A New Queen and Her Legs

Found the newly emerged Sasha queen right on schedule. I didn't search the entire hive to find her queen cell, but since we know it takes 16 days for a queen to emerge, I am certain she was underway by the time I did my first inspection of the year, two weeks ago.  

This queen was brand new, just emerged and trying to get the hang of her long legs. I must have stood there a good half hour taking photos and watching her move around. I'm grateful for the  opportunity to witness such a rare sight and so pleased to share a short video of this occasion!

 

For now, all is right in the Sasha hive but this queen is to be replaced with a new Russian queen next week. That means the death of this little beauty, but she will live on as a teacher. I've been sharing dead bees with the education program at the Hard Bargain Farm Environmental Center for their pollinator program and plan on preserving this queen for them. What a rare opportunity it will be for students to explore a queen bee up close!

Did you know that a queen makes a sound? It is referred to as piping or tooting. Tooting starts soon after a queen has emerged from her cell but I didn't detect it today. Once this queen gets used to her legs and hardens a bit, she will seek out and kill any other potential queens by ripping open their cells and stinging them to death.

I recently read that worker bees will sometimes not allow a queen to dispose of all her potential rivals right away; they bar her from some of the cells. She will then begin to toot and may continue to do so day and night, perhaps for a week or more. Her tooting rises in intensity and volume which may heard more than 10 feet from the hive.

Meanwhile the maturing queen bees still in cells try to get out in their turn. The worker bees hold them back. As fast as one of them opens the cap of her cell the workers push it back in place and glue it shut. These imprisoned queens also start to pipe, but in a different pattern and at a lower tone than the free queen. The workers let out some of these queens, but only one at a time. The reigning queen and the newly released rival then battle until one is killed. A series of fights between the survivor and the new rivals goes on until only one queen is left. This survivor, still a virgin, then flies away from the hive to mate with several drones before she returns to begin laying eggs.

When to Add Honey Supers?

That's a simple rule... when the dandelions are in bloom. With our non-winter this year our dandelions are just coming into bloom. And our trees are about to pop. Allergy sufferers are really going to suffer this season but I'm predicting a booming nectar flow!

Waiting on Pair of Queens

Inspected the Sasha hive today to see if they happened to be making a queen yet. Pictured here is a frame of brood that I had moved in that was mostly eggs last week. There are a number of empty queen cups, both supercedure as well as swarm, on 3 or 4 frames. The hive is full of bees and they're capping honey in the top box! I added a honey super for good measure and to give them a bit more space. I'll split from these bees once the queens arrive in a couple of weeks.

First Full Inspection of 2012 also known as Laurel and Hardy Inspect the Bees

Red Daffodil Pollen

Our projected overnight temps are to remain above 45 degrees for the next 10 days so I planned my inspection for today with the intent of splitting the OV hive to make the third hive of the apiary. It felt great being in the bees after a long winter. I started with the OV hive, cleaning off the bottom screen, scraping away propolis, etc. Lots of red daffodil pollen on the bees.

OV Queen and Brood

I found exactly what I expected to find in the OV hive; nectar and pollen up top, brood in various stages and the queen in the middle with empty comb in the bottom.

I was hoping to find a queen cell to split, but decided that I'd try another walk away split as there was lots of bees and brood in the hive. Wouldn't you know that the frame I selected for the most eggs, also had the queen on it! I carefully nudged her off into the open space made from two removed frames and as I leaned in over the hive to check on her, the hat of my veil tipped forward, covering my eyes. As quick as I tipped it back the queen was nowhere in sight. She was no longer on the frame I had in my hands but what about the other frames I want to remove? I'd feel safer knowing where she was instead of hoping where she wasn't... so I inspected the box, again. No queen. Hmmm... Did she drop into the bottom box? Did I harm her? Yikes! Now I really want to get a visual on her. So I inspected the bottom box, again. No queen. Back to the middle box, again and there she was! Yea!

New Split

Now that I was certain the OV queen was okay, I moved over a couple more frames of brood along with a couple frames of pollen and nectar and rounded it out with empty drawn frames. Last year's split taught me that drift really depletes the population so start out with more bees than you think you'll need. I closed up both hives, put the top feeder on the OV hive and turned my attention to inspecting the Sasha hive.

My smoker had died by now but I wasn't concerned as the Sasha hive had been so docile. Boy, they sure had me fooled! The moment I removed the top box I was surrounded by unhappy bees. You can bet I re-lit the smoker but not before getting stung just above the knee!

The Sasha hive still had honey in the top box but the middle box had a single queen cup on a number of frames. They were all empty and I was having trouble finding any eggs. Anywhere. I couldn't find the queen either. And I was really taking my time, inspecting each box a couple of times before it occurred to me that I had not noticed any brood. Anywhere. None at all! Funny how a hive full of bees can echo as empty as a ghost town when no brood is present. No wonder I couldn't find the queen! (and being able to read the hive to easily find her is something I'm proud to have learned.)

I'm not yet certain how this hive become queenless but she was probably near the top bars when I was feeding fondant and squished when I closed up the hive. So, after everything I did with the OV hive to make the split, I undid all that work by brushing the bees back into the OV hive and placing three frames of brood in the Sasha hive. They'll start feeding one of the eggs royal jelly and a new queen will be selected but I've learned my lesson on these silly Sasha bees. They still are making weird comb formations and are not about the business that good bees should be, so I ordered two new Russian queens from Free State Bees. I'll requeen the Sasha hive with one and make a third hive with the other.

Split hive in the middle before
being sacrificed to Sasha

So, how long did my inspection take today? About an hour and a half, I'd say. Way longer than it should have. But some days Laurel and Hardy come to visit and well, you know days like that just can't be rushed!

Don't Spring Too Early

As I've been saying, it has not yet actually been winter in my part of Southern Maryland and it's already March. With our daytime temps in the 45 -70 degree range, it's tempting to want to begin feeding sugar syrup. But no matter where you live and how lovely your daytime temperature may be, remember that your night time temps must be consistently above 45 degrees to feed syrup. We're still just above freezing some nights.

Be patient, my beekeeping friends! Spring will be here any time now!

The Beekeeper

Local farmer Megan Paska has witnessed beekeeping as it morphed from an illegal (and possibly crazy) habit to a sustainable, community-supported skill. Mirroring beekeeping’s own ascendance, she found more than just a living: “This is the first time in my life when I’ve just felt absolutely on the right path.”