2012 Hive #6

Hive status:  New nuc in 2012
Hive origin:  Swarm caught by Alan 2012, combined with 2012 Nuc 2.
Queen type:  Swarmed 2012

Significant events/observations:

5/28/12: Originally given this colony by Alan.  I got to keep the colony and return the nuc box to him.  I cleared out the nuc in two stages over the weekend:

1. On 5/27/12 I transferred the 4 frames that were in there into a 10 frame deep, inspected for the queen (did not see her, though eggs were present), and left near the entrance the nuc with one frame-sized comb attached to the wall.  I added a "trap" frame that the queen could move to next to that comb in the nuc in case the queen was still in there and hopefully she'd move to the new frame for easy transfer to the new hive.  I was just scared to crush the queen when trying to cut out that comb!
2.  On 5/28/12 I inspected the deep and found the first new eggs on a frame that wasn't in the nuc, then spotted the queen.  She's a fat one!  Now that I knew the queen was safe in the new hive I smoked all the bees out of the nuc and cut out that comb.  It was half honey, half eggs or early larvae.  I cut up the honey to eat as fresh cut comb honey and am sharing it today with coworkers. 

Now I just need to inspect my other hives and see if a combine is in order or if they have laying queens to let them all lay in separate hives and get populations up higher before combining over the winter.

6/2/12:  Combined with 2012 Nuc 2 which had no laying queen and was in a single deep.  Used a single sheet of newspaper with tiny holes punch in it between the separate colonies each in their own single deep.  Hive #6 was left in place and Nuc 2 placed on top.

6/5/12:  Hives had combined by chewing a hole in the newspaper, I removed the excess paper and saw the live queen.

6/22/12:  Excellent brood pattern noted and nearly honeybound.  Saw eggs so the queen is there.  This hive needs a super!

6/28/12:  Supered with 6 frames with foundation and 4 frames of capped honey from Hive #4 (to give that hive a bit of space).  Added queen exluder beneath lone super.

7/8/12:  Getting honey bound, queen only laying on 1 center frame of upper deep and in the lower deep.  No new comb built on frames of wax foundation in the lone super.  Swapped two deeps of honey with Hive #5 to allow more space for laying.

7/30/12:   Queen cups noted in the upper deep, no eggs present.  Queen is ok based on eggs/young larvae and brood pattern.  Workers are bringing in nectar and building comb in the lone super.  Some sunken caps noted - possible small amount of foulbrood?

8/13/12:  Pulled 3 frames to a new nuc 7.  Added a super of wax foundation.  No sunken caps noted.

8/25/12:  No eggs, no queen spotted.  Capped queen cells present on two frames.  One moved to Nuc #6, other frame with two capped queen cells left to requeen this hive.  No new comb on foundation in super.  With requeen, probably just need to pull that off and move it to a hive that needs it.    

9/29/12:  Brood spotty and chalky or foul brood.  Poor queen, hive health suffering.  Workers are bringing in nectar.  

2012 Hive #5 (formerly Nuc #1)

Hive status:  New nuc in 2012, Upgraded to single deep 5/20/12
Hive origin:  Split from H4 2012, Combined with 2012 Hive 2
Queen type:  2012 Italian (from eggs from H4)

3/14/12:  During an attempted laying worker fix for Hive #3 I found the year old queen who had stopped laying.  I pulled her out and 2 frames of bees (frames with laying worker eggs)  to start nuc N1, just in case she should resume laying (longshot!).  I added some candy and pollen substitute.

4/15/12: Found the queen and no eggs/brood.  She had failed and the bees failed to supercede her.  I dispatched her and replaced two empty frames with two frames of brood containing eggs from hive #1.

4/29/12:  Found a new queen, which was good news.  The bad news was there was a varroa mite on her!  I bothered the mite until it left.  Hopefully she doesn't get a virus or bacterial infection from some mite bite.  No eggs, probably not mated yet.  There are tons of drones out now.

5/13/12:  The new queen is laying!  Brood on two frames, from eggs to larvae to recently capped.  I must have missed seeing eggs that were there on 5/8/12.   Soon I'll move them to a deep hive.

5/20/12:  Moved to a single deep to give them more room.  3 and a half frames were brood, one was food, and only half of frame was empty.

6/2/12:  Combined with 2012 Hive 2 which had no laying queen and was in a single deep.  Used a single sheet of newspaper with tiny holes punch in it between the separate colonies each in their own single deep.  Hive #2 was left in place and Hive #5 placed on top.

6/5/12:  Hives had combined by chewing a hole in the newspaper, I removed the excess paper and saw the live queen in the upper deep.  As the lower deep (formerly Hive #2) had more honey and little room for brood, I reversed the deeps.

6/22/12:  Solid brood pattern, saw eggs so the queen is there.  Could use a super in another week or so.

7/8/12:  Good brood, eggs, very little honey - watch for starvation

7/30/12:  Bringing in nectar - no longer a risk for starving.  Did not inspect deeps.

8/25/12:  Queen and eggs spotted.  Frame of eggs moved to Nuc #7.

9/29/12:  Room in single super.  Nectar and honey in upper deep, did not inspect lower deep.  Bees were mad, took 2 stings through gloves in 5 minutes.  Did not see brood, but gave up due to aggression.

2012 Hive #4

Hive status:  Overwintered from 2011
Hive origin:  Package in 2011
Queen type:  Italian (from CA via Queen Right Colonies)

Significant events/observations:

3/11/12:  The hive had a relatively large brood nest with eggs observed.  This colony has sufficient bees and the most remaining honey and pollen after winter.  It is a candidate for an early split to prevent swarming.

3/14/12:  I removed two frames containing bees, brood, and eggs and placed them in Hive #3 to encourage that hive to raise a new queen during an attempted laying worker fix.  I found the queen on another frame so I am sure she remained in H4.

3/21/12: Reversed deeps and removed entrance reducer.  Added first honey super of the season and removed feeder.

4/15/12: Bees, bees, bees!  This hive looks great, drawing comb, surplus honey and pollen, and no signs of swarming.  Spotted the queen in the upper deep, so I added a queen excluder between the upper deep and the existing super, which she had been laying in.  Once those bees emerge there will only be honey in the supers.  I removed a shallow frame of capped drone comb and placed it in the freezer, which will hopefully help with mite control.  I also added an empty honey super on top of that. Two frames of brood and eggs were moved into H3 just in case the new queen there is AWOL.

5/6/12:  Lots of bees, starting to get crowded.  Added a third honey super.  One uncapped queen cell noted with royal jelly and larvae in it, at risk of swarming.  I did not have time to go through both deeps so I'll have to followup soon and maybe split off some nucs if there are capped queen cells to try to prevent swarming.

5/8/12:  Removed approx 8 queen cups from lower portion of deep frames in the upper deep, 2 of which contained eggs.  The hive is trying to prepare to swarm, but the queen is still laying.  Split off 3 frames of brood/eggs and 1 frame of food to create nuc N2 2012 to provide more space to reduce the urge to swarm.

5/21/12:  Added a fourth honey super as there was no room left in the top (3rd) super.  Went through entire hive and found one queen cell uncapped, maybe 5 or 6 days old.  Removed it to Hive #3 along with a frame of food.

6/5/12:  Spotted queen in upper deep.  No signs of swarming.  Added a 5th honey super and moved the lower super up into the middle of the supers as it had some brood.  One frame of eggs was removed to 2012 Hive #3 which is queenless.

6/28/12:  Replaced four frames of capped honey in one super with frames of wax foundation to give them a bit more space.  Frames of honey went into a super on Hive #6.  Added queen excluder.

7/1/12:  Extracted 3 frames of capped honey.  Returned two supers of drawn comb to the hive after extraction.

7/8/12:  Bringing in honey, not drawing comb.

7/30/12:  3.5 supers of honey, drawing comb - doing great!  Did not inspect deeps.

8/13/12:  Filling lower deep with bee bread, restricting laying space.  Removed 6 deep frames to start Nuc 5 and Nuc 6.  Hopefully new queens will be good and I can requeen hives 1 and 3.

9/29/12: Hive was nearly robbed to death, not sure if it was week first.  All four supers empty.  So sorry I removed so many deeps to other nucs, which all failed.  Lots of dead bees and yellow jackets seen in and around the hive.  Witnessed robbing ongoing.  Queen and tiny amount of brood found on two frames and relocated to Nuc #7 for combining with Nuc 5.  Sealed off hive to protect comb from wax moths.

2012 Hive #3

Hive status:  Overwintered from 2011
Hive origin:  Package in 2011
Queen type: Raised in 2012 from eggs from overwintered Hive #4 (Italian from CA package)


Significant events/observations:

3/11/12:  Laying workers:  The hive had a no brood and 1-3 day old eggs on a single frame.  They were from laying workers as eggs were not at the bottom of the frame and were sometimes present in pairs.  The hive is obviously not queen-right and was irritated during inspection with many more bees flying compared queen-right hives.

3/14/12: Attempted laying worker fix.  On a sunny, dry, warm (68 F) afternoon I dumped every last bee out of the hive 25 yards from it's original location.  The laying workers are young nurse bees oriented to the hive, so they should not be able to find their way back while the adult foragers just fly home to an empty hive.  I added two frames of eggs from Hive #4 so they can hopefully raise up a new queen, which is tricky this early as there are not yet drones for her to mate with.  Maybe in 16-20 days there will be?  I cannot get a mated queen until mid-april and that might be too late.  During the process I was surprised to find the old queen.  I pulled her out and 2 frames of bees (frames with laying worker eggs)  to start nuc N1, just in case she should resume laying (longshot!).

3/21/12: Added a second deep hive body on top with drawn comb and removed entrance reducer.  It was too dark to inspect for queen cells on the two frames of eggs added.

4/1/12:  Found a new queen, some remaining capped brood and no eggs.  Hopefully she will find some drones and mate.  The hive was much more tame and well behaved as it is now queen right.

4/15/12:  No eggs yet, did not spot the queen.  Hopefully she has mated and will begin laying soon.  Still lots of bees in both deeps with plenty of room for the queen to lay.  The bees are well-behaved, probably still queen-right.  Just in case I swapped two empty frames for two frames with eggs and brood from hive #4.

4/29/12:  The early queen must have failed, perhaps not enough drones to get mated.  I found 3 queen cells nearly capped on one frame, one on another.  Moved the frame with 1 queen cell into H2 which was newly queenless.  Astounding quantity of bees for being queenless again.

5/6/12:  The saga continues.  Spotted 4 capped queen cells.  Could they be new or the ones from 4/29 have not hatched out?

5/22/12:  The hive is dying.  No queen spotted, though 3 early stage supercedure cells were observed.  Did a new queen lay 3 eggs each on a different frame and disappear?  I combined the deeps into a single deep and added a frame with an almost capped queen cell plus one frame of food from Hive #4.   Perhaps now they'll get a decent queen?  This will be a candidate for further boosts/combines.

6/5/12:  Still not queen right, no queen or eggs spotted.  Moved ANOTHER frame of eggs from H4 over to try to get a queen in place.

6/14/12:  About 4 queen cells present on the brood frame, all capped or nearly capped.

6/22/12:  One capped queen cell present, others torn down.  I'm surprised the queen has not emerged yet.  If this one does not work out and Nuc #3 gets a laying queen, I'll combine them.

7/8/12: Tiny brood patch and queen removed to N4, combined with N3

7/30/12:  After combining with N3 the upper deep is all honey.  The queen is not doing well with spotty brood limited to only 4 or 5 frames in the lower deep.  Need to re-queen.

8/25/12:  Found this hive queen right and the queen laying fine, which was a surprise.  Actually moved 2 frames of eggs to Nuc #5 and loosened the entrance reducer.  Lots of bees in the two deeps, may actually finally get a super on this for the fall flow.

9/29/12: No comb drawn in single super.  Queen laying well in upper deep, did not inspect lower deep.

2012 Hive #1

Hive status:  Overwintered from 2011
Hive origin:  Package in 2011
Queen type:  Italian (from CA via Queen Right Colonies)

Significant events/observations:

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

3/21/12: Reversed deeps and removed entrance reducer.  Bees crowded and queen cups for swarm cells present.  Added first honey super of the season and removed feeder.

4/15/12:  Pulled two frames of brood with eggs for nuc #1 and replaced with empty drawn comb.  A healthy hive, spring drones have arrived.  Saw some varroa on bees.

5/6/12:  Some queen cups removed, but no queen cells spotted.  Brood on 4 center frames of the super.  Added a second super.  I don't have a spare queen excluder to add below the supers.

5/21/12:  Went through 15 of 20 deep frames and both supers, not enough daylight to check the last 5 deeps.  No sign of swarming, although the queen was laying in the first super, even in two foundationless wall frames, so tons of drones were emerging.  I removed two frames of drone comb and replaced them with frames of plastic foundation.  Added queen excluder between first super and upper deep, hopefully she is down below.  The brood patterns on the deep frames were wall to wall!  A very good laying queen.  I'll need more supers soon.

5/22/12:  Supered with partially full super from H2, which had more than enough space in their 2 deeps.

6/2/12: Verified queen is in lower deeps below queen excluder.  Supers are filling nicely.

6/22/12:  I had supered with 10 frames that had no foundation to give them more room.  I checked that super for any comb for the second time (checked about a week ago) and there is still no comb drawn.  I have ordered was foundation to fill several supers.

6/28/12:  Replaced foundationless frames in top super with frames that have wax foundation.  They would not draw out the foundationless frames.

7/1/12:  Removed and extracted two supers of capped honey.  Returned a single super of drawn comb to the hive post-extraction.

7/8/12: Not drawing new comb, filing empty supers of drawn comb nicely.  Swapped a super of wax foundation with drawn comb.

7/30/12:  New comb being drawn, 2 supers full of honey, some capped.  Did not inspect deeps.

8/13/12:  This hive is declining.  I did not spot the queen or any eggs, the population is decreasing as the bees no longer seem crowded.  Will need a new queen.

8/25/12:  Queen spotted and laying a tiny bit, spotty brood pattern.  Decision to requeen stands.  Hopefully nucs 5-7 take so a combine can be done in Sept.

9/29/12:  1.5 of 3 supers are full of honey.  Bees angry, still some room in the deeps.  Spotted 6-7 day old larvae.  Hopefully queen is ok.  Did not requeen yet.  Possibility for combining over the winter.

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.

9/1/10: Eleventh Inspection

Conditions: Sunny, 88F
Present: Just me
Equipment: Added Super to old hive.
Activities: Smoked hives about 4:00pm. Inspected representative frames.
Observations:

New Hive: Still a couple of frames of capped honey, some additional comb built, sufficient bees, brood, larvae. Nothing much of note moving into the fall flow.

Old Hive: All the capped honey (previously some 11 frames) is gone. The bees ate it in the past month during the dearth. The queen has filled all the opened up cells with eggs, larvae and brood. The deep and three supers, two of which were supposed to be honey supers. This is amazing to me. This hive has twice as many bees and more than twice as much brood as it’s neighbor. We are either going to get a huge amount of all fall honey from this colony, or nothing but a bunch of bees. There were some very small amounts of dark fall nectar drying, but they appear to be consuming it all faster than they can bring it in. Time will tell. I saw about a half dozen queen cups, which appears to be more than usual. I spotted the queen, but since she is not a marked queen I do not know if she’s the original or superceded. I did not spot any full-sized queen cells sealed or already hatched. I spotted LOTS of 1-3 day old eggs in pristine wax cells that were previously all full of capped honey.

8/17/10: Tenth Inspection

Conditions: Sunny, 77F
Present: Just me
Equipment: Provided additional ventilation by propping the top and off-setting the lower deep from the other hive bodies. This effectively creates another entrance.
Activities: Smoked hives about 5:30pm. Inspected representative frames.
Observations:

New hive: No changes. No observable change in the number of bees or amount of honey. No mites seen.

Old hive: No changes. Observed eggs in top super, which I placed on the top after the previous inspection as it had some brood in it. This means the queen was there laying 1-3 days ago, if she wasn't still up there. I was hoping she'd stay away, down in the lower since there is a super full of honey between the main brood area (deep) and this top super. No luck. I observed 5-7 day old larvae in the lower brood area, so the queen is basically laying all over. Also observed no mites on bees. Planning the next inspection for at least 2 weeks.

General: Goldenrod will bloom soon.

7/10/10: Eighth Inspection and Honey Harvest

Conditions: Sunny, 79F
Present: Bud F. and I
Equipment: No changes in the new hive. Went down to 9 frames in the newest honey super in the old hive.
Activities: Smoked hives about noon. Inspected various frames. Removed one frame of capped honey.
Observations:

Old hive:

Several frames of fully capped or nearly fully capped honey were observed in the top super. One was harvested for a sample of spring honey, our first harvest! The queen had made a short trip all the way up to the top super and laid a bit of brood (5-7 cells) along the bottom of three or four frames. She must have found no room to lay up there with all the nectar and honey and headed back down. Lots of capped brood and larvae were observed in the bottom deep and adjacent super. The lower honey super (added 6/29/10) had several frames with fully drawn comb. We removed a frame to get this down to a 9 frame super, though the wall frames were not fully drawn yet. Very good progress. The bees look very happy and healthy. No mites were observed on workers or drones when closely examining bees on 2 deep frames.

New hive:

Simliar to the Old hive inspection above with the following exceptions:- less comb drawn in lower honey supper (added 6/29/10), only 1-2 frames. For this reason we left this super at 10 frames for now.
- Queen spotted in the deep
- While doing well for a package, they can’t compete with the quantity of bees and rapid comb drawing and prolific nectar gathering of the overwintered hive

5/29/2010: County Bee Inspector and Fourth Inspection

Conditions: Sunny, 76F
Present: Summit County Bee Inspector and I
Equipment: No changes.
Activities: Smoked hives about 12:30pm. Inspected numerous frames.

The summit county bee inspector dropped by on Saturday 5/29 and we checked out the hives together. I was particularly interested in talking about my decision to reverse the upper and lower chamers on the overwintered colony and if that was working outwell. He said the old queen is laying all over the frames in the deep now (which is now on top) and he said everything looks great, very normal. So I guess it was a good move. No diseases noted in either hive and very low levels of mites. Lots more bees in the old colony compared to the new, but the new has more food stored up (from the previous colony), so they have a bit less work to do. Not quite time to super either hive yet, so I continue to feed sugar syrup. I will go ahead and ready some additional frames to super, maybe as soon as next week in the old colony. They'll have to build out comb in those supers, but they should produce some surplus honey, at least from the overwintered colony. I'm excited to super!

7/25/09: Eighth Inspection

Conditions: Don't know, wasn't there
Present: Just Bud
Equipment: Removed bucket feeders from both hives. Removed new queen cage from the re-queened (formerly Italian) hive
Activities: Smoked hives at unknown time (I wasn't there and forgot to ask). Inspected all deep frames.
Observations: In the "Italian" hive, the queen cage was empty. Observed in the brood chamber were eggs and young larvae (5 days old?) as well as CAPPED BROOD. Really? This means the Italian queen we were concerned about must have started laying before we moved the new Russian queen in! So, essentially we re-queened even though we didn't need to. See if you can follow the timeline here: There must have been eggs present during the 7/18/09 inspection (where we found none and decided to re-queen). We know the new Russian queen was not released until 7/21/09 when I "popped" the cork on the queen cage, and this inspection was only 4 days after that. Worker brood are capped on day 9, so those eggs (which became capped brood for this inspection) were there on 7/16/09 or earlier, 5 days before the Russian queen was ever released!

So we put a second queen into a hive with another fertile, laying queen. The question is, what happened? The hive is not big enough to support two brood chambers, so we are likely down to one queen again. Either the hive rejected the new Russian queen, killed her, and disposed of the body OR the two queens had a duel. Is the reigning queen Italian or Russian? We won't know until we spot her again. So the experiment with one Italian hive and one Russian may exist yet.

I'm convinced now that bees will always keep me guessing. It's what makes this an interesting hobby. Hopefully I get better at spotting eggs, though, and don't repeat this particular mistake!

But that is good news, that there are baby bees in that hive once again. There will soon be a dip in population, but they'll rebound for a fall nectar flow and have a shot at making it through the winter. The colony will be ok.

In the other hive (the original Russian) the first super (above the bottom deep) was pretty full and even had a small brood area surrounded by honey. So the queen had taken a brief trip up there to lay, <100 eggs or so, and then returned to her deep. They are going like gangbusters.

Time to add the first honey supers. I need to nail together 20 frames and insert the wax-with-wire foundation we bought (before we knew plastic fits just fine in split-bottom frames) and Bud is picking up the retaining clips. Should super before the weekend. If they build out the comb and fill it fast enough, we'll get a small honey harvest this year.

5/3/09: First checkup after installation

Sugar syrup, pollen, and eggs in brace comb. cell indicated by finger contains twins! Click image to enlarge.

Conditions: Sunny, 68F
Present: Bud and I, Mohammad on the SLR camera (some great shots!)
Equipment: No major changes.
Activities: Smoked hives about 5:30pm. Removed Queen cages and replaced 10th frame in each deep. Brace comb removed from space between frames and queen cage. Added sugar syrup.
Observations: Queens were released and appear to be doing well, though neither was spotted. Saw eggs in brace comb removed from each hive! Small amounts of pollen and sugar syrup in the comb removed. The bees cleaned up the sugar syrup when the comb was left in front of the hive overnight. The Italians seemed to actually chew up a bit of the comb, hopefully taking the wax inside to build up the empty frames. The Italians had started building comb on the plastic foundation, the Russians had not. The Italians also took more sugar syrup and are visibly more actively foraging. Russian colony is definitely less vigorous this early in the season. Hopefully the queen is good and they’ll catch up.