8/29/09: 10th Inspection and Sugar-Dusting

Conditions: Sunny, 68F
Present: Bud, Mohammad, and I
Equipment: Added screened bottom board to the Italian hive only. (Just had one)
Activities: Smoked hives about 1:45pm. Inspected assorted frames. Sugar-dusted both hives for the first time ever with a sugar-dusting bellows.
Observations: In the Italian hive there was not a lot of honey stored up. This could be due to a population interruption as the queen had stopped laying for a few weeks. The brood was up higher in the frames of the deep and the queen had been laying the the first super. The honey supers we had added almost a month ago had no additional comb built in them. Just bare foundation. I don't think there's been enough nectar available in August to support making that much more wax, and "they aren't going to build it if they don't have anything to store in it" (Bud). We decided to resume feeding the Italians due to the lack of nectar available. We'll check again in three or four weeks to see what's what. A fall flow may allow them to build out something in those honey supers.

When changing out the solid bottom board and installing the screen bottom board we had ample opportunity to inspect Italian workers and drones for varroa. None were noted. Still, with only one screened bottom board, it went to the weaker colony of Italians (since the Russian are supposedly more resistant to varroa).

In the Russian hive we observed more capped honey and nectar than in the Italian. This colony did not have a population interruption. They had build some brace comb between the deep and the first super and laid drone in it, so taking out frames and removing the first super to inspect the deep was a gooey larval-paste mess. We did not have the opportunity to inspect workers closely for mites as they were not very happy. Overall they seem healthy and we are not planning to resume feeding them yet.

Sugar-dusting was interesting. Bud had purchased a bellows at a local beekeeper shop. Dusting the bees with powdered sugar increases grooming activity which results in mite drop, right through the screen bottom board. The bees are not treated with harmful chemicals and they end up with a bonus food source. We figured out how to use the bellows properly at the very end, so the Russians and the Italians did not get a thorough dusting. We'll know the trick for next time. You have to pump it violently and erratically to get enough sugar to drop into the airway path to be blown out the tip. We'll likely pick up another screen bottom board for the Russians and do one more dusting before the winter sets in. "Take care of the bees that will be taking care of the bees that will overwinter." Those future nurse bees are emerging now.

No honey harvest this year, as expected (though we hoped for a really productive year and a little honey for ourselves). Hopefully they will have stored up enough to keep them over the winter.

The apiary may be relocating as I may be moving to a house 15 minutes away. If we sell our house, there will be a future post regarding our adventures in moving bees.

8/2/09: Ninth Inspection and Honey Supers Added

Conditions: Partly Cloudy, 72F (unseasonably cool for August!)
Present: Just me
Equipment: Added first honey super to each hive
Activities: Smoked hives about 5:30pm. Inspected one or two frames in the lower super of each colony. Inspected deep frames in the "Italian" hive.
Observations: Still plenty of bees in the "Italian" hive. If there will be a big population decline it has not occurred yet. Spent some extra time inspecting the brood frames. Lots of brood present on probably 6 frames. I was satisfied that whichever queen is in there laying (either new Russian or old Italian) she is doing very well. Wall frames still are not built out, but the lower super was pretty heavy with capped and uncapped honey. I added the first honey super.

The russian hive I did not disturb much. Checked the weight of the lower super, which was heavy with capped and uncapped honey. Added the first honey super here, too.

We'll see what progress is made in building out comb in the new honey supers throughout August. We may have a dearth affecting both colonies and population decline in the "Italian" colony before the fall nectar flow starts. Whatever honey is capped in the new supers will be for us!

Have seen lots of honey bees in the garden on squash, raspberries, buckwheat and cut-flowers.

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.

7/21/09: Re-queen step 2 - popping the cork

Conditions: Overcast, Thunder, 80F and falling fast
Present: Just me
Equipment: No changes.
Activities: Smoked the hive with the new queen about 5:00pm. Tried to pop the cork on the queen cage.
Observations: Tried to remove two frames simultaneously to check on the queen, to make sure she was still alive. It was very awkward by myself and I gave up. The queen cage started to slip between the frames and I didn't want it to drop. I decided just to pop the cork and get out. While trying to pop the cork, it collapsed INTO the queen cage. If she survives all this, it will be a small miracle. I can't imagine it would crush her or obstruct her exit, but I still feel like I botched it. We'll check back, probably this weekend to remove the queen cage and hopefully spot some eggs.

Also noticed the Russians are out of sugar syrup again. We might be ready to put the first honey super on them soon. Time to get some shallow frames assembled for that.

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.

7/18/09: Seventh Inspection - Italian Hive only

Conditions: Partly Cloudy, 68F
Present: Bud F. and I
Equipment: No changes.
Activities: Smoked hive about 3:15pm. Inspected all frames.
Observations: Observed no eggs, larvae, or capped brood. On a recommendation from an experienced beekeeper, we did this inspection after seeing the same thing about a week ago. We had hoped she was just a bit delayed in resuming laying after preparing to swarm. The workers had actually started back-filling the empty brood nest with nectar and pollen. We did not see the Italian queen this time, though she was present last time. This was judgement day for the Italian queen and she had not performed. Time to re-queen. The good thing is there were still a lot of bees left in the hive, so the population hasn't significantly declined yet. Even if we get a strong laying new queen, the population will drop. Hopefully it won't drop too much or during a nectar flow.

7/14/09: Refilled feeders

Refilled bucket feeders after confirming the newer supers were far from full. They'll take all of this feeding before needing to put on any honey supers, and by then we may be in a dearth. I am hoping the bees will gather enough to get them through the winter. We'll be lucky if we even get a small taste of honey from the hives this year.