Hello? Anybody in There?

Feeding Back Honey Using Entrance Feeders

I left the top feeders on until nearly Thanksgiving as our daytime temperatures can be in the mid-50's and the overnights had not yet dropped lower than the upper 30's. When finally removing the top feeders I did an inspection to check on the stores. The Sasha hive remained the strongest at that time with lots of honey in the top box but I added entrance feeders to the Dmitry and OV hives, feeding them back their own honey so that they could just store it and cap it without having to expend the energy needed to turn it into honey as they would have had I fed them syrup, which would also add moisture to the hive and is a major a no-no in colder temperatures.

It's too cold for bees to be moving when I leave for work in the mornings and it's dark by the time I  return home but I did observe activity at all the hives this weekend. All appeared well...

Until this morning when I pounded on the side of the Sasha hive. All was too quiet.... I lifted the outer cover to peek in the hole of the inner cover and there was not a bee in sight! Removing the inner cover, I could peer between the frames all the way through the three medium boxes down to the screened bottom board. Not a bee to be seen! By this I mean a live bee.

Frame of Capped Honey in the Sasha Hive

I pulled all the boxes apart thinking I would find evidence of anything that would make the bees want to leave or kill them off... but there was (1) plenty of honey and pollen left behind, (2) space (not an issue this time of year) and (3) ventilation (popsicle sticks glued to the corners of the inner cover provide for that) - the three things that make for a happy bee hive.

There were two frames full of honey and another five frames partially full. The bottom box had five frames containing lots of pollen so if the bees had starved to death I would have found frames containing dead bees head-first in the cells, but the hive was completely void of any bees, dead or alive. There were perhaps a dozen dead bees on the bottom screen, certainly not enough to give an indication of a major die-off.

Did they swarm one unseasonably warm day? Highly unlikely as there really wasn't a reason to move on and they'd not have the ability to find food this time of year. I'm sad for the loss of the hive but everything is a learning experience and I'll do some research to see if I can determine what happened.

2012 has been a tough year for me as a beekeeper. It was my third season. I'm no longer a newbie with just enough experience to be comfortably dangerous. I mysteriously killed the Sasha queen early spring, killed my best queen in the OV hive when harvesting honey, experienced a major die off from the Dmitry hive, probably due to pesticides and now lost the Sasha hive. In 2013 I'm going back to thinking like a newbie!

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.

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!

A Hive Divided

Sasha hive with queen
excluders separating each box.

A hive that has been queenless for at least 24 hours has a better chance of accepting a new queen so, with the new Russian queens arriving tomorrow I planned on removing the current Sasha queen today. Finding the queen, even one that is unmarked, has never been a problem for me... until today, that is.

After the wonderful experience with the newly emerged queen two weeks ago, she should have mated and been laying by now. But not only did I not find her, but there is no brood in the hive either, and I checked it over carefully - two times - even checking the inside walls of the boxes. The bees were loosing their patience with me by then so I put a queen excluder between each box and closed it up. I figured this will make it easier to finder her in the morning in case those new legs of hers helped her to scoot between boxes.

This got me wondering what are the other methods commonly used to find the queen when you want to replace her. The following are the most common methods I found:

Go to the Center of the Hive

1. Space the frames apart in the middle of the brood box.
2. Carefully lift one frame out of the middle. 
3. Briefly scan over each side of this frame (like reading, taking about a minute).  
4. Place this frame in a spare box and continue with the next frame, working your way towards the outside of the box. 

The queen may be seen on the wall of the hive body or on the bottom board.  The center
of the brood nest on a frame with eggs is the most likely place to find her.  Speed is an
advantage because the queen can hide well.  Once you have found her, shake
bees off combs, manipulate combs, lift honey out to top and replace with empty brood combs and introduce queen cage.

Go to the Outside of the Hive

1. Place an empty box next to the hive. 
2. Remove the outside frame furthest from you, check for the queen, and place in the empty box. 
3. Remove the frame closest to you, again checking for the queen before placing in the spare box.  While it is not usual to find the queen on the outside frames, it can happen.  By removing these frames first from the hive it will create a light barrier between the next frame and the hive wall.  This will confine the queen to the remaining frames. 
4. Before checking both sides of the frame closest to you, glance down the face of the frame.  Often, the queen stands out taller than the other bees and can be more easily spotted on the face of the frame before it is removed.  Repeat for remaining frames until the queen is found. 

Divide and Conquer 

1. Put an empty box next to the hive. 
2. Take out half the frames and place them in the empty box.  
3. Place in each of the two boxes empty combs to make up the space where frames are missing. 
4. This gives you 4 frames of bees and brood and 4 frames of pollen/honey/empty combs in each box. 
5. The next day one of the hives will have fanning bees at the entrance.  She will now be easier to find because you know which box she is in and only have half the number of bees to search. 

Drift Method 
Suitable for apiaries with pairs or rows of hives.

1. Move hive to a new position behind a landmark and turn entrance 180 degrees. This will cause all the field bees to return to the hive next door.  Usually this is OK under good conditions. 
2. The next day, or even a few hours later, you only have nurse bees and the queen bee left in the hive on the brood frames. This will give you the edge in finding the queen. 

Divide and Divide Again 

1. Place an empty hive box next to the hive. 
2. Use the Go to the Outside of the Hive method first. 
3. Place 4 frames in each box with bees adhering then pair up frames by pushing them together.  This should make the bees and the queen go between either two frames where it is darker. 
4. After 10 minutes, look for the queen and remember to look on the walls and floor as well.

The Last Resort 

This one is a last resort and will absolutely remove the queen.  It is a good method to use on a drone layer or an overly aggressive hive. 

1. Move the whole hive 10-20 yards or more, behind landmarks preferably. This will cause the bees to drift back to their original position. 
2. Shake all of the bees off the comb onto the ground and place all frames into a new hive body which is elevated on a table.  This ensures that the queen cannot re-enter the hive. 
3. Return the brood box to the original spot to collect all returning field bees. The queen will not be able to fly back. 
4. Check 7 days later for queen cells, knock them off and introduce caged queen. 

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.

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.

Last Inspection of 2011

Was a beautiful 62 degree day and the bees were flying so took advantage of it to inspect the hives and check on their honey stores. Since our temps have ranged from 45 to 65 degrees thus far this winter, the bees have remained up in the top box of both hives instead of clustering lower. With so many bees up top, it was impossible to see between the frames so had to pull one to check on the honey.

Can you spot the queen?

The OV bees were quite feisty! The one frame I pulled had just a few cells of honey so will begin feeding them fondant. And wouldn't you know it, but this frame also had the queen on it! I took a quick pic before slowly and carefully replacing it. No wonder the guard bees were after me! Last year I didn't begin feeding until the 25th of January but they were clustered in the bottom box until then.

I've mentioned this before but the Sasha hive is so very different from the OV hive and the differences are quite noticeable. Not only are the Sasha bees gentler than the OV bees but they are smaller and lighter in color. Only one guard bee flew up to check me out. They still have a fair amount of honey on the frames so will hold off feeding them for a bit.

Already planning for 2012 and adding the 3rd and final hive to our apiary. Need to inventory the supplies on hand and order the wooden ware.

An Important Lesson on Ventilation

Bees need room, food and ventilation to be happy. If one or more of these things are missing the bees will swarm to a new home where all three will be in balance.

It was evident this morning that the Sasha hive was lacking in ventilation! Thanks to our cooler days and even cooler nights, paired with the 90 degree temperatures inside the hive, there has been a build up of condensation on the inner cover. This was caused thanks to the sugar syrup in the top feeder and a piece of cardboard covering the hole of the inner cover.

Popsicle sticks in place
on the inner cover.

Thankfully, the fix is as simple as gluing a popsicle stick to each corner of the inner cover which then raises the articulating cover about 1/8" to allow for the flow of air.

Here in Southern Maryland, I use the screened bottom board as well as this popsicle stick ventilation technique throughout the winter as you certainly don't want cold condensation dripping down on the cluster!

Moved Some Drawn Frames to the Sasha Hive

I was reminded that a queen will scale down her laying during the dearth and pick back up again with the fall nectar flow as they are doing now in both hives. The bees in the Sasha hive are finally getting to work in the top box and this new queen is laying super up there as you can see in this photo.

I had left the honey super on the OV hive and the bees had plenty of frames nearly full with either capped honey or open cells of nectar so moved half into the Sasha hive. These added to the 4 frames of brood and honey they had started will position them nicely going into fall.

I moved the rest of the frames of nectar into the top box of the OV hive. That hive continues to be amazing! I'm confident now that the Sasha hive will be just as strong through the winter and looking forward to another split in the spring.

Fall Inspection Today

Seems weird to say the word 'Fall' when its 80 degrees out but it's time to do a full inspection of the hives to ensure we're set up well to make it through the winter. The hives fared hurricane Irene just fine along with the rains from the left over storm that was hurricane Lee but then the east coast has been hit with days and days of more rain. No bees were flying! As a result, the OV hive, which didn't have a feeder on it, fed from their reserves of honey. The Sasha hive fared better because I've been feeding them all along.

The reports on the inspection:

OV HIVE................................................

The OV hive had nearly 4 frames of honey in the super but they are now down to 2 frames with very little honey on them. There is no honey whatsoever in the brood boxes. The hive is full of bees which, to my surprise, were really gentle. They're busy bringing in lots of pollen in white, yellow and orange with lots of waggle-dancing on the frames.

I'm really happy with the queen's brood pattern. Since there is not the usual honey in the corners of the frames, she filling those cells with brood. Most of the brood continues to be in the top two boxes but there is some in the bottom box, too.

I removed the queen excluder and put the top feeder on. Will now concentrate on building up their reserves for the winter.

SASHA HIVE...........................................

Sash II initially had me confused as she's much darker than I knew her to be... almost as dark as Sasha I. (I needed to compare photos once back in the house to make sure I wasn't seeing the old queen!) While Sasha II is certainly different looking you can see that her abdomen has thickened much more since she was last photographed.

The bees still have not yet drawn out the top box! As you can see, the population of the hive is really good but they are concentrated across two medium supers instead of three. The brood is good on a couple of frames and spotty on others because the bees have taken to storing nectar in those vacant cells. That concerns me so will plan to  move a couple of drawn frames from the honey super of the OV hive to the top box next week if the hive doesn't start working drawing out the top box.

As as aside, I'm going to enter some honey in the Charles County Fair next. Wish me, or rather the OV bees, luck!

Visitors at the Hive

My special friends Sara, Leah, Alex and Macallan came by today. As you can see, we had a blast learning about the bees! They met a drone, watched a bee as it emerged, saw the queen and had a taste of honey fresh off the frame.

I've not inspected the Sasha hive for 2 1/2 weeks, letting the new queen settle in and matures in her laying so was very happy with the first frame I pulled from the middle box. Look at the wonderful brood pattern! Other frames had less covered brood but there were lots of eggs in the cells. I did not inspect the bottom box and the frames of the top box still have yet to be drawn into comb. The bees are feeding well from the top feeder, taking nearly a gallon of sugar syrup every 2 days. Overall, I'm really happy with the new queen.

Have not been in the OV hive since we harvested the honey over the 4th of July weekend. It is well glued together with propolis, sticky from our warm weather as I pulled a frame of honey for the kids. They're doing well and I'll do a full inspection when the weather turns cooler.

The Old Queen is Gone - Long Live (and Lay) Sasha II

Nice brood pattern found on the one frame and Sasha II is looking lovely in the center of the top bar of the frame. Other frames in that box have a mixture of scattered larvae and covered brood. The bottom box has less covered brood but a nice amount of larvae and no sign of Sasha I. Looks like the bees have decided that Sasha II is working out after all.

Sasha II Bad Brood

A brood pattern like this is just what a beekeeper doesn't want to see! Everything is wrong, from spotty to drone cells. The only reason I'm not too worried about it is that this is from Sasha II and she's just begun laying eggs. One cause of a bad brood pattern is the workers will remove unviable eggs, and leave those that will grow into healthy worker larva. Drone cells are a indication that the queen did not mate but I'm of the opinion that there are enough worker bees in the brood to make me think otherwise.

Sasha II



Other frames in that box have similar small areas of covered brood but without as many drone cells as in this photo. I used the flash so that you can see there are lots of cells containing larvae, older in the middle and younger as you move out. Sasha II just needs to get going. 
 

Sasha I

Sasha I continues to populate the bottom box and while there is less covered brood, there is a fair amount of larvae.



I know the bees will sort it out... they have four dry queen cups ready to employ should they decide Sasha II is not going to work out. And for now, Sasha I remains the better layer but that isn't saying much. The lack of orientation flights is noticeable!

I've kept the feeder on and they take it heartily, but there is no real honey production yet. September 1st is the landmark date in my area to really push the feed buildup for the winter. There are four partial frames of in the OV hive's honey super so I can always move some to the Sasha hive. I have options ready for when the bees let me know what they need. There is still time.

Adding a comical touch to my morning inspection were green bees in the hive! I'm not versed enough yet to know which plants produce which color pollen, but the bloom chart for my area shows dandelions, bugloss, clover, thistle, milkweed, mint and more are in bloom. Could these be mint green bees? (te he he)

Is Sasha II Laying Yet?

By my calculations, today is the first day that I could conceivably see eggs from Sasha II so as soon as I got home from work I checked in on the hive. While I did not inspect every frame, I found lots of eggs on two frames in the middle medium super. (Sorry for the crappy photo but if you look closely, you can see the eggs.)

Sasha II

Sasha II was on the second frame I pulled and by her size you can see she has mated. :-) I carefully replaced the frame and decided to see if there was new brood in the bottom box, too.

Sasha I

Again, I didn't inspect every frame but did see a few covered brood and a nice amount of young larvae on the two frames I checked. I found Sasha I still live and well  and if you click on this photo to view the larger image you will see an egg sticking out of her abdomen — it was caught and left behind on the edge of that cell shortly after I took the photo.

So, the question is... who's eggs are those? Not that it really matters as it will all be shorted out soon enough.

Waiting....

No inspection of the bees this weekend. The OV hive is quite cranky when our weather gets hot and we've had heat indexes of 125 degrees this past week! I've respectfully given them space and spared myself a sting or two.

Sasha II should have had her nuptial flight(s) by now and I'll start looking for eggs on Tuesday. I've spent a bit of time in the mornings and evenings observing the sasha hive in hopes of witnessing Sasha II's orientation flight, but no such sighting. I know what I experiencing Sasha I's was a rare event!

Happy Birthday Sasha II

Did a quick inspection this morning to see if the supersedure queen hatched and she sure did! The workers will now dismantle the queen cell.

This was the first time this hive has ever been feisty - the guard bees were not happy I was poking around but since we've had a hatching, I wanted to see where both queens were within the hive.


Sasha I - An emergency queen born from the spring split.



I found Sasha I right away in the middle box (remember I'm using three medium supers instead of two deeps). She's not really laying anymore. There are a few cells in the bottom box with young larvae but I didn't see any eggs.



The top box is full of bees but they are not drawing out the comb yet. They are feeding like mad from the top feeder as nectar is low this time of summer. The middle box is being used for some brood but mainly for storing nectar/sugar syrup.



Sasha II - The supersedure Queen.



Located the new queen in the bottom box. As her queen cell was much larger than the one made for the emergency queen, I was expecting her to be larger upon birth. If all goes well, she'll begin to lay eggs anytime after July 26. Shortly after Sasha II is mated and begins laying eggs, the worker bees will kill Sasha I by "balling" her, clustering tightly around her until she dies from overheating. 

I'm sad to know my first home-grown queen didn't perform as needed but am hopeful Sasha II will be a good queen and get this hive going. The population in the hive is good right now. They can take care of it for a bit while the new queen mates and begins to take charge. Hopefully Sasha II will give them a lot more brood in order to be a vibrant hive going into the fall.

Sasha Hive Doing Better With Brood

What a wonderful sight to see! This is a picture of brood in the second box of the Sasha hive. Look at that lovely brood pattern! The queen wants to lay, even though this frame is not entirely drawn out with comb, but the bees are certainly doing so in the second box now.

There are 5 full frames of brood in the bottom box with the adjacent half filled on the frames located to each side of those 5 frames. Adding two frames of brood and nurse bees last week really made a difference in the population. This morning I observed many orientation flights!

I placed the 4 extracted frame from the OV hive in the top box and the bees immediately went to work cleaning the honey from the comb. They'll prepare the cells and I'm sure the queen will have these frames full with brood in no time!

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!