I spoke to quickly about the war being over. It is really crazy and impossible for me to explain, but I was once again attacked by a bee around my shed, late yesterday. Per my last post, I had previously figured that a few bees has stung my pants or shirt and left their alarm pheremone on me. I assumed that this was sending out a ‘come fight this big galook’ smell to all nearby bees, so I was being attacked both Thursday afternoon and all day Friday, even though I was 80+ yards from the splits (where most of the angry bees) and maybe 60 yards from my other hives (which were not getting riled as I looked closely at their landing boards (periodically) during the same period.) In effect, I was a walking pheromone sponge.
Well, yesterday I threw all of the work clothes in the dirty clothes hamper and washed down thoroughly before making my way out to do some chores. About mid-day, I went to paint a few more Deeps and, low and behold, here she came again! This time, I was tired of it and decided that I would let her sting me. I needed to know if it really was only ONE bee. Finally, she nailed me as I stood there with paint in hand. I stepped back and she kept coming out me (without a stinger now) and went so far as to land on my paint brush, as if to say ‘I own this place, bub.’ Eventually, she went off to die and I was finally left at peace. Not a single attack since then.
I know it sounds insane. I am not really sure I believe it. But, it appears that I had one bee from that split that simply was not going to let it go. A real anger management issue=)
One Capped and One Nearly Capped Queen Cell
Well, on to better news. With all of the hassle around the split hives (specifically the queenless one), I was not looking forward to the inspection today. But, I needed to confirm that they had started some queens. For the past day or so, I had actually started to hope that they had not started any new queens. I could put a frame of eggs from the Geronimo Hive, my strongest gentle hive. But, with the scorching heat, I had changed my mind and hoped that I would find them after all (and thus not be forced to break two daggone hives apart!)
It was on frame 4 that I found the queen cells. That’s right cellS! I found two completed cells, one almost capped and another that was just starting to be drawn out. This last one indicates that I definitely put a frame of very new eggs in with these gals, as the egg in that one is three days old at least! This is all good news. My guess is that one of these queens will hatch in about 10 to 12 days (it takes 16 (give or take) total days, from the laying of the egg to the emergence of the queen), which puts us at Jul 1 to 3. She’ll then chill out with the hive, exerting her authority (killing the other queens that have not hatched yet or even doing battle with one if it does hatch at the same time), and otherwise being useless. Finally, after 4 or 5 days (putting us at July 8), she’ll go out to find the love of her life. Ideally (although it could be later), she’ll be laying by the weekend of July 11. I’ll check them then and, if things are going smoothly, I’ll take them to Charles City to Pop!
I also placed a fresh deep chamber of foundation between the deep brood chamber (bottom) and the Illinois super (top). Finally, I filled up the feeder and let them be. This time, I used a lot of smoke and there was not nearly the same amount of aggravation. But, I did notice a ton of fighting on the landing board. Apparently, I let the cat out of the bag by exposing the hive and letting a bunch of other bees come in and try to steal from them. But, I have very little worries about them. They covered every frame in the bottom deep and several frames in the Illinois super. They are strong and will defend themselves (plus, they are really mean…)
Yesterday was an interesting experience, to be sure. Later in the day, after the Berkeley Hive check, I went out to check both the Southside Hive and the Blue Cottage Hive to see if they could use some more feed (more on this later.) After this check, I was pretty much harassed by a bee anytime I went out in my yard, no matter where I was. My house sits on a little over 3 acres of land. No matter where I was, a bee would eventually find me and begin to actively fly at me, in my face, hair and all of the rest.
Now, I know this wasn’t one bee. It sort of felt like it was one – perhaps from the Westover Hive looking to get even, but I knew that was nearly impossible. Something else was going on. I think, in retrospect, that I had alarm pheromone on me or in my hair from my adventures earlier in the day. When I would walk out into the yard, some nearby bee (who was simply out to get some nectar, pollen or water) would get a whiff of me and go into attack mode. It was more then a bit annoying and disconcerting.
At any rate, I took a good shower this morning and either the smell is gone or that lone enemy has gone back to its regular chores and decided to stop bothering me!
As to the late day hive checks yesterday, I was discouraged to find that the Blue Cottage Hive had not built up since the last check on June 7. Eleven days and not much to show for it. In addition, while pulling some of the empty (foundation only) frames to get to the center 3 frames, I found a moth. It was probably a wax moth. It was too wiley for me to smash, but it was a good reality check. I also saw the queen actually lay an egg on top of the comb! This could have been a reaction to my pulling the comb (perhaps she was in the middle of laying an egg when I pulled it), but I am becoming more and more convinced that this is a bum Nuc. The fact that I paid $75 for 2 frames of bees is a bit of an irritant. I seriously regret having recommended other folks to buy Nucs from the guy that I purchased them from. I can only hope that any of the new Beekeepers received a better deal then I did.
Regardless, we are definitely in a very dry period right now. I am fairly certain that build up will all but stop until the Fall (and will only pick up again at that time if we have some rain.) The bees are probably going to hunker down and slow down the egg laying and try to eke through the summer without eating into their stores so much.
I have a lot of things going through my mind after the last couple of days. To begin with, I am going to move the Blue Cottage Hive into a Nuc. They are too small to be in a 10 frame box and simply cannot defend against their many predators with so much space. I will move their 2 worked frames and the 1 drawn frame (that was full of brood) that I placed with them in week 1, into a Nuc. I will then add one new frame of foundation and one more frame of brood. The frames in their deep will be frozen in my deep freezer for a few days (and the brood chamber left out in the Sun, far away from my other hives), in case there are Wax Moth eggs in them (the freezing should kill them good). My goal for the Blue Cottage Hive is to get them strong enough to move to a deep brood chamber as soon as possible. But, I have heard of other folks over-wintering Nuc’s. So, I might be trying that trick. As to the queen, I would bet that she is simply a poor specimen. But, I cannot rule out that she is simply slowing down (from what? she never really got going!) due to the dry spell and end of the flow. I might re-queen these gals, if the opportunity presents itself.
In addition, this slowing of the build-up phase has me questioning the wisdom of splitting the Albo Hive. It must have really been bothering me, subconsciously, as the moment I came to the decision that I would not split them until we had a good rain (and maybe not, even then,) I felt much better about the whole ordeal. Splitting at this time of year is a risk. Given the dry and hot weather of late, that risk has really become too great for this stage of my bee career. For now, I will only deal with the Westover Splits. Next year, I will definitely play with doing some early Spring Splits.
Finally, this moth (which I am nearly certain was a wax moth – but it looked like any old moth to me) will be dealt with today. I will setup two traps along the back line, where most of my weaker/smaller hives are. We’ll see if we catch any.
This morning, I made my way over to the garden to see if any of the veggies were showing signs of stress due to the dry period that I’ve been in (Richmond, Va has received some rain, but I have literally been without any rain at all for several weeks – which is really tough on the plants when you have scorching days in the 90’s). Before I even got to within 30 feet of the splits, I had angry bees coming at me. This is a first for me. Every hive that I have, up until yesterday, would let me get within inches of the landing board and take pictures, without getting mad. I am fairly certain these two wenches would have stuck their little surprise into me had I not hit the road.
For most of the morning, I have been trying to figure out what to do next. I need to look at the Berkeley Hive, but I will have to get suited up to do so, primarily thanks to the queenless split off of the Westover Hive. Bees are still in the air, mainly buzzing around where their old landing board was, but also buzzing all over the Queenless split. The real concern (I can get suited up, that’s no big deal) is that these bees might start robbing the young Berkeley Hive when I do an inspection. For some time, I kept saying that I would do it tomorrow, but I finally threw in the towel and went to have a look.
Fully suited, I was able to look at both splits again, both on the landing board and inside their feeders (I definitely did not want to open either right now.) Bees were all over me, definitely upset, before I came within 15 feet or so. But, none put a little stinger in me, primarily because of the bee suit and long pants. Both hives were eating, but the queenless hive had eaten the entire gallon in less then a day. I’m not sure what to make of this, but part of it is probably due to the dry weather. This is probably another ‘do not split your hives when’ rule that I have broken, but I am fine with feeding them copious amounts of sugar for several months, if no rain comes. I might even take Doug’s suggestion of mixing in some mega-bee, although (per my response to his comment) I have never been able to successfully do that before.
In fact, due to the amount of feeding that I might be doing this Summer, I am seriously considering taking Tom Fifer’s strategy of mixing .5 parts sugar to 1 part water. I am going to have to mix a ton of it and, according to Tom, that mixture is closer to nectar’s ratio then 1:1. We’ll see. For now, I am sticking to 1:1 with a tad of Honey Bee Healthy.
The other item of note (maybe of concern?) is that there is still next to no activity on the landing board of the queen-right hive. The queenless hive is covered with bees, but there is not a single one on the queenless hive. Since I could see them eating the syrup, I knew they were in there, but otherwise the hive looks dead. It isn’t, of course, but this is a good tidbit to remember for later splits.
But, onto the task at hand. The Berkeley Hive had nearly 7 frames of bees. 2 of them were only being worked on, but the rest were fully drawn and being used for one thing or another. I only looked at 1 of the frames that was being worked, as the bees from the Westover Hive were still harassing me. I saw one run into the frame that I was looking (she was mainly trying to find a way into my veil, but wasn’t watching to the aft and banged right into some bees on the frame of the Berkeley Hive. Man did they get angry. Up until that moment, not a single bee from that hive had acted upset. When that Westover Bee banged into their hard work, about 10 came off and went for that bee. They never seemed to go for me, but they didn’t have any time for that country trash messing with their stores.
At any rate, it was a good inspection. I removed the feeder that had smelled a bit a few days ago for cleaning and placed a brand new feeder with new syrup on them. I’ve been having a problem finding the right spacers to put on the back of the top feeder to provide a bit of ventilation. Yesterday, I picked up some washers for a trap out that I am going to start in July (or whenever we finally get a good rain) and used two of them on each corner. Stacked two high, it provides ventilation, but bees cannot come and go (and rob.) I’m sure the daggone Small Hive Beetle will use it to their heart’s content, but this hive is mostly clean of them.
That last bit does remind me of note that I want to make about the Westover Hive and forgot to yesterday. I did not see one single Small Hive Beetle when I did that split (and I was looking for them – especially the larva.) Again, it is a mean hive, but maybe that’s what it takes to deal with the problems of the world… On the other hand, stings really do not bother me. But, harassing me while I am in the garden is another thing. They better settle down once they get a queen cell started or I will take other measures. I cannot wait for a queen to hatch to get into my garden. Period.
We have passed the mid-point of June and two of my stronger hives are clearly not going to produce any honey this year (well, that’s my estimation – here in Richmond, Virginia (although I am in Henrico), the main flow typically ends in June.) This year, with everything starting so much earlier, it seems logical to me that things will peter out a bit sooner then normal. My June Bearing strawberries were finished by the time June came around this year. My strongest hive has done a great job working a medium super, but I am doubtful of getting honey from this one either.
So, how to I make this a positive season? I decided that I would do a couple of splits. I wanted to give my Pop one split and keep one for myself. Since this is my first year with established hives, I also wanted to let one hive play out for the Summer, just to see what it would do. I decided to let the Geronimo Hive play out. I do not intend to mess with it and want to see what it will do. But, I will split both the Albo Hive and the Westover Hive for my two splits this year. Today, I tackled the Westover Hive.
What is a split? It is simply taking one hive and making two out of it. The complex part comes in ‘how to split.’ The ‘how’ means different things to most folks. For my split, it meant dividing the hive in two. Both of my two target hives have two full deeps (for the brood chamber) and one medium that they are working on (my attempt at getting some honey.) I will divide the frames between the two hives, making sure both have at least one frame of eggs and an equal number of brood and other frame types (stored honey, capped brood, larva, pollen, etc…) Then, the hive with the queen will build up, while the hive that does not get the queen will raise their own. Simple. Heh.
When you read or hear about most splits, they are done in the early Spring, just before the main flow. This is the optimal time to do a split and possibly still get a respectable honey harvest. Obviously, I am doing it after the main flow, which probably puts my splits at risk. My plan is to offer them a lot of feed over the next few months and hope that they build up to two deeps again and stock up for the Winter. We’ll see how it goes.
Parent Hive Before the Split
When I arrived at the Westover Hive, all seemed well. Actually, it seemed calm compared to other days. There was no bearding, but a very active landing board, bees coming and going at a rate of 4 or 5 every second. Since I had seen bearding most of the previous week on all of the hives, I went to check out the others to make sure something wasn’t amiss (did they just swarm?!) As it so happens, all of the hives had fairly empty landing boards (the Geronimo Hive was just starting to do a tad of bearding.) So, it was time to do the split.
The tools that I brought with me were my hive tool, a spray bottle of syrup, my frame clamp (for getting the frames out easier), a camera, and a brood chamber (to hold frames while I divided them up with two frames of foundation (in case I had a problem with Small Hive Beetles or otherwise needed to swap out a damaged frame). I placed four cinder blocks behind the parent hive, facing it, to place my two splits on. The scouts would want to come back to the original location. I decided to place both splits a few feet from this location to hopefully keep the populations fairly even.
Post Bee Hive Split
I then pulled off the top of the parent hive and cracked the inner cover. Immediatly, about a dozen bee fighter jets came up out of the hive to give me the what’s for. This was more aggressive then I was used to and am definitely coming to the conclusion that this hive is my most aggressive hive. No more excuses. Regardless, I went to work.
I have become fairly oblivious to the regular flight of bees, wearing some shorts my veil and some gloves. But, by the time that I had dealt out 5 frames, I regretted that decision. Two bees landed on my knees and gave me a good stinging. In addition, I now had around a hundred bees buzzing me in the air (a hundred is a lot – when they are butting up against your veil to such a degree that you have a hard time seeing if their are eggs in the comb of a frame, you know you have some irritated bees!) After the stings, I retreated to the house for a drink of water and some long pants…
At this point, I may have made a mistake, but I am thinking that it will work out ok. On frame 6, I finally spotted the queen of this hive. I tried to get a picture, but she melded back into masses before I could get the camera focused on her. She was a big one, to be sure, and her wings looked just fine. But, this is where I learned a good lesson. I had already counted out 2 frames of brood and 1 frame of nectar/honey for both hives. On one, I had confirmed eggs. When I found the queen, I should have placed her on the other one. But, I placed her on the brood chamber that already had eggs. In my mind, I figured that I would find another frame of eggs for sure, but such was not the case.
Queen-right Post-split Hive
As I went through the frames, I found several that were probably in the 4 to 6 day range, but did not confirm eggs again (I am sure there were eggs on some of these frames, but I did not spot them.) A 4 day old bee has just emerged from the eggs stage but is still viable for a queen (she is still getting royal jelly.) But, there is no guarantee that I placed such a frame in the queenless hive. I could have gone back to find the frame with the eggs, but the bees were really going crazy at this point. When I would remove a frame, a good 50 or so would leap into the air (joining the rest) and start the attack. The cloud of bees around me became thicker then when I did the tree extraction (I really wish I had gotten that queen now…) I have come to the definite conclusion that these bees are almost more aggressive then I would like (notice the word ‘almost’.) I would like to see how they do when they start the year with a full complement of bees (I am wondering if they will out produce the more gentle bees – they sure work hard.) The bottom line is that I am torn between wanting to breed their work ethic with not wanting to breed their aggressiveness. I would hope to get the former, but with my luck, would only get the latter!
Once I got the hives separated, I put a top feeder on both and put a full gallon on each. Up until today, the parent hive had been drinking about a gallon a day (I was feeding them in preparation for this split.) We’ll see how they do as two hives. It should be noted (for humor’s sake) that I received my second sting when putting on the feeders. When I bent down to grab one of the feeders, it must have opened a small hole in the suit, as I suddenly and eye-to-eye with a pissed off bee. An observer would have gotten a chuckle, as I ran across the field, disrobing as I went. This was a mistake, as a good 50 or so bees followed me and one snagged me on the shoulder as I rounded the corner. The one in the suit never did get me and I was able to set her free once back at the house.
Some other things to note:
I used the bottom board, cover and main brood chamber from the parent hive for the queenless hive
I put the queen right hive in the top brood chamber of the parent hive
I divided the partially (hardly) drawn super in half, effectively putting a medium on top of both hives.
Queenless Post-split Hive
At the end of the event, both hives faced one another with an empty deep between them. I placed a small twig in the entrance to both and stepped back to watch (through a mass of angry bees…) The queenless hive had a ton of bees come out on the landing board, but I did not see any of them fanning. Since this was the landing board from the parent hive, maybe it was to be expected. The queen-right hive had 1 bee come out of it while I watched. Otherwise, no activity. I actually had to check to see if I put the bottom board on wrong. But, it was true – no activity there. Finally, I filled up the feeders and got out of dodge. These bees were not happy. I think I smelled to high heaven of alarm pheremone (from my body, but primarily from my suit and gloves – I had seen a dozen sting the suit/gloves). I probably need to wash the thing now.
As to the egg situation with the queenless hive, I am not concerned. If I do not see a queen cell by next Monday, I will drop a frame of eggs from one of my other (more gentle) hives. I am now a bit worried about the frame of eggs that I took from the Westover Hive to queen up the Southside Hive. We’ll see how that queen does (assuming she hatches and mates successfully.)
But, this event highlights the ongoing issue with the Africanized Honey Bee (AHB.) Several decades ago, a well-respected (internationally) beekeeper in South America began to observe the AHB and recognized several positive traits in that bee which he thought would be very desirable in his bees back home. The AHB is a fiesty creature. It has evolved in an environment that will go from a lush, wetland full of blooming plants to a desolate, dry land where everything is sleeping (waiting for the next downpour, which may be months away!) As a honey bee, one cannot live for months without nectar and pollen, so this bee developed a couple of traits to help it through this.
Primarily, the AHB can pick up shop and move at a moment’s notice. If this area is dry, it might be time to head many dozens of miles to a new spot where blooms still exist. To complement this, they build up comb very quickly. If you are moving around a lot, you need to be able to build up a place to hatch new bees and store honey quickly. Finally, since they move around a lot, they really do not put honey away to any great extent (if you might be moving next month, there is no need to store up a bunch of honey for the long haul.) These bees do not have our winters, so they simply never needed to store a lot of honey.
Finally, and most importantly, the AHB has a ton of predators that roam the landscape in Africa. Most of these predators are looking to get at the bee’s honey. Over time (thousands of years), the bees that were the nastiest/meanest were the bees that survived. If you could really put a good stinging on a possible honey theft – enough to get them to leave – your hive’s genes had a much greater chance to make it to the next generation. As time went out, the AHB became the meanest little bee in town.
But, there are a lot of Africans that are very successful beekeepers with this nasty bee. As you would imagine, they have worked to keep (and breed) those hives which absconded (picked up shop and left) less, stored more honey then normal and were not as mean. An insect evolves quickly (anyone doubting this has only to look at how quickly the varroa mite evolved to resist the treatments that came out only a decade ago.) It did not take the African beekeeper long to breed a very nice bee that built up much quicker then the European bee (honey-wise), but was missing many of the negative traits of the AHB.
This all sounds good, eh? But, why all the uproar about the AHB? Well, this researcher/beekeeper from South America went to many Apiaries and retrieved only the best queens. He sent them, by the hundreds, back to South America. This bee, when mixed with the European Bee, would be the answer to everyone’s prayers. But, things would not go as planned.
Of the hundreds of bees that were sent back to South America, only a handful (literally) survived. Instead of picking up a large gene pool, a very small sub-set arrived and survived in South America. In no time at all, a few (for all we know, only one – which would imply that all of North America’s AHB’s are descended from this one queen) absconded and intermixed with the local population. The bees spread and the rest is history, with the bees arriving in the southern part of the United States and causing all kinds of problems (and tragedies, born out by the headliner of this post.)
Now, these bees are killed on sight. Some beekeepers try to retrieve them, but requeen them immediately. Think about that. Someone actually catches an AHB (maybe this one has a gentle queen?), but they immediately kill the gene pool and replace it with a European queen. Now, if that hive had been really mean, making it impossible to catch before they absconded, that gene pool would remain in the wild. Thus, Natural Selection all but demands that the AHB remain mean (and get meaner) and abscond quickly here in North America. But, that’s the state of things today. I believe tomorrow will be a different beast.
Within my lifetime, I expect Africanized bees to be in Virginia. I believe they will continue to intermix with the European honey bee and that the Africanized strain will far outperform (and eventually overcome) the European strain in the wild (except, maybe, far up North – that will be my child’s lifetime.) But, am I worried? Not at all. I believe that this is a good thing. The AHB has a huge resistance to many of the problems that ail the European Bees of today. They also have good traits. The problem of today is the bad traits, but I honestly believe that we will one day learn to live with them (even embrace them) and be proud to have hives with that gene pool. We started out with the genetic trash of a handful of bees from Africa (or maybe just 1 queen.) Mother Nature has her way and we will, one day, end up with a superior bee. I believe that bee will have a good many genes from that 1 nasty queen that came out of South America.
The Small Hive Beetle is another one of those lovely gifts that beekeepers received from across the seas. The critter originated in Africa. Oddly, one would expect that the Beekeeper’s of Europe would have encountered them as well, but maybe the beetle could never survive the trip through the Middle East…
At any rate, this Bug likes to eat sweet stuff. Fruit, honey, sugar water…you name it. As an adult, it will sneak into a beehive and lay eggs in an out of the way location. Once the eggs hatch, a nasty little larva crawls around and eats honey, comb and brood (that’s right…brood…) The honey bee fights it off, chasing the parents out of the hive and cleaning up the eggs. I am guessing that they will also kill the small larva if given the chance. Once the larva is full, it crawls out of the hive and digs into the ground, mutating back into the beetle (see my Small Hive Beetle page for thoughts on nemotodes that might fight this.) Then, it just flies back up and starts laying eggs again…
But, this all assumes a strong hive. A weak hive can fall behind the beetles and end up with a nest of larva climbing through everything. To make matters even worse, they defecate in the wax and this is one substance that the bees turn their noses up at. They will not clean it out and can/will eventually abscond from a hive that is full of these little beasts.
Now, back to my beekeeping adventures near Richmond, Virginia. The Small Hive Beetle (aka SHB) has been slowly working its way up the coast over the past several years. Like the Varroa Mite, it can overwinter in the warmth of the hive’s cluster. But, it has had a hard time getting a toehold in the more temperate regions (it is a tropical bug, after all.) Still, the State Apiarist noted that central Virginia had its first SHB around 2005. He says that they will cover all of Virginia soon enough, so get ready for them.
Well, I have them. I had them last year, but only a few running here and there. This year, they seem to be everywhere. I think the early warm season gave them a bit of an advantage. Tomorrow, I will take a look at my small hives to see how they are faring, but the reason for this post centers on the Southside Hive.
About 6 days ago, I decided that I should give the Southside Hive some pollen substitute to help them get going. I had just sucked them out of a tree and they had no resources at all. I could see that they were storing nectar, but was unsure if they were getting enough pollen. Like an idiot, I tore off a small chunk (maybe the size of a silver dollar) and pushed it through the entrance (I could not lay it on top, as I have a hive top feeder on this hive right now.)
Well, I checked the pollen sub this morning, to see if they were using it, and found that they were not. Instead, as I pulled it out and turned it over, about a dozen SHB larva were crawling all through it! Ugh! These things are nasty. I wish I had snapped a picture, but I was so pissed that I dropped them on a rock and smashed the living bejesus out of them. Hopefully, I caught this in time and did not endanger the hive any. But, it has me wondering what is going on under the feeder. In addition, I thought I noticed a weird smell from the Berkley Hive the other day (it also has a top feeder – another thing that attracts the cursed bug). At the time, I thought that maybe the syrup was getting ripe (you cannot leave the feed, which is basically water and sugar, out in this heat for too long before it begins to ferment.) But, they were almost finished and I just figured I would swap that feeder out for a clean one tomorrow.
At any rate, this post reflects a big lesson for me. Once SHB weather is here, do not feed Pollen Sub. In this case, the bees will have to make it on their own. Natural Selection. If I give them the sub, I am only stacking the deck against what might otherwise be a strong gene pool. At any rate, I hope that I do not have to cull frames tomorrow, to get rid of a SHB problem. I might be going to the store to get some materials for a homemade trap…
It’s hot as Hades today in Richmond, Virginia, reaching 95 degrees on my gauge. Beekeeping is only fun on days like today when you’re just watching from afar. Regardless, I had to do a couple of checks to see what was going on in the Albo and Geronimo hives. I built another medium (Illinois super) box of frames last night and put foundation in them this morning. I wanted to make sure they were not close to filling of their current supers up. If they were, they would be going into the ‘it is daggone crowded in here’ psychosis and might decide to swarm. Putting an extra, empty super on top would give them the feeling of lots o’ space and keep them happy.
I cracked the Geronimo Hive, which I had seen working the one super on top, hoping to see a bunch of capped frames. Unfortunately, my luck continues to hold and it really does not look like they have done much work beyond my last look. All of the frames have some drawn comb on them, but none of them are fully drawn out and (with my brief inspection) I did not see any capped comb. Oh well. It would appear that I will not get any honey off of these guys, but I am going to continue to let them work at it this year, just to see how it goes. I did not drop any super on them. Of note, these bees were all over the landing board and some were actually hanging off of it, latching on to one another and creating a ‘beard-like’ look on the front of the hive. This is a common occurrence, although most folks worry that the bees are getting ready to swarm and fly off. Instead, they are just cooling off. I’d go out on the porch for some lemonade too!
The Albo Hive had not even touched the super on top. In fact, I briefly removed the super and noticed that they had not yet drawn out the last frame on the top brood chamber. This is the hive that I am going to consider splitting. They are not my strongest hive, but they are still a solid hive. I think that most of my hives did not get a great start, due to how late I received them last year. I am hopeful that next Spring will be a different story. I am thinking about feeding these bees just to see if they will draw out this honey super for next year.
Finally, I replaced the feeder on the Blue Cottage Hive. This weak hive has shown a lot of progress over the past week to ten days. I now see bees on the landing area and coming and going with more frequency then my initial investigations. I am pretty sure that dropping that frame of brood from the Westover Hive was a big boon. It should be noted that I momentarily thought the Westover Hive was robbing this hive, as I could see the blacker bees coming and going (a color that I mainly have in the Westover Hive.) Then I remembered that I had taken brood from them…so, these are some of that brood already going to work.
Not an extremely eventful post, but good for the journal and future reference.
Today, in my continuing effort to spread out my hive inspections, I decided to focus on two items. The first focused on the Geronimo Hive, as I wanted to check on the progress of the honey super. I do not want them to swarm because they filled that thing up too quickly. A couple of frames were capped, but most simply held drawn or partially drawn comb with nectar and/or honey. They could probably use another honey (Illinois) super, but I do not have the frames available for them yet. I will build some tonight and get it on them tomorrow.
The second, and more important, task was to check on the Southside Hive. Although I was hopeful that I retrieved the queen from that hive, I was doubtful. So, I wanted to see if they had started a queen with the eggs that I dropped in there last Monday (4 days ago.) I also wanted to see what they were doing with the rubber banded comb that I had jimmied into frames for them. I would like to get rid of this comb for two reasons. One, it is dark and old. This just means that it has the greatest chance of having pesticides and other poisons that have slowly built up over the years. Comb like this can lead to American Foul Brood, or so I am told, as it weakens the bees resistances to ‘issues’. I would like to remove it once the bees have gotten a good footing.
The second reason for removing this comb is that there is a chance that some of it has a recent insecticide (from the spraying by the landscaping folks that felled the tree that they were in) right on it. The last thing you want is something that fresh in your hive.
Well, as to the queen cell or eggs (eggs would have been a boon, as it would have meant that I had caught the queen), I found one capped queen cell and one that they were still feeding (I could see the larvae in the pool of royal jelly.) I am sorry that I did not get the original queen, but it is still good news. I picked up a ton of bees in this hive and they had already stored 6 frames of nectar (not full, but lots of cells on each frame that were 75% full of nectar). Basically, they had not drawn out any of the foundation and were simply storing in the existing comb. So, I could not remove any yet, but it will be at the top of the list once they get a queen laying. I will need to do the Bee Math to figure out when to check for the queen and then for the eggs. I have about a month or so before the plan hopefully comes together.
I should also note that the Southside Hive was eating the syrup at an average rate. I probably saw 10 or so bees drinking from it. I put a wooden dowel in the top feeder this time, so none could drown (and this played through true to form – none in the drink!) I will continue to monitor this hive, although I do not plan to remove the frame with the queen cells on it again until I think the old lady has hatched (probably next weekend – certainly by June 24.)
Well, the old saying that you can only move a hive 2 feet or 2 miles is hogwash. Beekeepers in Richmond, Virginia and nationwide always advise that you should not move a hive unless it is a really short distance (2 feet or so) or a really long distance (over 2 miles.) The short distance is obvious, as the bees should be able to get a whiff of their queen in the new location (not to mention the fact that the old home is right there beside where they are looking!) The long distance is based on the general belief that bees forage out to 2 miles and know the lay of the land in this area. If you move them a mile, for example, they’ll go out foraging, recognize the area and return to their old home.
Well, I moved a hive about 80 feet (the Southside hive) the other evening and placed a cedar branch over the entrance. The next day, I had about 6 bees buzzing around the old spot. The day after that, I didn’t see a single bee there. But, the hive in the new location has bees coming and going like mad.
It is true that this hive was only recently moved to my property. Regardless, the success of this move matches other experienced beekeepers (such as Michael Bush), so I will bank on it going forward. Of course, I hope to not do a lot of hive moving.
At any rate, it’s off to the wood shop now. I need to build some more brood chambers!
Today has been something else. We had a family crisis over the weekend and it has turned to the better as of this afternoon. With a few hours of time to relax, I decided to tackle some of my high priority items.
The Blue Cottage Hive needs some capped brood to bolster its weak ranks
The Southside Hive needs some eggs, in case I didn’t get the queen when I extracted the hive
So, I decided I would take both frames from the same hive. The first hive that I checked was the Geronimo Hive. Very gentle bees and (so far) the strongest of Tom Fifer’s strain that I have received. They didn’t give me honey this year, but they are the best hive I have. Interestingly enough, extracting that hive from the fallen tree over the weekend really relaxed me about the bees. I had bees all over me for hours and kept on working. So, when I went to the Geronimo Hive, I didn’t even think about the smoke. I also never wavered as they flew about. But, they gave me a big surprise.
I pulled up the t-cover and bees literally spilled out of the hole in the inner cover. It was like a small volcano! Only a few took flight – the rest just spilled out, rolling all over the top. This was odd. I had only expected to give a brief look at what had to be an empty honey (Illinois) super and then was going to look for my swap frames in the top brood chamber. So, I popped the inner cover and gave her a better look. Low and behold, these rascals were drawing that thing out and storing nectar/honey! All Spring, I have fretted about not getting any honey and only recently resigned myself to this fact and decided that I would instead look forward to doing a couple of splits. So, what happens? The bees go ahead and start working on the daggone honey! Ha! I look forward to A for so long and finally become depressed that I will not get A. I look at the bright side and start to look forward to B, giving up on A. Once I get really excited about B, those women go ahead and give me A! Wow.
At any rate, regardless of my emotional trauma, I took the honey super off and gave a brief look at a couple of frames in the top Brood chamber. Typical brood pattern with honey and pollen storage. Five zillion bees wishing I would go away. Lots of good news. I was not going to take eggs and brood from a hive that might give me honey (at least no this year!) So, I put them back together and let ’em be.
Geronimo Hive Queen : No sign
Eggs: Too dark to see. Did see larvae.
Only checked the Medium (drawing out all 10 frames, some nearly finished) and the top Brood chamber (lots of capped brood, honey and pollen.) Installed an Imri Shim to see how that might help them (the State Apiarist said studies show that it does increase the honey crop.)
Hive temperament was very relaxed (and possibly annoyed)
So, on to round 2. I pulled open the Albo Hive and bees also spilled out of it. I didn’t even take off the inner cover. I will inspect them later this week. The similar appearance (and the fact that the Imri Shim for these gals was installed a week or two ago) was all that I needed. No stealing brood/eggs from these gals either. I might get a bit of honey from them too!
At this point, I was torn. I couldn’t figure out which hive, Albo or Geronimo, to go for. Then it struck me – the Westover Hive! Very strong hive. Built up quickly. A tad cranky, but not that bad. I was thinking about splitting them anyway, to expand the bloodline. This was the perfect choice.
So, I opened these gals up and found just what I was looking for. They were working 8 of the 10 frames up top and had not touched (except with their legs, as they scurried over the foundation) the honey super. I would have been surprised if they had. They were at pretty much the same spot they were last time, so this pretty much proves to me the value of feeding a new swarm. I might feed them more when I receive a few more top feeders to help them fill out the remainder of that top brood chamber.
The second drawn frame had a ton of eggs and a good rim of honey. This was perfect for the Southside Hive, which I am going to get a feeder on tonight anyway. The third frame was a ton of capped brood, with the same honey stores. I took out the brush and irritated the badoodle out of them as I brushed them off, but was able to get every last bee off before putting into a transport Nuc and moving to either hive. I checked several more frames and found a good pattern with stores. No sign of swarming (at least in the upper brood chamber.) I was happy with the results and put them back together.
Westover Hive Queen: No sign, but found eggs, that I gave to the Southside Hive in case they need to start a Queen.
Working 8 of 10 frames in the upper brood chamber, but I took 2, so they are down to 6. I alternated empty foundation between drawn comb with the two new additions and closed them back up.
On opening the Blue Cottage Hive, I was sad to see several small hive beetles. I see them in the hives on occasion, but this small hive might not be able to handle them. I will make a few traps this week and get them on next weekend, to help them out a bit. I also spotted that wiley queen, with a big blue dot on her back. It’s not as noticeable as I had expected, as the ‘blue’ is a really dark blue. But, I spotted her and was happy. Also found a few eggs, but they need more bees (and comb.) I dropped the new comb with capped brood in to give them a new workforce over the coming couple of weeks. Once I get some honey off of one of the other hives, I will give them another dose (probably late June or early July) of capped brood. The primary goal now is to get a bottle feeder on them and give them something to fight the small hive beetle. More on that later.
Blue Cottage Hive Queen: found her on the last frame. Spotted eggs too.
Frames : Now working 3 frames. 50% growth is not bad, but the third frame only had a bit on it. Gave them a full new frame that should help, if the small hive beetles don’t do too much damage first. So, now they have 4 frames.
Southside Hive I did not do a good job of counting exactly what I have here yet. I think it is about 6 frames of brood comb from the tree and 4 drawn foundation. I replaced one of the drawn foundation frames with a frame of eggs (and a bit of capped brood and larvae). I’ll be working to get rid of the frames with their brood comb, as I am not sure what those fellows sprayed down in the hole and if it got on any of the stuff. But, first I want to see them get started (evidence of a queen is what I need.)
Tonight, when the sun goes down, I will move them and put a feeder on them (well, I might put a feeder on them tomorrow.) I put them under the shed in haste, due to the family emergency coming up right when I got home with them. They can’t stay there (or I can’t move my lawn mower!) I will disrupt them one last time tonight and put a limb in front of their entrance so that they will hopefully reorient tomorrow morning and start a good bit of growth.
