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 #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.

12/31/10: One last inspection (#14)!

Conditions: Sunny, 55F
Present: Just me
Equipment: No changes.
Activities: Smoked hives about 2:30pm. Inspected representative frames.
Observations:

First of all, we had a phenomenally warm day, 55 on New Year's Eve. It was sunny, easily the nicest day since early November. Even more luck, I didn't have to work! With the bees flying so much, I had to check in on them. There were lots of bees near the hives on trees, snow, weeds, and anything else. They weren't flying far, maybe a dozen yards or less, then landing and just hanging around. Before I finished up, one must have landed on my leg and was just hanging out, too. I bumped my tray that I use to carry my hive tools, smoker fuel, frame lifter, etc. into her and she stung me on the inner thigh. I felt that one. Last sting of the year.

Newer hive:
Lots of food, about a half inch of dead bees on the screened bottom board, which I cleaned out for them. No pest damage, no mites seen. Some starved bees in the top-most super which was not full of honey to start with (I am overwintering with one deep and two shallow supers). They probably ventured from the cluster to eat higher up and got caught in a cold snap. Still plenty of bees there, not too concerned. I did not spot the queen, but there was a small patch of brood on the center frames in the lower deep and some newly emerged bees.

Older hive:
Not as much food as the newer hive, fewer dead bees, and maybe 50% more bees present. The upper super was not full to start with and the lower shallow super was pretty heavy. I spotted the queen on a center frame in that lower shallow super with a small patch of brood. She looked fat and happy. No way to be 100% sure because she wasn't marked, but this is most likely the original queen, 3 years old and overwintering for the second time. She's done well for me. Hard to decide to requeen when she's done so well or maybe try to rear some queens from her. I likely won't have too much free time this year to try my hand at queen rearing, but I'd like to someday. If I requeen, I'll likely get a Pioneer Queen from Long Lane Honey Bee Farms. David and Sheri Burns put out lots of great and FREE beekeeping information (with a sales pitch thrown in, but not in a pushy way). Anyway, I'll resume feeding in the spring after the thaw and likely put some pollen patties in around February and hopefully they'll all pull though!

The New Year:
What does the 2011 hold? Hopefully lots more hives, bees, honey, and some other hive products. Candles, anyone? We hope to produce enough to sell our surplus. People have been asking!

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.

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

6/29/10: Seventh Inspection

Conditions: Sunny, 70F
Present: Bud F. and I
Equipment: Added a second honey super to each hive
Activities: Smoked hives about 6:15pm. Inspected honey supers in both hives. Inspected deep super for brood in the new hive.
Observations:

New Hive:
Lots of bees and the honey super was full, but not fully capped. Changed number of frames in super from 10 to 9 and used 9 frame spacer. After the initial inspection we made up more frames and added a new honey super beneath the full one. Really want to stay ahead of them providing space to not have a late swarm. Finally spotted the queen, who is marked. She’s a fat one and laying happy. I’m thrilled she’s almost keeping up with the overwintered hive.

Old Hive:
Lots of bees and the honey super was full, but not fully capped. Changed number of frames in super from 10 to 9 and used 9 frame spacer. This colony is working faster as they had a 5 frame setback during the last inspection and still caught up to the new hive. (The 5 frames were destroyed due to excessive drone comb)

We should be able to remove a frame of capped honey from each hive to go down to 9 frames in the new supers at the next inspection, 1.5 to 2 weeks from now.

6/10/2010: Fifth Inspection

Conditions: Sunny, 76F
Present: Bud F. and I
Equipment: Removed 5 frames from shallow super on old hive and replaced with new frames of blank foundation due to excessive drone. Removed pail top feeder from new hive and added a honey super.
Activities: Smoked hives about 2:00pm. Inspected many frames.
Observations:

Old hive:

Notice a bunch of drone cells and little food in the lower (shallow) chamber since reversal. The bees have not been storing food here, and all brood is drone. We removed 5 frames of comb with high numbers of drones or empty drone comb and left 5 frames in that had honey, brood, or nothing, but were of normal cell size (not drone comb). 5 frames of foundation were added to allow drawing of comb and storage of food. This is a minor setback which did not allow for supering this hive with a honey super. I mixed up one more batch of sugar syrup to continue feeding until the new frames are fully drawn out.

In the deep, which was on top, we saw tons of bees, brood, and quite a bit of capped honey. The queen was spotted on a frame with lots of open cells, moving to a part of the hive to keep the laying going. She’s doing great laying in her second year and I don’t know whether or not to requeen in the fall. Some people (certainly queen breeders) recommend re-queening every year. The population was larger here than the new hive, which is to be expected. We reversed the chambers again to have the shallow super on top and encourage the building of comb by having those frames close to the pail top feeder. Hopefully the queen will stay down in the deep chamber now that there is lots of food and brood on the deep frames. Perhaps in a week or two we can super?

With all the reversing and pulling and re-pulling frames to decide whether or not to keep them we had this hive open a long time, maybe 20 minutes. The bees were good, but you could tell they were growing impatient with us the longer we were in there. No stings, but I changed from bare-handing it to wearing gloves as we went. I was pretty sure I would have gotten a sting (or several) if I kept at it without gloves.

New hive:

The upper (shallow) super was full of bees and capped honey. The lower (deep) had plenty of brood in a good pattern. So we removed the feeder and added a honey super! We did not pull every frame just to see the queen, so she went unspotted. Based on the young larvae and capped brood, she’s laying just fine. I hope to see this queen soon, though. Funny that I keep spotting the unmarked queen but haven’t found the marked queen yet. No reversals for this hive this season as they started in just a deep and I added the shallow from the other hive after that. The pollen patty was nearly fully consumed.

I think it’s been a good spring with early warm temperatures, sufficient rain to keep nectar flowing, yet enough dry days to allow for long days of foraging.

Now if I could just keep up with planting the garden…

Spring 2010 update summary and third inspection

I'm behind in my bee journal. Moving and family and work and projects have led to less time for updates. To sum up the spring:

Last year's Italian colony overwintered fine, ran low on food. Spring feeding has gone well and the colony seemed to have plenty of bees. No issues.

The Russian colony failed in early spring, sometime in March. I was initially thrilled that both hives survived in when I first got into them sometime in February, but was concerned about the Russian population level. There proved to be too few bees and, while they had lots of food, one cold snap in March led to them starving to death. They formed a tight cluster on an empty section of comb and froze/starved to death. There was evidence of lots of moisture in the hive in the form of mold. There was a bit of a sour smell, though I don't suspect it was foulbrood.

On 4/26/10 I installed a new package of bees with fanfare (Mohammad and Bud were there). The new bees went into the old Russian hive equipment, though the new bees are Italians. I guess this season they will be called the "old" (overwintered colony) and the "new" (package colony) instead of the Russian and Italian. The new package has a headstart over last year's package bees as there is lots of comb and some capped honey left over from the Russians. The installation went fine. The bees got fresh sugar syrup and a pollen patty in each hive.

Also on 4/26/10 we inspected the old Italian colony. The queen was there but had not started laying.



Some weeks after installation we had to move the hives to cut down a large ash tree that was too close to the house. The move lasted a day and a half where the bees were not allowed to venture from their hives. When they were released they were thirsty and happy to be flying, but fine otherwise.



Which brings us to 5/22/10 and the third inspection of the 2010 season:



Conditions: Sunny, 75F
Present: Just me
Equipment: Removed entrance reducers and added super to new colony. Removed queen cage from new colony.
Activities: Smoked hives about 4:30pm. Inspected a few frames.
Observations:

"New" hive:

In the "new" hive there were some new bees present, though I did not observe any emerging. All the bees were concentrated in a single deep as I did not have a super on after installing the package. They seem very happy in there. The queen is laying a lot with a good brood pattern. There is food and brood on both sides of the 3 or 4 frames I inspected. There was also new comb being built on frames that were not completely built out. I didn't spot the queen, but I didn't keep pulling frames just to find her. I was happy with the quantity and quality of laying.

I did damage some of the comb on one side of the frame when removing the queen cage. I forgot to pull the two frames that were sandwiching it at the same time, then split them apart once they were both out. I pulled one of the two frames and dragged the queen cage straight down cutting through comb all the way. The aftermath was a strip of bare foundation on one side the exact width of the queen cage, the empty queen cage at the bottom of the hive, and a mass of wax and smushed brood. Oops. I hope I don't make that mistake again...

"Old" hive:

In the "old" hive I found the queen right away on the first shallow frame I pulled. She was laying only in the upper shallow super and all frames in the lower deep were empty with the exception of a few bees. I didn't know if she was not laying down there since there was no food on many of those frames or because she was preferring to be up high in hive. Because I use a shallow upper super, there is not much room for both brood and food on the small frames and I'm concerned about sufficient population build if she's not laying on the deep frmaes. I decided that either way it might be a good idea to switch the upper and lower. So I have shallows on the bottom, deeps up above that, and then a pail topfeeder. The hope is that the bees working the feeder put some food on the deep frames since they are now adjacent to the feeder, and that the queen starts laying there. I'll be happy to switch the deep back down to the bottom position in a week or two. Hopefully this is more helpful than confusing to the bees. I won't leave it this way for too long as I don't want them to pack all the deep frames with food so there is no room for brood. I might be meddling too much. The bees know what they are doing. I like to think I can help, though I'm not sure I actually do.

There was also a LOT of very large ants and ant larvae between the inner and outer cover. I still had a sheet of foam insulation on this hive and they had started burrowing in it to make a cozy home. I don't think the bees could get to the them to chase them out. I removed the insulation and all the ants I could. I trust the bees will do the rest.

7/18/09: Re-queening the Italians

So based on inspections six and seven, we decided to re-queen the Italian hive. Immediately after finding no eggs or larvae, I put in a call to the closest bee guy. He's the one who sold me the packages and he had one queen available. A Russian he's had for a week. I guess the experiment of one Italian and one Russian hive is over before the first winter. Look out, Europe. The Russians are coming!

We don't even know what happened to the Italian. She was a strong layer who just stopped after we prevented a swarm.

Meet the new Queen and her lone attendant:

We experimented with a queen installation that does not involve removing a frame and installing the cage in it's place. This SHOULD allow for easy release of the queen without building lots of brace comb or the hassel of having to take out a frame that covered in bees and not put it back. Here's what we did:

We removed a bit of wax from two locations at the top of two adjacent frames.

We placed the queen cage in between the adjacent frames and nested them down in the lower hive body. Since there was not enough candy to sufficiently delay the removal of the new queen until the hive had accepted her, I left the cork in. In two or three days I'll sneak back in and remove it with tweezers. The next inspection will be in a week, looking for eggs from the new queen.

7/13/09: Sixth Inspection

Conditions: Partly Sunny, 75F
Present: Bud F. and I
Equipment: No changes.
Activities: Smoked hives about 5:30pm. Inspected all frames.
Observations:
Italian hive: NO capped brood or larvae. At all. This was a complete shock. The beautiful crescents of capped honey over what had been the brood nest were still there, the hive population density was fine (lots of bees), but NO capped brood or larvae. We did see the queen and she was alive and well. 99% sure it's the same fertile queen we started the season with as the inspection was not 17 days or more from when we eliminated the swarm cells, so they could not have raised up a virgin queen in that amount of time. Otherwise things looked normal. Specifically looked for varroa and did not see any.

Russian hive: TONS of capped brood in this hive, more than I've ever seen in either hive. This is consistent with what I've heard about the Russians, that they start late and the population explodes in the summer. Population density of bees in the hive was approximately equal to the Italians, though this will likely change due to contrast in the brood nests.

Both hives have had empty feeders for days. I had not refilled in case they had already filled the supers recently added and we would be adding honey supers for us to harvest. (If that were the case, I'd suspend feeding as I honey from nectar, not sugar-water). Those supers were far from full, so I'll resume feeding.

Update 7/15/09: I spoke with an experienced beekeeper who suggested a hypothesis related to the swarm threat. Apparently the workers put the queen on a diet when they are going to swarm so she can fly. The "old" queen will fly with the swarm while the "new" queen takes up residence in the hive. Since we interrupted their swarm plans relatively late in the game, they may have already put her on a diet and she therefore had stopped laying. The verdict: decide whether or not to re-queen after another inspection in 4-5 days where we specifically look for eggs. If eggs or larvae are present, let it be, all will return to normal with just a slight population decline due to the brood interruption. If no eggs are present, requeen right away and hope the workers live long enough to help raise the new young. So Saturday 7/18/09 will be judgement day for our Italian queen. Time to put out or get out, little lady.

5/30/09: LBCA Field Day and 3rd inspection

LBCA Field Day at Queen Right Colonies in Spencer, OH:
Conditions: Sunny, 70F
Present: About 80 experienced and novice beekeepers from the Lorain County Beekeepers Association and I
Equipment: QRC apiary
Activities: I showed up at around 1:15 pm.
1) Inspected lower deep (brood chamber) or a mature colony (not started, split, or swarmed this year).
2) Observed equipment from a colony that had collapsed from American Foul Brood (AFB).
3) Observed hives from an experiment to determine comb-building affinity for different types of foundation.
Observations:
1) The mature hive was interesting. All frames were completely built out. The wall frames were all capped honey with brood located in inner frames. We observed a good brood pattern and discussed signs of weak brood patterns that would require re-queening. Saw some supercedure cells that indicated the workers have some ideas regarding replacing their queen.
2) The AFB colony was supposed to be a live colony kept for educational purposes so new beekeepers could see (and smell) a diseased colony. Experienced beekeepers present questioned the wisdom of keeping this hive and equipment present in a working apiary with dozens of uninfected colonies. The owner has dealt with infected colonies and felt he had an adequate understanding of the disease and could prevent infection of other colonies. All the bees were dead and there was a musty, mildewy smell to the hive. A very spotty brood pattern was evident with sunken caps. The bacterial disease kills and multiplies in the larvae, producing spores which transfer by contact (especially on gloves and hive tools) and are very difficult to kill. Equipment from infected colonies must be burned or dipped in hot parafin (~350F).
3) The foundation comparison study was very interesting. Newly established colonies of packaged bees were set up this season (~5 weeks prior) with different foundations to determine if bees will build out comb faster on some foundations than others. Wired wax, yellow plastic, and black plastic in wooden frames were compared, as well as one-piece plastic frames and foundation. The preliminary results were the bees, all Italians, showed no preference and built all out to about the same extent! Each hive had about 6 full frames built out on both sides after 5 weeks. The LBCA members involved intend to publish a paper with the formal results.Based on this, I'm not sad I went with plastic foundation, but I would have preferred black to yellow to make the eggs easier to spot.

3rd Home Apiary Inspection:
Conditions: Sunny, 70F
Present: Mohammad D. and I
Equipment: Removed entrance reducers on the Italian hive.
Activities: Smoked hives about 5:00pm. Inspected all frames.
Observations: Observed the Italian queen. The Italian hive was docile, lots of bees and new comb. Removed the entrance reducer at the recommendation of a local beekeeper due to warm temperatures and current honey flow. Will probably add the first super during the next inspection. Running out of smoke when we got to the Russians. At one point they came boiling out of the hive and were aggressively bumping me and followed me while I backed off. My fault, next time I'll bring more smoker fuel with me. Mohammad declined the use of a spare veil and got a worker bee up his nose. He was stung on the underside of his nose when the she discovered she was not welcome to probe his left nostril. When I looked over, she was about halfway in and Mohammad was obviously dismayed. Next time he will be wearing a veil.

5/22/09: Second checkup

Conditions: Sunny, 72F
Present: Mohammad and I
Equipment: No changes.
Activities: Smoked hives about 5:30pm. Took a good look at each hive to see what they’ve done.
Observations: Spotted both queens who are alive and well. The Italian hive is quite vigorous during nice days, lots of flying. The Italians have lots of capped brood, a few honey cells with gleaming white caps and several frames with new comb on both sides. We saw baby bees, and watched one emerge! Bee birth! There are at least 4 frames that are still bare (no comb) and there is plenty of room in the hive for more bees without supering yet. The pollen patty was nearly consumed. The Russian hive is doing fair. The Russians have new comb on the one side of plastic foundation for the two frames facing the old comb, but no more. They seem to be slow to take to drawing out comb on the plastic foundations. They were almost out of sugar syrup. The pollen patty was maybe 25% consumed. There was capped brood, though less so and the pattern was not as consistently centered with food surrounding it. Baby bees were present, though. We did not spot any eggs, but they may have been there in the new comb. It was difficult to see with the light yellow background and the lighter colored new wax. There was a lot of waxy dark crud on the bottom board on the side of the hive with the entrance blocked by the reducer. I’m concerned about this as the Italians are keeping a very clean hive. I’m hoping they’ll clean this out when the entrance reducer is removed and the exit is more convenient. There were bees gathered on this material. It almost looked as though they had produced wax, but instead of fixing it to the foundation, it had sloughed off and fallen into the grit/gunk they cleaned out of the old comb. I’ll ask Bud about this when he gets back in town.