Hive origin: Swarm caught by Alan 2012, was a new nuc in 2012
Queen type: Swarm queen from 2012
Significant events/observations:
This hive is the only overwintered hive from 2012, formerly tracked as 2012 Hive 6. A smallish cluster is still alive as of 3/29/13. I placed a pollen patty under the inner cover and a feeder on top in early March. We have had a fairly cold March, good maple weather with freezing nights and just above freezing days. The cluster is under the pollen patty and when warm enough takes syrup from the feeder. About half of the sugar syrup was gone by 3/29/13. Evidence of dysentery is on the front of the hive, so concerned for nosema.
Early April I re-filled the feeder with sugar syrup plus Fumagilin B based on the amount of bee crap on the front of the hive.
4/29/13: Inspected and found two frames of bees left, small patch of brood on two frames with a combined size of a dollar bill. There was still remaining syrup on top and half of the pollen patty. Workers were bringing in bright yellow pollen. I cleaned off all propalis and moved to a single deep, cleaned out the dead bees, and moved the hive from a rickety perch on a tree stump (that turned out to have an ant's nest in it) to a cinder block based stand. I will add the upper deep once there are more bees or the lower deep is full of eggs/brood.
5/4/13: Spotted the queen again, hive has not grown much yet, but she is laying. They are foraging as well as taking sugar syrup and pollen patty. Left them in a single deep with entrance reducer in.
5/19/13: This hive is in bad shape, no bigger than it was in March, though some brood and eggs were still present. I think I found 2 queens (very confusing), so I removed the larger one (older?) on a single frame to a new Nuc (along with 2 frames from H2) and placed a frame of eggs and brood in this hive from H2. This queen appeared to have deformed wings. Either the small queen (new?) will start laying or (hopefully) the workers will use the eggs to raise a new queen. This hive is too week to keep ants out.
5/27/13: This hive is queenless now, added a frame of eggs from H2.
6/2/13: Thought this hive was queenless after being uncertain if I really did find 2 queens on 5/19 and not seeing a queen on 5/27/13. The small hive was also agitated during inspection, but I found the small queen and she is laying. Perhaps she was out on a mating flight when I last inspected. The hive is starting to build and now fills 2/3rds of the lower deep. Probably ready to add the second deep in a week or two.
6/10/13: Found queen, not laying well yet but some eggs present. Removed frame with capped queen cell (supercedure) to start 2013 Nuc 2 in case she just needs more time.
6/15/13: Queen spotted, not much brood/eggs, but some. More bees than earlier. Added second deep and got a fresh feeder of sugar syrup from Linda. Her one hive was totally full and needed a honey super, so I got free syrup.
6/28/13: Inspected upper deep only. Brood on one frame only, supercedure cell started and not yet capped. Letting it go. This is still a small hive for 2 deeps.
7/5/13: Nearly filling 2 deeps, but not overcrowded. Perhaps 1 week until super needed. Spotted eggs.
7/23/13: No eggs. No queens were laying at this time.
8/3/13: Eggs spotted. Laying pattern is very scattered, lots of chalk brood bits on bottom board screen. Added queen excluder and honey super of drawn comb as the hive was quite full.
8/10/13: Eggs. Hive is growing, nothing in the honey super yet. Still chalk broody, probably the cause of spotty brood pattern. Lots of drones, too. Varroa.
8/17/13: Hive growing, but not in great health. Eggs spotted, though not many, still chalk broody. Running out of food, may be the reason for low number of eggs. Must be an inefficient way to build up a colony with 10-20% of larvae not viable. Dumped chalk brood from bottom board and added two deep frames of honey.
8/25/13: Eggs spotted, ok on food and space. Very little chalkbrood on bottom board, situation improving.
9/11/13: Queen laying ok, eggs spotted, pattern is still a bit spotty though a LOT of brood was present. Did not inspect bottom board for chalkbrood, but probably still the cause of spotty pattern. Saw some queen cups on the bottom, but no swarm cells had eggs or royal jelly. Spotted some supercedure cells in the upper deep, one was damaged and two more seemed fine. They are young, but had lots of royal jelly. I will allow the hive to supercede the queen and hope for the best. Nuc is insurance policy if they cannot raise a viable queen.
9/28/13: Chalkbroody, eggs spotted. Very little honey in super but bringing it in to deeps.
12/22/13: 5+ frames of bees, good amount of honey but near top of
hive.
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