Today was my 2 week checkpoint for all three hives. I actually had hoped that I would be talking about my two new Nuc’s, but that will probably have to wait for another week or so. Some Nuc’s are ready, but I am 14th on the list, so I have a bit more to go. I sent several folks to Tom after I put my order in, so he must have a really long list (I was 14th and put my order in last Fall!) I didn’t put my Pop’s order in until early December, so I am not sure where that is on the list. I will probably give him one of my Nuc’s and hope Tom is able to get the third one done later.
As to my hives, things appear good, although not as good as I expected in some cases.
Geronimo Hive Found larvae and pupa
Did not find queen
The bottom deep was wall to wall capped brood (the outside frames were nectar/honey)
Top deep had three frames of capped brood.
Nothing in the honey super (not even working the foundation yet)
Three queen cups found on the northernmost frame of the bottom deep
I was surprised to find the queen laying in the top Deep here. At first, I wondered if I was going to be doing a reversal after all, but found a ton of capped brood in the bottom, so I left it be. I am also surprised to see that no work has been done on the honey super. It is all foundation. I am going to research this a bit. They have drawn out all of the top deep, so they have no where else to go. I hope to see some work in that Super at my next check.
Since this queen is laying in the top Deep now, I will still probably do a full inspection two weeks from now, just to see what is going on.
Albo Hive No queen found.
Found larva.
The Albo hive is coming along, although not as strong as the Geronimo hive. They still have 2 and a half frames of foundation (one of them was because I took one of their honey frames for the swarm) in the top deep. The queen was laying in the bottom deep and there appears to be a ton of bees on the way.
The main problem with this hive is that they (once again) built up a ton of burr comb between the top and bottom deeps. Tons of it, full of honey or nectar. This is the second time that I have had to scrape off the stuff. I wish they would spend their efforts building out the final comb in the upper deep and the comb in the honey super.
Westover Hive No queen found.
Found larva and tons of capped brood.
This hive is really something else. To begin with, the bees are blacker then my established hive. All of them. I had a friend come over and look at all of the hives yesterday and he even commented on it. They are really black. But, they are also hard workers. The entire bottom deep was either fully drawn out or 75% drawn out. One frame still had some work that needed to be done on it. I would guess that 6 or 7 frames had the typical brood pattern with honey above it. One frame was solid capped brood. She may be an old gal, but she is really going to town on the egg laying.
As to the upper deep, they had only done a bit of work on two of the frames. It was really not much at all. I wonder if they slowed down the wax build up because I did not fill the feeder for the past few days (I like it to be empty when I do an inspection)? Well, we shall see as I filled her up again this time.
One final cool item was that I believe that I saw the first orientation flight that I have noticed at this hive today. A bunch of the bees were certainly flying around in front of the hive and no fighting was going on. Due to the strength of this hive, I removed the entrance reducer and let them go. They are a strong bunch. I might do a split off of this crew if things work out right.
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.
Westover Hive Eye-balling Me
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.
Although the Richmond, Virginia area forecast called for rain most of the weekend, there were a couple of moments that allowed for a quick hive investigation. It was very windy, but at least the Sun was out. I actually opened both the Geronimo hive and the Albo hive, removed all frames but used no smoke. There were a couple of irritated bees, but most went back to work after cursing me out pretty good and buzzing in my face a bit.
Both hives had evidence of larvae, but I could see no eggs. I now see that waiting for a mid-afternoon inspection decreases the chance of seeing any eggs substantially for me. At this time, I do not have any direct Sun to look into the cells (the deciduous trees have leafed out, providing late afternoon shade, and do not give me a clear view into the cells. There seemed to be a million bees, but only a moderate amount of capped brood, compared to earlier.
This has me wondering if the Geronimo hive did swarm. The queen cell was clearly built up at this point and the end appeared to be torn off. After freaking out early on, I let them sit for 12 days or so. Maybe there was a small larvae in that cell when I looked back on the 12th. This is discouraging on two fronts: I may have lost a bunch of bees (reducing my honey gathers and wax builders) and I may have missed an opportunity to do a split.
Finally, and maybe a consequence of the above, neither hive has even touched my honey supers yet. They have not even started to draw out wax. I am a bit worried, because the top deeps are fully drawn out, but only about 50% full of capped honey. By the textbook, I should not have put the honey supers on until these were at least 70% full. Everyone was so hyped up about the flow this year that I may have jumped the gun on these supers. I am still on the fence about whether I will pull them or not.
The only bright side of this mess is that a colleague at work, who is also a beekeeper, recently contacted me. When I expressed my concerns to him, he did not seem too concerned (work was so busy that I only glanced at the email and will study it more carefully tomorrow). He said that he knew of other beekeepers that had slow build up until the end of April because they did not do any early feeding. I definitely did not feed my hives early on, as recommended by some, because I was worried they were honey bound (also the reason that I probably didn’t do a split and maybe the reason why the Geronimo hive swarmed.) But, hopefully this will mean that I will start to see real progress at my next check in a couple of weeks.
Finally, I only did a cursory check of the new Westover hive. The swarm seemed to have drawn out 5 frames, but I didn’t dig too deeply because they were a bit defensive. I can stand in front of the hive and watch them from a foot away, without causing any problems. But, opening them on a windy, partially cloudy, cool day seemed to be a bad idea. I decided to wait until a good warm day this week and take my lunch break to inspect for eggs. Regardless, the more that I read about a swarm, the more that I believe that I will replace that queen. The problem is that I want to keep the genetics going, if at all possible. Feral swarms receive no TLC and are, in my novice opinion, the best way to work towards an apiary that can make it on its own without my constant tinkering. I am leaning towards waiting for the flow to be over (letting them use all of the resources to the best of their ability) and then pinching the queen (assuming I can find the wiley little thing), allowing them to raise their own, young queen. The second choice would be to get a queen from a guy that advertised on Craig’s List from the Chesterfield or Powatan area earlier this year, claiming to have some local queens that had not been treated.
I am likely to have my hands full soon, when the two new Nuc’s arrive. So, who knows what will happen when things amp up around 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!!!!
