until around 6 PM. When I returned to the hive, everything was normal again. We were back to 2 to 4 bees coming and going every 5 seconds or so and no sign of my original issue. Regardless, it was time for the weekly check-up.
Hive 1
Still working primarily on 4 frames. The two frames outside of the 4 central frames were starting to get drawn out with some honey and pollen. I did not see the queen, but only went about 5 frames into the hive before I decided to stop. I found lots of brood and more bees coming.
Hive 2
These guys are working on 5 frames now. It’s hard to figure what to make of this, but these guys look stronger from the inside. Again, lots of brood and more bees coming.
Conclusion: After looking in the hive and reading some posts on www.beesource.com/forums/, I am pretty sure that I have now witnessed my first training flight! It appears that bees, early on in their lives (before they take the role of forager) go out for a training flight on nice days between 3 and 5 (I think mine started around 2:15 to 2:30 this day.) I am confident that this is what I was seeing. These bees were taking one of their first orientation flights, and thus all of the hubub (and maybe I really did see smaller bees!)
All in all, learning about ‘Training Flights’ was a very good thing. I look forward to seeing more of them in the future. I may give them two weeks to get going this time, before my next check. I hope to have both of my next Deep’s built by then, so that we can look at adding some more room for the little gals.
Wow. I would have never thought that those little bees would make me so nervous. Now I can see why they recommend that new beekeepers open the hive every week for a month, to get used to it!
I took another peek at my bees this past Sunday, around 6 PM or so. It was a nice day (perhaps in the 80’s) with a slight breeze. The sun was shining, although we (the Bees and I!) were in the shade at this time of the day (which is why I chose it.) The goal today was to locate the queens.
On Hive 1, which I had opened a lot last week, I immediately saw the queen through the top board. She was crawling around on one of the middle frames and then took a move to the inside. I decided not to bother these bees anymore (although, in retrospect, I think they were bothering me, which is the real reason I decided not to go further!) Regardless, since I had opened them last weekend and moved them about, I decided that this weekend’s goal was done.
On Hive 2, which I only glanced at last week (without removing any frames), I took her apart. Once, the bees appeared to be a bit agitated (they were eyeballing me from the top of one of the frames), so I hit them with my new smoker (which I lit for this examination.) They made a huge buzzing racket and then retreated back into the hive.
This gave me the time to begin taking the frames out. These bees were still mainly on the four frames that I had purchased. The outermost frame contained capped honey, nectar and pollen. The second one that I looked at had a TON of capped brood in it, but still no queen. Finally, on the next frame, I found the little beeotch. Of course, she immediately started crawling around on all of the most dangerous spots (where I could roll her when I put the frame back). There was a lot of capped brood here too, so all was good. I put the hive back together and we were done.
Mission accomplished in Week 2, although I need to give these hives a much better look next week. I want to know exactly what is on each and every frame so that I can start tracking it a bit better.
May 24, 2009
Well, it is 8 and 10 days, respectively, since I picked up my two hives from a local beekeeper here in Varina, Virginia. This weekend, I cracked them open to have a look! Although I had initially decided to wait a couple of weeks, further reading indicated that every week should be my schedule, starting out. I need to get the hang of checking out my bees in these early days! After about 4 weeks (towards the end of June), I should drop back to about once a month or so.
Regardless, I decided to go without any of the gear that I purchased and was not stung a single time! The local beekeeper shoots for gentle bees, so I am hopeful of getting an easy-going group of gals that will not hassle me too much.
But, there was a problem. One of the hives had the center frames spaced out a bit and the bees were extending the comb a bit further then I’d like. Add to this the fact that the monkeys were actively filling the outer (upper, in this case) cells and I had a very hard time getting the frames back in.
I did, however, manager to pull out one frame (of four) covered with bees, but that is as far as I got. I should have brought my smoker!
Oh well, we’ll see how it goes next year.
Hive One
Arrived 5/15
Started with four frames
First check on 5/24
Hive Two
Arrived 5/17
Started with four frames
First check on 5/24
I decided not to pull the frames out of this one. The issue with the stuck frames in Hive One was enough to have me waiting for the next weekend, when I will have smoke!
