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.
Showing posts with label varroa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label varroa. Show all posts
Monday, July 30, 2012
Friday, September 3, 2010
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.
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.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
9/16/09: County Bee Inspection!
Conditions: Sunny, 76F
Present: Cuyahoga County Bee Inspector
Equipment: No changes.
Activities: Smoked hives about 11am? Inspected all frames.
Background: So I get a call at work from Annie, my wife, saying someone is here and they are opening up the beehives. Someone official. They said they could not call ahead as I did not provide a phone number. I have heard some horror stories about county bee inspectors transmitting all kinds of diseases from other apiaries due to infected hive tools and protective equipment. My poor wife, I freaked out on her and told her to tell the inspector not to inspect my hives until I was able to speak to them. Except when Annie called me, the inspector was already in the Russian hive inspecting... Annie was upset because I had never told her not to allow an inspector to inspect without my permission, and reasonably so. It all worked out. I got to speak to Lisa Wright, the Geauga and Cuyahoga county bee inspector, and she was able to reassure me that she is just as concerned about the biosecurity of my bees as I am. When I spoke to her she had completed the first inspection and was about to move on to the next hive. We're planning on moving in October and she issued me a Transfer Permit and wished me luck. When I got home, I had report #49 waiting for me.
Present: Cuyahoga County Bee Inspector
Equipment: No changes.
Activities: Smoked hives about 11am? Inspected all frames.
Background: So I get a call at work from Annie, my wife, saying someone is here and they are opening up the beehives. Someone official. They said they could not call ahead as I did not provide a phone number. I have heard some horror stories about county bee inspectors transmitting all kinds of diseases from other apiaries due to infected hive tools and protective equipment. My poor wife, I freaked out on her and told her to tell the inspector not to inspect my hives until I was able to speak to them. Except when Annie called me, the inspector was already in the Russian hive inspecting... Annie was upset because I had never told her not to allow an inspector to inspect without my permission, and reasonably so. It all worked out. I got to speak to Lisa Wright, the Geauga and Cuyahoga county bee inspector, and she was able to reassure me that she is just as concerned about the biosecurity of my bees as I am. When I spoke to her she had completed the first inspection and was about to move on to the next hive. We're planning on moving in October and she issued me a Transfer Permit and wished me luck. When I got home, I had report #49 waiting for me.
Monday, July 6, 2009
7/5/09: Special Feeding
Special feeding of the bees. Took the deep frame that was previously removed from the Russian hive due to the number of drones, uncapped the honey cells above the now dead brood, got a few bees on it at the hive entrance, and stashed it 40 yards away in a cardboard box previously used for bannas (plenty of holes for bee traffic). In 15 minutes there was some light traffic. When I checked back 3 hours later, hundreds of bees were flying and in out. It looked like the entrance to a hive. They were still working it when I checked at 8pm, but traffic was dying down. Last night it was in the 50s. There was no activity at 6:15am and the sweets were not discovered by a skunk or coon in the night. I will check again when I get home at 5:00pm. I expect they will finish cleaning the honey out today, but will leave it for another night and day just in case.
Also took another pic of the varroa, this one under magnification. The drone had been removed from his capped cell two days prior, so he's a bit dessicated. The varroa was finally dead, though she did make it almost two days without a host. She had previously nestled in the ridge of skin alongside and on top of one of my fingernails, looking for a new cozy spot I presume. I did not oblige.
Also took another pic of the varroa, this one under magnification. The drone had been removed from his capped cell two days prior, so he's a bit dessicated. The varroa was finally dead, though she did make it almost two days without a host. She had previously nestled in the ridge of skin alongside and on top of one of my fingernails, looking for a new cozy spot I presume. I did not oblige.
Update as of 7/6/09: The bees made short work of the honey in the extra frame from the special feeding. At 5pm there were maybe a dozen bees still on and around the frame, but it was already empty. That means about 24 hours of activity cleaned it out.
And just as I was watching the Russians come and go from their hive, trying to look for pollen load (very low) and varroa (none seen).... POW! One of the girls must not have seen me when she turned the corner quickly and smacked into my nose, which she promptly stung. That was painful. Quick stinger removal, Benedryl and ice kept the swelling down to a reasonable level. Mohammad, now I know how you felt. Next time I'll be wearing a veil. I'm learning I need to be more careful as the population builds, they more aggressively forage and are more protective of their honey.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Varroa!
As I was examing drone larvae and pupae from the frame we removed from the Russian hive, I found the first varroa seen in either hive. 1 of 25 drone cells I uncapped had the mite. Inevitable, but still hate to see it.
Monday, June 29, 2009
6/29/09: Fifth Inspection
Three weeks since we were last in the hives.
Conditions: Cloudy, threatening rain, 78F
Present: Bud F. and I
Equipment: Added first supers on top of the lower deeps for both hives. Removed tape from additional entrance holes in the deeps. Removed one frame of "old comb" that had lots of drone larvae from the Russian colony.
Activities: Smoked hives about 5:30pm. Inspected all frames.
Observations: Both hives were doing very well.
Italian: Observed lots of comb in the Italian colony, all frames built out except the wall side of one of the wall frames. These bees had built a lot of comb since the last inspection and were running out of room! One supercedure queen cell and 7-8 swarm queen cells noted. These were removed to prevent swarming and the supers were added. Glad we did not delay inspection any further as they could have swarmed, and a swarm this late in the year would be bad news. Hopefully the increased space and loss of the existing queen cells will prevent an Italian swarm. My one concern is that we did not see the queen. If the queen is dead or gone and we destroyed the queen cells designed to replace her, that would be bad. This seems unlikely, though. As the inspection went on, the colony got more and more agitated. A small amount of royal jelly was collected from the torn down queen cups. It tastes sour and buttery. Not all that yummy, really.
Russian: Comparitively less comb than the Italian colony, but still only approximately 1 frame to fill and obviouly still building comb. Lots of textbook brood pattern seen on many of the center frames. Looks like a good queen who had a little bit of a late start, maybe due to her being Russian. The colony was quite docile throughout the inspection. Quite a few drones in this colony, probably due to the old comb, some of which had damage and was previously chewed out and replaced with the larger drone comb cells. One frame had an excessive amount of drone larvae and was removed and replaced with a frame with empty plastic foundation. This will help with mite control if varroa are now present, but mostly it's to keep the drone population down as the queen would just lay more drones in this frame in the future. We'll get a small amount of honey from this, enough for just a taste, before allowing the bees to clean it up a few hundred feet from the hive. Setting it at a distance will allow the bees to remove the honey and nectar via foraging and hopefully prevent any robbing.
Conditions: Cloudy, threatening rain, 78F
Present: Bud F. and I
Equipment: Added first supers on top of the lower deeps for both hives. Removed tape from additional entrance holes in the deeps. Removed one frame of "old comb" that had lots of drone larvae from the Russian colony.
Activities: Smoked hives about 5:30pm. Inspected all frames.
Observations: Both hives were doing very well.
Italian: Observed lots of comb in the Italian colony, all frames built out except the wall side of one of the wall frames. These bees had built a lot of comb since the last inspection and were running out of room! One supercedure queen cell and 7-8 swarm queen cells noted. These were removed to prevent swarming and the supers were added. Glad we did not delay inspection any further as they could have swarmed, and a swarm this late in the year would be bad news. Hopefully the increased space and loss of the existing queen cells will prevent an Italian swarm. My one concern is that we did not see the queen. If the queen is dead or gone and we destroyed the queen cells designed to replace her, that would be bad. This seems unlikely, though. As the inspection went on, the colony got more and more agitated. A small amount of royal jelly was collected from the torn down queen cups. It tastes sour and buttery. Not all that yummy, really.
Russian: Comparitively less comb than the Italian colony, but still only approximately 1 frame to fill and obviouly still building comb. Lots of textbook brood pattern seen on many of the center frames. Looks like a good queen who had a little bit of a late start, maybe due to her being Russian. The colony was quite docile throughout the inspection. Quite a few drones in this colony, probably due to the old comb, some of which had damage and was previously chewed out and replaced with the larger drone comb cells. One frame had an excessive amount of drone larvae and was removed and replaced with a frame with empty plastic foundation. This will help with mite control if varroa are now present, but mostly it's to keep the drone population down as the queen would just lay more drones in this frame in the future. We'll get a small amount of honey from this, enough for just a taste, before allowing the bees to clean it up a few hundred feet from the hive. Setting it at a distance will allow the bees to remove the honey and nectar via foraging and hopefully prevent any robbing.
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