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.
Monday, July 30, 2012
Sunday, July 8, 2012
2012 Nuc #4
7/8/12: Removed Queen from Hive 3 with a handful of bees and placed into this new nuc. She was failing and this was done to facilitate a combine of Hive 3 with N3.
7/30/12: The queen did fail and was not in the hive. No eggs, no brood, maybe 30-50 bees. Dead.
7/30/12: The queen did fail and was not in the hive. No eggs, no brood, maybe 30-50 bees. Dead.
2012 Nuc #3
6/5/12: Started a new Nuc #3 with a frame of eggs from Hive #4 and two frames of bees from recently combined hive 3. Originally it had the old queen from hive #3 in it but she was not laying and was not found after relocating to the nuc, so I moved the eggs over.
6/14/12: I combined this Nuc with some "found" bees into a single deep, still calling this Nuc #3. (A note about the "found" bees: I found what was supposed to be an empty single deep hive actually had 2-3 frames of bees in it! I tried to seal up this empty hive from any returning foragers after a combine by closing the entrance, but they found a small gap due to a knot-hole in the entrance reducer. Returning foragers found no queen, but plenty of comb and space and never sought out the relocated hive with their queen.) There were about 5 capped queen cells on the frame of brood.
6/22/12: Queen cells uncapped and torn down, no eggs. I did not spot the queen, who is hopefully mating. Will look for eggs in July.
7/8/12: Combined with Hive #3.
6/14/12: I combined this Nuc with some "found" bees into a single deep, still calling this Nuc #3. (A note about the "found" bees: I found what was supposed to be an empty single deep hive actually had 2-3 frames of bees in it! I tried to seal up this empty hive from any returning foragers after a combine by closing the entrance, but they found a small gap due to a knot-hole in the entrance reducer. Returning foragers found no queen, but plenty of comb and space and never sought out the relocated hive with their queen.) There were about 5 capped queen cells on the frame of brood.
6/22/12: Queen cells uncapped and torn down, no eggs. I did not spot the queen, who is hopefully mating. Will look for eggs in July.
7/8/12: Combined with Hive #3.
Monday, July 2, 2012
7/1/12: Spring Extraction
On 6/30/12 pulled 5 supers to extract, leaving a full super on each of the two hives that I pulled from. 3 supers came from Hive #4 and 2 from Hive #1.
On 7/1/12 I extracted with Drew, Garrett, and Ed, a local farmer and first year beekeeper. We got over 100 lbs of honey, I'll have a better idea once I bottle. It is beautiful to behold. And now I have empty supers of drawn comb for the ladies to refill.
On 7/1/12 I extracted with Drew, Garrett, and Ed, a local farmer and first year beekeeper. We got over 100 lbs of honey, I'll have a better idea once I bottle. It is beautiful to behold. And now I have empty supers of drawn comb for the ladies to refill.
Monday, June 18, 2012
County Inspector Visit 6/16/12
Summit County Bee Inspector Laura Durban called ahead Friday evening (very courteous) to announce her availability and intent to inspect my apiary Saturday 6/16/12. I asked that she not inspect hives actively rearing queens (denoted with bricks on top of hives, queen right hives have rocks weighing down the telescoping outer covers). I accidentally had a brick on top of Hive 6, so it was not inspected even though it is queen right.
She came after I had left for Father's Day related adventures, so I was not present of the inspection. She left the following report:
We went last year with an AWOL county inspector and therefore no inspection. Welcome, Laura!
She came after I had left for Father's Day related adventures, so I was not present of the inspection. She left the following report:
We went last year with an AWOL county inspector and therefore no inspection. Welcome, Laura!
Monday, May 14, 2012
First Swarm Call
I'm not on any swarm call list and I don't have a truck or a cell phone. I'm not a prime candidate for scoring lots of swarms. I did get a call on 5/13/12 from a neighbor on Alger Rd. who we know vaguely since our kids attend the same school. They called to say a swarm was atop a tree in the middle of their circle driveway and while they were leaving, I could come and try to catch it if I wished.
The tree was a 35' tall ornamental pear and there were bees at the very top. I set up my 20' tall folding ladder and tied it to the tree. While standing in the tree just above where the ladder reached, I was able to cut down 4' long sections of branches that had bees on them. None of them was a tight cluster of bees that might contain a queen, though. They must have left already. What remained was about 100-200 bees that were high enough to make me think the swarm might still be up there. When the neighbors returned they confirmed it was a big mass of bees when they called, about the size of a basketball. They had seen some on the brick face of a peak of their house under an eave. There were still a few dozen bees there and I climbed up to make sure there was no queen. I brushed them off and they came right back. The did not seem inclined to try to go up and in the gap between the house and the soffit.
I left a single deep hive there in case any of the scouts thought it a better home than where ever they flew to, though I think that unlikely. Good luck to you, wild little swarm!
The tree was a 35' tall ornamental pear and there were bees at the very top. I set up my 20' tall folding ladder and tied it to the tree. While standing in the tree just above where the ladder reached, I was able to cut down 4' long sections of branches that had bees on them. None of them was a tight cluster of bees that might contain a queen, though. They must have left already. What remained was about 100-200 bees that were high enough to make me think the swarm might still be up there. When the neighbors returned they confirmed it was a big mass of bees when they called, about the size of a basketball. They had seen some on the brick face of a peak of their house under an eave. There were still a few dozen bees there and I climbed up to make sure there was no queen. I brushed them off and they came right back. The did not seem inclined to try to go up and in the gap between the house and the soffit.
I left a single deep hive there in case any of the scouts thought it a better home than where ever they flew to, though I think that unlikely. Good luck to you, wild little swarm!
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
2012 Nuc #2 (ended 6/2/12 with combine to Hive 6)
Hive status: New nuc in 2012
Hive origin: Split from H4 2012
Queen type: None yet, eggs from H4 2012
Significant events/observations:
5/8/12: Started this hive to prevent swarming of H4. Consists of 3 frames of brood and eggs and one frame of food, each with bees. The Queen from H4 was found during the split and placed back in H4, so this is a nuc that is certainly queenless. With no nuc boxes, it is in a deep with 4 frames that have no drawn comb and 2 frames with a small amount of drawn comb.
5/13/12: 3 uncapped queen cells present, perhaps 6 or 7 days old. They must have realized they were without a queen with enough time to use the eggs from 5/8/12. If a healthy queen emerges she should be mated and perhaps even laying by the end of the month.
5/21/12: I checked in on this hive in case there were queen cells on more than one frame to try to start another nuc. All 3 queen cells were capped on the same frame, so I let them bee. The queens will likely hatch out tomorrow.
6/2/12: Combined with 2012 Hive 6. Refer to that post for additional info.
Hive origin: Split from H4 2012
Queen type: None yet, eggs from H4 2012
Significant events/observations:
5/8/12: Started this hive to prevent swarming of H4. Consists of 3 frames of brood and eggs and one frame of food, each with bees. The Queen from H4 was found during the split and placed back in H4, so this is a nuc that is certainly queenless. With no nuc boxes, it is in a deep with 4 frames that have no drawn comb and 2 frames with a small amount of drawn comb.
5/13/12: 3 uncapped queen cells present, perhaps 6 or 7 days old. They must have realized they were without a queen with enough time to use the eggs from 5/8/12. If a healthy queen emerges she should be mated and perhaps even laying by the end of the month.
5/21/12: I checked in on this hive in case there were queen cells on more than one frame to try to start another nuc. All 3 queen cells were capped on the same frame, so I let them bee. The queens will likely hatch out tomorrow.
6/2/12: Combined with 2012 Hive 6. Refer to that post for additional info.
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