OV Queen Looking Wonderful This Morning

Spotted the OV Queen while doing my inspection as I hadn't really checked on them for 4 weeks or so, leaving them to do their honey thing. She's got a great brood pattern going on but you won't necessarily think so from the frame in this photo. This frame is in the top box and the empty cells have been filled with nectar.

Even though she was a surprise queen, she's doing great. The hive is just full of bees and there are currently 6 frames of honey nearly all capped. Looks like I'll have a nice honey harvest for my first year! :-)

I am feeling good about both hives and enjoyed my time with them this morning. As I was closing up the OV hive I spotted these two beautiful bright orange pieces of pollen and couldn't resist taking one last photo. All's well in the apiary today!

Gave Sasha Hive Another Little Boost

Last week I attached some of the burr comb to the frames in the second brood box hoping that the wax would entice the bees to go up there and move it around. As you can see, they did just that but with an undesirable outcome! Good news is that the queen laid eggs in the largest piece (you can spot the eggs when expanding the image.) Bad news is that the queen laid eggs in the largest piece. I've left it there for now because that hive needs all the bees it can get and I want the queen to be moving to other frames.

Thankfully, the queen has begun to lay on the other side of one frame, bringing her total area to 4 full frames. Being as patient as I can with this hive, I know the population must be built up much more in order to have the resources to make and store food to be able to survive through the winter. I decided to move over two full frames of brood and with some house bees from the OV hive. Six full frames of brood in the hive will certainly increase their chances. If there isn't much progress next week, I'll move over another two, and so on.

They are feeding on the syrup at the rate of a gallon a week for this small number, but I am hopeful their wax building capabilities have finally gotten up to speed (albiet misdirected for now) and that they will begin drawing out more comb.

Waxing with Joy!

The Sasha hive top feeder was empty today which was an exciting discovery on two levels:

1. It means the bees are finally taking the sugar syrup in quantity, and
2. The edges of the opening had lots of little, white pieces of wax like that pictured here.

I hope that means that the girls are producing wax in order to draw out more comb in order to store the syrup they are taking from the feeder. Will inspect this weekend and hope to finally see some progress in that hive!

Brood Above the Queen Excluder

The OV hive queen didn't waste anytime sneaking through the queen excluder and into the honey super as evidenced by this photo taken last week.

Today those cells are empty, cleaned and starting to be used for honey.

The hive was sure feisty today and I wasn't planning to do a complete inspection but did manage to get stung in the kneecap.

Note to self: Don't work in the box you set on the ground. The guard bees are much closer to your knees at that point. :-)

What To Do About the Sasha Hive?

The queen is laying a lovely brood pattern, utilizing nearly every cell on the frame. Yet, she continues to remain on the same 3.5 frames!

Last week, even thought the bees have not yet drawn out more frames, I added a second brood box in the hopes that they work up there in the event the queen wanted to move up. Sadly, that is not the case.

One success this week is that the bees are finally taking from the top feeder. Yes, that means the nectar flow is waning but I'm hopeful the 1:1 sugar syrup will encourage the bees to draw out more frames.

It apparent that the queen only lays when there are open cells on those 3.5 frames. One would think that she'd be commanding the hive to draw out more frames for her to lay in. The population has stayed visually pretty much the same in the past month. There is still plenty of time for her to fill out the hive population for a fall nectar flow, but without drawn comb for her to do so, I am beginning to fear that this hive will remain week going into winter.

Starting with drawn comb is such a plus in a case like this. Another lesson learned: When splitting a hive, give them drawn comb if you can.

What a Difference a Week Makes

Every week I see improvements in the Sasha hive. Last week, the bees had cleaned house nice and tidy, removing the debris from the dead was moth larvae. This week the bees have filled in the damaged areas with new comb and the queen has finally spread out her laying to 3 full frames, both sides! In this photo you can see larvae in the spotty holes of the brood and the nice tight brood elsewhere. Nice honey going on in the corners, too.

This frame of brood pictured is on one new frames finally being used by the queen. Lovely eggs, larvae and capped brood! I'm pleased with this progress.

But I was surprised to find two dry queen cups, one each on the bottom of the two center-most frames. Being Russians, I would usually not worry about them but they worry me today because the bees have yet to draw out five of the frames. There is room to expand! Also, one frame next to the three brood frames is full with nectar and pollen, and the frame on the other side of the three brood frames is not yet drawn out. Perhaps they feel confined?

I'm not sure if this will matter to the bees but I moved the nectar-full frame over and placed a very partially drawn frame closer to the brood and then put the top feeder back on. The bees had not been feeding from it and I've been dumping out spoiled sugar water, but as we're nearing the end of our major nectar flow am hopeful the 1:1 syrup will encourage the now larger population of bees to draw out the comb so the queen has a place to lay.

A Queen is Born

While attending the class 'Chemical Fee Beekeeping' offered by Heidi and Stefano at Azure B, we were lucky enough to catch a queen just beginning to chew open her cell.

Pretty neat stuff!