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.

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.

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.

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.

6/30/09: More sugar syrup

Decided to resume feeding based on recommendation from the local bee club. They instruct new beekeepers to keep feeding until honey harvest supers are added. It is only discontinued then to prevent you eventually harvesting sugar from the feeders instead of honey dried from nectar. It will also prevent them from consuming so much honey during a dearth.

The bucket feeders are working well and only require refilling every week or so, though frequency will increase with bee population and depending on nectar flow.

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.