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.

6/6/09: Fourth Inspection

Conditions: Sunny, 74F
Present: Bud F. and I
Equipment: Removed entrance reducers on the Russian hive (removed from the Italian hive last week).
Activities: Smoked hives about 3:30pm. Inspected all frames.
Observations: Observed additional drawn comb. Not much has changed since the last inspection. Did not spot the queens, though lots of capped brood was evident. We should be to the point where all the bees in the colonies are the offspring of the reigning queen and were born in the hive where they now live, not back at the bee farm. In order to let them work and not slow them down, the next inspection will be 2-3 weeks from now.

6/6/09: More syrup

I replaced the sugar syrup in the pail feeders on top of the hives today. The one on top of the Russian queen colony was near empty. The one on top the Italian queen colony had quite a bit left in it. Neither colony has been taking nearly as much since there have been some nectar flows, most recently honey locust. I may discontinue feeding soon as they seem to be doing very well foraging.

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.

5/25/09: More Syrup

Replenished syrup in both hives. Russians were nearly empty on last inspection and the feeder was totally empty at time of replacement.

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.

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.