Monday, May 14, 2012

First Swarm Call

I'm not on any swarm call list and I don't have a truck or a cell phone.   I'm not a prime candidate for scoring lots of swarms.  I did get a call on 5/13/12 from a neighbor on Alger Rd. who we know vaguely since our kids attend the same school.  They called to say a swarm was atop a tree in the middle of their circle driveway and while they were leaving, I could come and try to catch it if I wished.

The tree was a 35' tall ornamental pear and there were bees at the very top.  I set up my 20' tall folding ladder and tied it to the tree.  While standing in the tree just above where the ladder reached, I was able to cut down 4' long sections of branches that had bees on them.  None of them was a tight cluster of bees that might contain a queen, though.  They must have left already.  What remained was about 100-200 bees that were high enough to make me think the swarm might still be up there.  When the neighbors returned they confirmed it was a big mass of bees when they called, about the size of a basketball.  They had seen some on the brick face of a peak of their house under an eave.  There were still a few dozen bees there  and I climbed up to make sure there was no queen.  I brushed them off and they came right back.   The did not seem inclined to try to go up and in the gap between the house and the soffit.

I left a single deep hive there in case any of the scouts thought it a better home than where ever they flew to, though I think that unlikely.  Good luck to you, wild little swarm!

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

2012 Nuc #2 (ended 6/2/12 with combine to Hive 6)

Hive status:  New nuc in 2012
Hive origin:  Split from H4 2012
Queen type:  None yet, eggs from H4 2012

Significant events/observations:


5/8/12:  Started this hive to prevent swarming of H4.  Consists of 3 frames of brood and eggs and one frame of food, each with bees.  The Queen from H4 was found during the split and placed back in H4, so this is a nuc that is certainly queenless.  With no nuc boxes, it is in a deep with 4 frames that have no drawn comb and 2 frames with a small amount of drawn comb.

5/13/12:  3 uncapped queen cells present, perhaps 6 or 7 days old.  They must have realized they were without a queen with enough time to use the eggs from 5/8/12.  If a healthy queen emerges she should be mated and perhaps even laying by the end of the month.

5/21/12:  I checked in on this hive in case there were queen cells on more than one frame to try to start another nuc.  All 3 queen cells were capped on the same frame, so I let them bee.  The queens will likely hatch out tomorrow.


6/2/12:  Combined with 2012 Hive 6.  Refer to that post for additional info.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

2012 Hive #2 (ended 6/2/12 with combine to Hive 5)

Hive status:  Overwintered from 2011
Hive origin:  Nucleus in 2011, combined with 2012 Hive 5
Queen type:  2012 Italian from H#4 eggs.
Significant events/observations:


2/24/12:  Installed a candy board with pollen patty embedded in it (experiment).  Overwintered with a deep and shallow super only.

3/11/12:  The hive had a small brood nest with eggs observed.

3/21/12: Reversed hive bodies (shallow on bottom, deep on top) and removed entrance reducer.  Added a new deep hive body with drawn comb on top and replaced candy board on top of that.  It is probably 80% consumed.

4/15/12: Smallish brood nest for this time of year with slower population build, but eggs spotted.  Spring drones present.  This hive overwintered with a shallow and a deep which were reversed in March.  The queen has not started laying in the upper deep yet, which is largely empty.  Will keep an eye on this hive as a potential need for population boost from a thriving hive.

4/29/12: Newly queenless on this inspection, no eggs and very little capped brood.  Moved one frame with a nearly capped queen cell from H3.  As a backup I also moved 2 frames from H4 in that had some eggs in case the one queen cell is not viable as it was moved at a sensitive time in the queen larvae's development.  This is a setback.

5/6/12:  No new queen spotted.  2 capped queen cells noted, generated from eggs moved over on 4/29/12.

5/22/12:  New queen spotted! She's laying just a little on one frame so far, oldest larvae are about 5 days old.  One supercedure (threat?) cell was noted and left.  They'll likely tear it down if she proves to be a good layer.  Moved extra super to H1 so they can focus on filling their 2 deeps.

6/2/12:  Queen present but not laying.  She was removed to a new nuc, 2012 Nuc 4 with one frame of bees and the rest combined with 2012 Hive 5.  Refer to that post for additional info.