Catching Up On a Routine Summer of Beekeeping

Incorporating Two Hives
Into One Using Newspaper.

A week after my last post, I incorporated what was left of the Datsuyk hive into the Beagle hive by placing the box on top of the others with a sheet of newspaper in between. Had I moved the bees without a barrier, the stronger Beagle hive would have considered the Datsuyk bees intruders and they would have all been killed. Placing a barrier of a single sheet of newspaper allows the bees to get to know one another as they work to remove it.

If you look closely at the hive in the photo, you'll notice a medium box is in place below two deep hive bodies. Normally, that's not a big deal. I installed the bees into a medium box with frames of comb already drawn out figuring the bees would begin to work drawing out comb on the deep frames.

Serious Burr Comb

However, these silly bees decided they needed more space below for the queen to lay and you remember bee space, right? Bees will fill any space grater than 3/8" with comb and that's just what they did in the space between the bottom of the medium frames and the screened bottom board. I left it in place until the bees moved up to the deeps and were no longer using the bottom box.

The rest of the summer was very routine with nothing much to report in the way of challenges. Both the Dmitry hive and the new Beagle hive were doing everything bees should be doing. In early July we harvested 18 frames of honey, leaving the rest for the bees.

By September though, worry began to creep in. Both hives had nearly 17 medium frames of nectar but neither hive had much in the way of capped honey. A check on the hives couple of weeks later showed the Dmitry hive was well on it's way to capping honey but the Beagle hive still had open nectar.

Dmitry Hive's Capped Honey

And this is the way it remained for October and into November. A peek between the frames today shows the Dmitry hive has 5 frames about 1/4 capped. That's nowhere near the amount of capped honey I would like them to have by now.

And what the heck is going on in the Beagle hive that they are not capping their honey at all? In November I started to feed back some honey using front feeders. This way, the honey only needs to be stored and capped but they continue to have open cells! Besides the worry of not having long-term stores of food to get them through winter, uncapped cells mean more moisture in the hive which can be harmful to a hive in cold, cold weather.

I added a front feeder of honey to the Dmitry hive today to help them get a jump on storing honey instead of needed to convert the nectar they have to honey before storing it. Our temps fluctuate between the 30's to the 60's so the bees don't remain clustered for long and between the nectar in the hives and the honey feeders there is plenty for them to eat. But if January and February are as wintry as predicted, I especially need the Beagle hive to have some stores built up or I may risk loosing it.

One Last Chance for Three Hives This Season

New Dmitry Queen is Laying!

Opened the Dmitry hive to find the top box of 8 getting cleaned up and ready for honey because the next 5 are literally full of nectar with the bottom 2 being used for storing pollen. Not looking for the queen through all those boxes, I was more interested in finding eggs and brood, which I did! The queen isn't laying in a strong brood pattern yet but at least this is proof that this hive now has a laying queen and that I have managed to do something right to keep two hives going in the apiary. 

As you can see, there's not much room to for her to lay as the bees are going gang-busters fulling every available cell with nectar. I only need a couple of frames with brood and eggs to give the Datsyuk hive one last chance. It's getting late for the nectar flow so I know I'll have to tend both the Beagle and Datsyuk hive through the winter if they don't get the hive strongly established by fall. Thankfully, the Dmitry hive will have so much honey that I'll be able to use some on the other two hives. 

Eggs and Larvae for the Datsyuk Hive.

I moved this frame along with one other that is full of eggs and young larvae so the bees will have plenty to select from to make a new queen. After 3 days, the egg becomes larvae and remains in that state for 5 days. In the above photo, you can clearly see the white larvae curled up in the cells. In this photo, if you look closely, you'll see an egg or two as well as the little comma shapes of younger larvae. 

Since it is already late May, this will be the last attempt I can make this season for splitting out a third hive. I'm doubtful another emergency queen will be all that strong, but all I hope for is a queen that will get the hive going. I can supplement both brood and food from Dmitry if needed. I'll check in on the hive in a week to see if they've selected an egg or two for their new queen. Fingers crossed!  

Stupid Beekeeper, Smart Bees

Sometimes when you think you know what you're doing you still do stupid things, like putting a queen back after she's been removed from the hive for three days...

Queen cells first spotted 7 days ago. 

The new queen in the Datsyuk hive is expected to emerge sometime between yesterday and tomorrow so I did a quick peek to see if she was out and about. Pulling the frame that had the queen cells I found one cell open and the other destroyed by the bees (shown in the photo). Yea!

So did a quick look for the queen on the other frames and found more open queen cells... a total of six more that I didn't see the last week! (Not wanting to disturb the hive more than I needed to, I only checked the one frame and closed the hive back up after finding the two queen cells.)

Capped Queen Cell

I didn't see the queen anywhere but a virgin queen is not all that much larger than the rest of the bees and could easily be overlooked. I did spot one last beautiful queen cell not yet open, pictured here.

I'll check back in another week to see if the queen has mated and has begun laying.

For some unknown reason, the queen in the package hive is gone. Did she die or or decided the hive was not fit for her queenliness we'll never know, but left behind were about 100 bees drawing a bit of comb and storing the syrup. I knew this as of four days ago and after giving it much thought I decided to do another split from the very full Dmitry hive in order to give the Beagle hive a fresh start and give the Dmitry hive some relief.

The Dmitry hive is seven boxes full of bees, too full according to them and they were preparing for some of them to leave. We stopped counting at seven swarm cells and that doesn't include those that were destroyed when I lifted the boxes apart. Swarm cells are constructed along the bottom of the frame which differentiate them from other queen cells built higher on the frame like those in the Datsyuk hive. Swarming is a natural part of the growth of a hive but it can also weaken the hive and I was banking on being able to draw from this strong hive to help the others if needed.

Swarm Cells Split to the Beagle Hive

I did the math on the timing of these cells... they could have been started when they realized they no longer had a queen and if that was the case, they surely killed her when I put her back. I didn't go looking for her but I was looking for eggs to move for the split and I wasn't finding any, not in any of the boxes! I've never seen swarm cells created for emergency queens so not yet sure why this is happening...

I used the abundance of queens to move some over to the Beagle hive, along with a couple frames of brood and a large number of bees to jump start that hive again. Some seasoned beekeepers say that a hive will swarm when its ready to swarm regardless of what may be done to prevent it, like lessening the population like I did making the split. I can't help but wonder if the queen that hatches in the Beagle hive will be inclined to lead the hive to swarm because that is what she was intended to do in her old hive.

Have you realized what is happening now in the apiary? All three of my hives have queen cells, soon to have virgin queens and not one of them will have eggs from which to make a new queen if any of these queens fail. I know I'm taking a big chance, one that may or may not pay off in honey this year. But if I end up with one viable hive, I'll be satisfied, as well as so much smarter from the mistakes I've made this spring!

Staying at Two Hives & Interesting Notes on Fanning

Baskets full of bright orange
pollen at the Dmitry hive.

A queen will not substantially increase brood production until nectar is flowing but the cooler temps have kept many spring plants from blooming in their normal time frame so queens have not been laying in abundance. And this has the bee suppliers running very behind in their orders this season. Packages of bees that would have normally been available in early- to mid-April are still not yet available mid- to late-May.

Typically a late installation of bees will put a new hive at a disadvantage. It can take 6-8 weeks for the bees to draw out enough comb needed to store the nectar and pollen as well as to make space for the queen to lay her eggs. By that time our area's spring nectar flow will be winding down, leaving the bees struggling for space and the hive weak in population.

My plan was to add a third hive this season to replace the loss of the Sasha hive, deciding to purchase a package of bees with a Russian queen instead of using my own bees as I wanted them available to add to and further strengthen the weaker Dmitry hive. And even though I have two boxes of drawn comb available that would help the hive begin with a heavy advantage, there is no estimate on when the package would arrive so I've decided to leave the apiary at the current two hives for this season.

Here is a short video of the OV hive as bees from both hives zoom in and out on their way to bring back pollen and nectar. I really enjoy standing there while they fly all around me, watching their flight paths to see in which direction they are foraging. Also visible are the large quantity of bees fanning at the entrance. Fanning draws out the warm air out of the hive and is mostly performed when abundant amounts of nectar are being brought in. Workers of all ages do this task but mainly young bees, less than 18 days old do the fanning, especially on hot days.

Fanning helps to circulate the air through the hive and to:

• regulate the hive's humidity at a constant 50 percent
• reduce the level of carbon dioxide (CO2)
• regulate brood temperature
• evaporate water carried into the hive to reduce internal temperatures
• evaporate excess moisture from unripened honey, which will cool or humidify the hive as it evaporates
• keep wax from melting as temperatures climb inside the hive.

Another type of fanning helps to spread the worker bee's pheromones. In this fanning the bee's abdomen is raised as the pheromone is secreted from a gland located near the tip of the abdomen. This pheromone has a sweet-smelling, lemony odor and is used to guide other bees toward the fanners. This is commonly seen:

• when bees are disoriented
• when a hive is opened that is queenless or has a virgin or newly mated queen, or 
• when a swarm begins cluster formation. 

The OV hive had this type of fanners today which has me wondering if the hive is preparing to swarm. Bees naturally perpetuate the species by splitting and swarming but a swarm weakens a hive and brings about a whole set of considerations that I'll address at another time...

We've had much rain lately, and today was certainly humid so the fanning could have been more for that reason than for a pending swarm. Nevertheless, I'll plan to cull the population of the OV hive in the next few days by supplementing the Dmitry hive just to be on the safe side.

Ready for the Honey Flow

Inspected both hives and rotated boxes today in preparation for the major honey flow. By now the hives have been increasing in population and bringing in lots of pollen.

OV Queen & Nice Brood Pattern

I began with the OV hive and found the top box so full of bees, with the same amount for the second and third as well as the bottom box, which I had expected to be empty as bees move up come spring and why boxes need to be rotated this time of year. Instead, I found the bottom box to be as full as every other box. While it is good to have a strong and thriving hive, having an overpopulated hive can be a problem that leads to a swarm, and we all know a swarm leaves behind a weakened hive.

I know the Dmitry hive is not thriving as there have been very few bees flying. While inspecting I found very little brood in the very middle of the second box with the bottom box empty as expected. I rotated the boxes and added five frames of brood and bees from the OV hive to give the Dmitry hive a boost.

Dmitry Queen With Very Little Brood

In order to move bees from one hive to another without risking chaos I gave the frames and bees a good spray of sugar water mixed with Honey-B-Healthy, which is an essential oil made from spearmint and lemongrass, among other things. It masks the scent of the other hive and by the time the bees clean off the spray, they are all nice and friendly with one another.

Accobee Apiary

Common beekeeping sense says knows that the Dmitry queen is probably not a good queen. She was doing great initially when first installed last spring, but then her brood patterns became inconsistent  I'll keep an eye on her over the summer and may requeen her come fall.

I will be replacing the Sasha hive with a new package ordered with a Russian queen, which is due any time now.  There is no telling at this point if that will end up being a strong or a weak hive. Dmitry is definitely a weak hive at the moment and OV has been going strong with their third queen since installed in 2010. I've said it before but it's worth noting again, a strong queen makes for a strong hive which makes their own strong queens.

Apiary Ready for Winter

Left to Right: Sasha, Dmitry and OV Hives

I have been worried about the status of all the hives going into fall but especially the Dmitry hive, the newest one in the center. This queen has just not taken up house very well, keeping to just a few preferred frames to lay her eggs. I've been feeding syrup heartily since Labor Day and the Dmitry hive, more than the other two, were gobbling it up which is always a good sign... and reinforced by the many bees taking orientation flights these past few warm days so I was hopeful the queen was finally branching out.

But today's inspection shattered my hopes... Dmitry has zero stores (no pollen or honey anywhere) and so few cells of brood that I'm contemplating combining the hive into another to get them through the winter. Have they only been eating the syrup instead of making honey? When I last inspected this hives late October I noticed this queen is a bit smaller than the others... perhaps that is contributing to her lack of filling this hive? They've never really recovered from the loss of most of the bees to pesticides this summer.

I had super'd up OV hive to six boxes and they did exactly what I wanted them to do by drawing out comb and making enough frames of honey to supplement the Dmitry hive. Even though I lost the OV queen in July and let the hive make another, it certainly stands true that a strong hive makes a strong queen. This OV hive has never let me down! I was able to add four frames of honey to each box in the Dmitry hive as well as replacing the undrawn frames with empty frames of comb. All Dmitry has to do now is fill the cells with honey! They don't have to waste time doing anything else this time of year. The top feeder is on and I've also begun to feed them back some of their honey using an entrance feeder. I'm giving them every opportunity to make it and if our weather stays mild they have a chance...

All the hives are now set for winter, being set up three medium supers on each. Sasha is doing outstanding with six frames of honey in the top box. The OV hive has four but I'm confident they'll make up for the frames I moved. I didn't take apart the Sasha or OV below the top boxes as they have everything all glued tight for winter with propolis and I don't need them to spend the energy doing so again had I opened them all up. I'm confident there's enough honey in each lower box by the weight of them and that they're doing what bees should be doing this time of year.

I'll leave the top feeders on all the hives as long as I can while I explore options for the Dmitry hive should they just not get their little bee-act together. I know I'm taking a chance with the overnight temps this coming week forecasted at temperatures well below that recommended for feeding syrup. Hopefully, they'll store up the syrup I'm feeding them and my worries will pass...

Getting the Feed On

OV Queen

Inspected all three hives this weekend to see how they're doing and where they stand for honey to get them set up for the fall. This was my first time inspecting every box of the OV hive and was very pleased with this new queen. Instead of being a lovely, dark Russian queen, she is a Maryland-bread, gorgeous golden color with a dark head and thorax with a dark tip on her abdomen. She's been going gang-busters. It is true that strong hives make for strong queens.

Eggs and Brood in Dmitry Hive

The Dmitry hive continues to be smaller than I'd like but since we're heading into the time of year where the population will be decreasing, I don't want to supplement the hive with bees from one of the other hives. The queen is laying good on a few 4 frames but experience has shown that she'll spread out soon. But if she doesn't real soon, I'll have to reconsider adding more bees.

I put the top feeder on all the hives to build them up for the coming winter. Now will just keep the feeders full and monitor their progress.

Bees 5, Beekeeper 0

Peeked into the Dmitry hive to check on their progress and didn't bother with a veil as they've been so gentle, and I was only planning on a quick peek...

The second I picked up the top feeder I could see how feisty the bees have become and, while that's a really good sign, the feeder was full so I couldn't move fast enough to put it down. Those feisty bees got me - three times in my left arm and twice on my left thigh!

They're just about ready for the third box so will get that on this weekend. I had managed to escape from being stung all year until now. Guess I'm making up for lost opportunities.

Dmitry Queen Laying Well Once Again

Dmitry queen in center of frame.

The Dmitry queen returned to laying eggs immediately after putting the feeder on and now, two weeks later you can see she is doing quite well and the population is growing. I still have the entrance reducer on and am hopeful I'll be able to remove it soon. Will keep the feeder on as we're still quite dry with very little in bloom right now.

Good news on the OV hive: Found good brood on the first frame I pulled so didn't disturb them any further. I closed them up and walked away happy that these two hives are once again back on the road to progress.

Checking in on New OV Queen

No eggs yet in the OV hive.

By now the new OV queen should be laying but as you can see here, there is nary an egg in sight! The hive, while still gentle was a tad bit more rowdy and acting queenright by chaining as I pulled out a frame.

When searching for the queen I always start in the middle of the box, often times peering down between the frames as the queen's longer legs will make her walk taller than the worker bees and this makes her easier to spot. But she's quick and shy of light - I caught a glimpse of behind and as fast as I tried to get to that frame, she had moved on deeper into the hive.

I didn't want to risk harming her so I closed up the hive and turned to check on the Dmitry hive to see that she's returned to laying eggs. Will observer her progress for the next week or so.

Too Many Dead Bees!

The dark spots are the dead bees.
(Click to view larger)

Wednesday all three hives were observed bearding in the evening as our temps have been very hot. I don't remember looking at the bees Thursday evening but I usually do and it is entirely possible that, because everything looked normal, nothing registered with me.

But Friday evening it was easy to see that something was very wrong with the Dmitry hive - No bearding as with the other hives, no bees flying, no orientation flights, nothing. And then I looked down...

Thousands of dead bees lay in front of the hive filling a mulched space of three feet or so in length. My mind began a mental checklist as I searched for a possible cause. The bees were not chalky, their wings were not crinkly or 'K' shaped. It was almost as it someone came along and sprayed pesticide on them and they fell from the front of the hive. But if that were the case, why would vandals harm just the center hive of my three?

There were so few bees in the hive, I didn't bother with a veil or gloves as I opened it, expecting to find it empty. Instead, I did find healthy looking bees but zero brood. The queen looked fine but she isn't laying. She had been laying well since she was installed back in April.

So, what the heck is going on with this hive? I believe I have two separate issues:

Issue One:
I had quit feeding the hive as they were growing in population and had built up a good reserve of pollen and nectar. However, we're in a full dearth now and what are the three things a hive needs to thrive?

1. Space
2. Ventilation
3. Food

There was plenty of space and ventilation thanks to modifying the inner cover. But I had neglected to ensure the hive had food! It is common knowledge that a queen will cease laying if food becomes unavailable. So I put the top feeder on and filled it with 1:1 sugar syrup. Will check back in a few days to see if the queen has resumed laying.

Issue Two:
I'm stumped what happened to the dead bees outside the hive but a likely culprit is pesticides. I live in a rather rural area with small farms, pastures, homes and gardens. It is highly likely the foraging bees found a good food source that was tainted and led many other bees to it, who in turn, brought the tainted pollen and nectar back to the hive.

I gave the hive a couple frames of brood and nurse bees from the Sasha hive, leaving the OV hive alone so as to not harm it's new queen as she matures.

Homing Drone

Craig and I capturing a drone.

This year we began a pollinator program as part of the education curriculum at work. Craig, one of the naturalists that teach the program, wanted to get to know more about honey bees by visiting the apiary.

We had a great time checking on the progress of the Dmitry Hive and then captured a drone for an experiment. We marked him with a small dot of light green nail polish (somehow red didn't quite seem his color) before putting him in an old queen cage. The intent was to allow the school kids an up close education on drones before releasing it and we'd see if he'd return back to the apiary. The last time I sent a drone home with Sara and her nieces and nephew, he was dead by the next morning so we weren't quite sure how this drone would get along by himself outside of the hive.

After Craig left for his sleep-over with the drone, I did a bit of internet research and learned drones don't do well without attendants. There were no details beyond that and left me wondering why was that so... do the attendants feed him, as they do the queen? This had me thinking that this drone, too, would not see the light of the new day.

The drone back at home. 

So, I was surprised and when Craig arrived at work the next morning with the queen cage containing a very alive 'Andrei' (Craig's name for the drone) who lived to be a part of the program before they set him free. The kids were excited to get to see a drone up close and a few even had the courage to hold him before he took flight, circling higher and higher until he was out of view.

The farm is about a little over a mile away as the crow flies from the apiary and Andrei easily returned home like a pigeon to his coop. I'd call that a very successful experiment, both in that he lived to participate and that he returned from a place from which he didn't fly to!

Bees navigate by the sun so this experiment has brought up all kinds of questions. Stay tuned for further posts on been navigation.

New Queens are Laying!

Dmitry Queen and Eggs

Did a quick inspection after work today to see how the queens were doing. The brood I gave the Dmitry hive has nearly all hatched and the queen has begun to lay.  You can see her in the upper right corner of the photo and you can just make out the eggs in the cells.

Brood in the Sasha Hive

 I didn't take the time to look for the new Sasha queen but she's just that much ahead of Dmitry with her brood but that's because she was released from her cage a few days sooner than the Dmitry queen.

I'll check them again in a week, but I'm confident both hives are on their way to becoming good hives!

Thinking of Nurse Bees in the Middle of the Night

Woke in the middle of the night and was thinking of the bees. (Don't you think about your bees when you're awake at night?) I was worried that perhaps I didn't give the Dmitry hive (the new split) enough nurse bees to keep the brood warm while that hive gets established. When I made the Sasha split last year, that is exactly what happened and a lot of the brood died.

Last night our temps were around 40 degrees so as soon as I got home from work I transferred a bunch of nurse bees from the OV hive to Dmitry - using a spritz of Honey-B-Healthy to mask the scent. The queen is still in her cage with the candy in place. If I happened to loose some of that brood, I can easily give them some more. How lucky I was that first year with only one hive! So many things could have gone wrong with no other hives to draw from!