Month: June 2016

Queen right? Maybe!

Week 10, ninth hive check
The saga of the queenless hives continues. My sole objective with today’s hive check was to determine if there were queen bees present and that they were laying eggs.

Last week I embedded a new queen into Hive 1. This past Saturday I checked the hive and did not see the queen, nor did I see any eggs or larva, which by this time I expected to see. I did observe that the bees had cleared the brood area of nectar that was there the week before. I had a follow-up call with Randy Oliver (who I got my queen bee from) and he thought it odd that I wasn’t seeing any eggs, but did say to “listen to the bees.” He said that since the bees cleared the brood area of nectar they detect the presence of a laying queen and were behaving accordingly. So with that thought in mind into the hive I went…

Hive 1, Box 2 is getting very heavy with capped honey and pollen. No eggs, larva or brood. Box 1 also had capped honey and pollen, and on Frame 6 I spotted the queen! I did see a frame with some larva, but I didn’t see eggs. Now I know that I’m a newbee, but I’ve had no problem finding eggs in the past, so I’m not understanding why I’m not seeing them now. They were so obvious before, but if there is larva, there must be eggs. At this point I’m not going to worry. I saw the queen and I saw larva. I believe the ship has righted itself!

Last week in Hive 2, Box 1, Frame 6, I saw the queen. She was moving quickly over the frame and had no attendants by her. Randy mentioned that it’s not unusual for a colony to supersede their queen. And since I saw a queen cell two weeks ago, I’m thinking that’s what happened and the queen I saw last week was new and unmated. Box 2 is filling with capped honey and pollen. No eggs, larva or brood. In Box 1 I saw capped honey, pollen and young larva! So there must be a laying queen. But like Hive 1, I did not see any eggs. So again. I’m done with the worrying. I’m gonna let the bees do their thing! Next week I’m expecting to see lots of eggs, larva and new capped brood! Keeping my fingers crossed!

Hive 2 Stats
Did not see queen
Did not see eggs
Saw young larva
Spotty brood
Saw pollen
Bees on all frames.  Lots of capped honey

Hive 1 Stats
Saw the queen B1F6
Did not see eggs
Saw some larva
Very little capped brood

Week 9, eighth hive check

Neither hive has a laying queen! I have no idea why. I have no idea what happened!  🙁

June 18, 2016
I added a new second year queen to Hive 1 seven days ago. The plug was gone and the cage was empty. Box 2 had lots of capped honey, nectar and pollen. No eggs or larva. Box one had small patches of brood, capped honey, nectar and pollen. No eggs or larva. Where the brood nest should be, the cells were clear, open and empty. I did not see the queen. The top box still looked strong, the bottom box not so much.

Hive 2 had stores of capped honey, nectar and pollen. The frames in Box 2 are drawing out nicely. The inner four frames are getting heavy and full, with comb building continuing on the outer frames. I did not see any eggs in either box. I saw few larva and they were dry. There did not appear to be any royal jelly. Spotty patches of brood. I did see the queen. She was on the outer edge of the frame and did not have any bees around her. Last week I found a queen cell. Maybe the original queen is gone and she is an unmated queen. If so, why did the colony superseded the original queen?

It’s certainly disappointing! Now I need to figure out what’s the next step.

Hive 2 Stats
Did not see eggs
Few larva, all dry
Spotty brood
Saw lots of pollen
Box 2
Bees on all frames.  Frames 4-8 getting heavy with honey
Box 1
Saw queen
Did not seem heavily populated
Reinstalled plastic screen board

Hive 1 Stats
Did not see queen
Did not see eggs
Did not see larva
Saw very little capped brood
Box 2 was heavy with honey, nectar and pollen
Honey super: Bees on all ten frames, no comb yet
Reinstalled plastic screen board

Invasion!

It turns out what I called bearding on Hive 1 was thought by Randy Oliver to be an usurpation swarm instead.  The queens must have fought it out with both perishing. Bottom line: queenless hive. So today I drove up to Randy’s bee yard to pick up a new queen bee.

bearding-closeup-6-3-16
December 2010 issue of American Bee Journal, Dr. Wyatt A. Mangum describes the phenomenon of honey bee usurpation—the taking over of a healthy colony by a summer swarm.

 

I picked up a second year queen with attendants. The queen is encased in a clear plastic cage inside the red box. Attendant bees have also been placed inside during transfer.

 

Bees from Hive 1 are checking out their new queen.

queen-cage_6-11-16

 

Before embedding the queen, I lifted each frame and scraped away all queen cells, hopefully preventing perilous fights between the new and emerging queens. I embedded her in some vacant brood comb with the cap to the cage is still on. Tomorrow I’ll check the hive. If the queen cage is all balled up with bees, then they have not yet accepted her. Otherwise I will remove the cap on the cage where the bees will then eat through a candy plug (think marshmellow) to free the queen. Once free, she’ll start laying eggs.

embedded-queen_6-11-16

 

For the record, this is Week 8, seventh hive check. Sting #6  🙂

 

Queen right? Queen wrong :-(

Hive 1 is queenless! I have no idea what happened. I did not see anything inside the hive today– to the best of my newbee ability –  that might explain. I did not see any eggs, very little brood and reduced population from last week. I saw many queen cells and one which looked opened. So maybe they reared a new queen. I have no idea. Now I have to wonder if the beard wasn’t a beard after all…

H1B2F8-6-9-16
HIve 1 Box 2 Frame 8

 

H1B2F3-6-9-16
Hive 1 Box 2 Frame 3

 

H1B1F4-6-9-16
Hive 1 Box 1 Frame 4

 

H1B1-6-9-16
Hive 1 Box 1

Underwhelming compared to two weeks ago. Last week when I did my hive check I only went into Box  2. Things looked good. Pehaps Box 1 was already imploding. Here’s what’s also strange, Hive 2 also had a queen cell, though I did see eggs and larva.

 

H2B2F4-6-9-16
Hive 2 Box 2 Frame 4

One of today’s objectives was to do my second alcohol wash to test for Verroa mites. It was a little unnerving because I could hot find the queen anywhere (Box 2). Tomorrow I will look through the 300 test bees to confirm that the queen is not among them. I was surprised to see no mites for Hive 2. Hive 1 had 4 mites.

I also removed the entrance reduces on both hives. I was supposed to remove the bottom boards to help increase circulation, but plain forgot to do it. Will pull them out tomorrow.

Hive 2 Stats
Box 2
F1 – F3   Honey comb just starting to be drawn out
F4 – F8   Drawn out honey comb
F9 – F10   Honey comb just starting to be drawn out

Box 1
F1 – F3   Bees on all frames. Honey comb just starting to be drawn out.
F4 – F5   Possible queen cells. Bees on all frames. Comb building just starting.
F6 – F10    Bees on all frames
Alcohol wash: 0 mites. Tested from Box 1 Frame 8

Did not see queen
Did not see a lot of pollen, what there was was on outer frames
Removed entrance reducer

Hive 1 Stats
Super
Bees on all ten frames, not comb

Box 2
F1 – F2   No comb
F3
F4
F5
F6
F7   Queen cell?
F8
F9 – F10   No comb

Box 1
F1   No comb
F2
F3   Lots of pollen + honey
F4
F5
F6
F7
F8
F9
F10

Did not see queen
Did not see larva
Saw very little capped brood
Little pollen, little honey
Removed queen excluder last Saturday
Removed entrance reducer
Honey super: Bees on all ten frames, no comb yet
Box 2: Frames 1-2 and 9-10  no comb  Queen cell Frame 7
Box 1: Frames 1 no comb  Frame 3 pollen and honey
Alcohol wash: 4 mites. Tested from Box 1 Frame 5
Removed honey super

 

 

Neighbors :-)

deer-6-7-16

These are the deer who share my pasture with the bees. They are about to effortlessly jump over the wire fence and settle in for the evening.

Last night I attended the Nevada County Beekeepers Association’s monthly meeting. That’s the group I belong to. I’ve been attending meetings since January and always learn so much. There’s easily over 50 folks who come out once a month. There’s news, question and answers, club business and always a speaker.

So new things coming for Thursday’s hive inspection…

And the beard goes on…

Today marks the third day that Hive 1 has worn it’s beard! I must say I was surprised. I thought the bees would have returned to their hive after the first day, but they’ve been hanging out for three. The beard is slowly growing smaller.

This evening Hive 2 finally started showing some bearding behavior, though with their own style. Instead of clumping together like Hive 1, they’re covering the hive.

hive2-bearding-6-5-16

bearding-6-5-16

Week 7, sixth hive check

Yesterday, June 3, was my sixth time into the hives. Each week I open the hives and am amazed to see something new. Today it was propolis. It was everywhere, thick and gooey! For the first time I had to pry the frames away not only from one another, but up off the box as well.

propolis-2016
HIve 2 | June 3, 2016

Both hives are now composed of two deep boxes which are the bees main living area. The pollen, honey and propolis stored here is what the bees will depend on over the winter. The shallower boxes called  “honey supers” are placed on top of the main hive. The honey stored in those boxes is the honey for me!

Yesterday’s hive objectives:
Hive 1: determine if it’s time to add a honey super
Hive 2: observe progress in second deep box which was added last week

 

hive2-frame3-box2-6-3-16

The frame in the photo above is from Hive 1. It’s the third frame in from box 2. The bees are storing lots of honey under the pretty white wax you see on the left.

 

hive2-frame5-box2-6-3-16

This frame is also from Hive 1. It’s the center frame in box 2. The queen has been very busy. You can see the brood patch which has a brownish leathery look.

 

hive2-bottom-board-6-3-16

hive1-bottom-board-6-3-16

The mold build up appears to be abating, it’s also been very hot. Hive 2 did not have any mold, Hive 1 had slight mold. I did not see any mites…that I could see.

Hive 2 Stats
Box 2 only
Bees on all frames in the early stage of comb building
Did not see queen
Did not see eggs

Hive 1 Stats
Box 2 only
Did not see queen
Saw eggs and larva in all stages
Saw capped brood on center frames
Lots of pollen and honey
Outer frames are in early stages of comb building
Added queen excluder and first honey super

 

 

Week 6, fifth hive check

It’s been a busy couple of weeks including out of town travel, so  I skipped  Week 5’s hive check.  And since the weather has been cool and overcast for a while I figured I’d leave the girls alone to their task.

After evening rains, Wednesday, May 25 dawned sunny and warm. It was time to get back in the hives! Both hives are looking really good and  have grown in population. Hive 2 had almost filled their first deep box so I added a second. Hive 1 has a good five frames in their second deep almost built out. They have been very busy.

 

may-25-16

More questions! This is a frame from Hive 1 and was from the  original  purchased nuc. In the area inside the white circle the honeycomb has almost completely disappeared, it’s very shallow and almost non-existent. Since the bees reuse the comb I’m not understanding why the comb would be so deteriorated. Unless it’s just an old frame and ready to be retired and rotated out.

 

hive2-bottom-board-5-25-16
hive1-bottom-board-5-25-16

Mold on the bottom boards continues to be a problem. Granted these photos represent two weeks worth of growth, but still, it looks bad and Hive 1 looks terrible!

I also saw a lot of sparkly things on the bottom boards. They were there last hive check as well and I didn’t know what they were. I have since learned that they are little flecks of wax which have fallen. In certain light the whole board sparkles and shimmers.

Hive 2 Stats
Did not see queen
Didn’t really see any eggs
Did see lots of larva in all stages
Saw lots of capped brood, pollen and honey
Outer frames in box 1 are almost all drawn out with comb
Added second deep box

Hive 1 Stats
Did not see queen
Didn’t really see any eggs
Saw larva in all stages
Saw lots of capped brood, pollen and honey
Outer frames are drawn out with comb
Second box has five drawn frames