What's Going On Datsyuk?

Ten days ago when I peeked into the Datysuk hive to see that all the queen cells were open and the hive behaved 'queen-right', but the population was diminished with no eggs or brood, I gave them a few more days and then rechecked... still no queen sighting. With so few bees in the hive it should have been easy to spot the queen but I didn't see her anywhere. I gave them one last chance by moving over two frames of eggs and more bees from the Dmitry hive so they could make a queen.

Another week goes by, and no queen cells present! There must be a tiny queen in the hive otherwise the bees would have jumped at the chance to make a queen. There are so few bees in the hive now that it should be very easy to spot her but again, I didn't find her.

I keep reciting in my mind the proverbial bee-keepers' saying: A swarm in May is worth a load of hay; a swarm in June is worth a silver spoon; but a swarm in July is not worth a fly meaning that the later in the year it is, the less time there will be for bees to collect pollen from flowers in blossom. The main nectar flow in my area is nearly over with most grasses, trees and shrubs past their bloom. I think this will be it for the Datsyuk hive, and like the Red Wings for which Pavel Datsyuk plays, they had a great start this year with every available opportunity but they just couldn't make it in the end.

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!  

We have a Queen!

Burr Comb in the Beagle Hive

I waited nearly three weeks for the queens to hatch, mate and begin laying before I checking in on the two splits. I started with the Datsyuk hive, the walk-away split and was not surprised to see the population way down and nearly all the food gone as they've been taking from the entrance feeder like crazy! Remember that I wrote that emergency queens are sometimes not a strong queen? The couple that I've had started out quite small so I took my time searching for the queen. The hive was gentle and chained when I pulled out a frame, leading me to believe she is there, but I didn't see her and I certainly did not see signs of brood which I expected to be present.

Beagle Queen

The Beagle hive was fiesty and so full, those silly bees were making burr comb everywhere! And there is brood but I was most excited to spot the lovely, light and very fat queen!

My plan is to inspect the Dmitry hive soon, weather permitting - we have rain forecast for the next few days, and if they have a queen now and she's laying well I may move a frame and a bunch of bees over to the Datsyuk hive and give them one more try at making a queen. Or I may see if I can purchase a queen locally as I know a couple of beekeepers who produce good queens.

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!

Two Queen Cells!

A quick check three days after removing the queen and the Datsyuk hive has selected two queen cells! You can even spot the tail of the larvae in the right-hand cell in the photo.  Now we wait....

As I wrote about in this post, the development of a queen is very precise: This photo was taken on day 4 with the cell expected to be fully capped on day 7. The queen will emerge from her cell on days 15-17 (April 24-26, 2014) and the first to emerge will rip open the other queen cell and sting the queen to death. 

I've 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 pipe (a tooting sound) and may continue to do so day and night, perhaps for a week or more with the piping rising 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, each in turn but 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.

Checking The New Hives

Beagle Queen

The Beagle queen has been released from her cage and looking pretty good with a white dot on her back. Now the bees need to get to it and draw out some comb! I've kept the entrance feeder on for a few more days because it's a drag needing to remove a top feeder every time I want to check on their progress. I will enjoy comparing the progress of a hive in a deep box to the mediums that I've been using for the past three years.

Chaining

I was expecting to find a queen cell in the Datsyuk hive today but the aggression of the bees the minute I opened the hive let me know I had moved the Dmitry queen along with the frames when I made the split! This was substantiated by other clues as well -- the bees were chaining as I removed the first frame (an indication that a hive is 'queen right'), I found eggs on a different frame than expected where empty cells were, and the bees were chugging down the sugar syrup from the entrance feeder (a small hive wouldn't initially eat that much while they figure out what to do without a queen).

So I carefully checked each frame until I found the Dmitry queen and then I gently nudged her off the frame and onto the entrance of her original hive. This could be a smart move or a very stupid move but I made the quick decision to put her in her original hive with fingers crossed that the bees won't think she is an intruder and kill her. Ideally, I would have spritzed her with a little sugar syrup containing an essential oil to mask that she came from a different hive but I didn't have that handy not expecting to need it....

The Dmitry hive has probably begun creating a new queen, having been queenless for three days. But it is my only strong hive at the moment and I may need to rely on them for augmenting the others this season. All I was thinking is that I needed to get her back home!

Now I wait another few days before checking on the Datsyuk hive, hoping like magic that the bees will have selected an egg and crated their new queen.

What's In a Name?

I get chided because I name my hives but I figure it helps to differentiate them and helps me with my record keeping. I could number them instead, but how boring is that?? And besides, naming them after hockey players is kind of fun!

Jay Beagle

Even though the new package of bees has a Russian queen, I've decided to name the hive after a Canadian player as the bees were such so very gentle when I installed them and Canadians have the reputation of being so polite. This hive will be known as the Beagle Hive, as in Jay Beagle, Calgary native and a center for the Washington Capitals (my current home team).

Pavel Datsyuk

Splitting a hive to make a new one isn't magic but it is rather magical how a beekeeper can influence the bees natural behavior to recognize they are without a queen, select an egg to be the queen and make an entirely new hive so I've named this hive Datsyuk after the Magic Man himself, Pavel Datsyuk, a forward for the Detroit Red Wings (my favorite team from my home state).

Pavel and Beagle join the Dmitry hive in the front yard apiary. I have two forwards and a defenseman... maybe I should consider a goalie next time? :-)

Three Hives Once Again

It was quite an active day in the apiary, splitting the Dmitry hive and installing a package of bees to make a third hive. Splitting an existing hive is the most economical way to add to an apiary and with the Dmitry hive stuffed full of bees, I needed to thin it a bit or they will swarm. I did what is known as a 'walk away split' -- moving frames full of brood and eggs as well as plenty of house bees into a smaller nucleus hive and 'walked away'! It doesn't take long for the bees to figure out they are queenless to select an egg or two and begin the process of making a queen. I'll look in on them in a few days to see if they've done just that.

I purchased a package of bees with a Russian queen for the third hive because a package comes with a mated queen who is ready to begin laying as soon as comb is ready. This gives a new hive an advantage over the one I just split out because it will be at least 23 days before the new queen is mated and begins laying. That is vital time lost as we go into the nectar flow. I'll have to feed the split hive probably all summer.

Here is the package queen with her attendants in her cage. (She is marked with a white dot.) Even thought the queen and bees have had a few days to get to know one another while in transit, it takes some time for the bees to accept her as their queen so she is kept safe in a cage that is plugged with a bit of sugar candy. By the time the bees eat through the candy and she crawls out, they'll be well acquainted.

To install a package, the queen is secured to the top of one of the frames and the bees are dumped in. This package of bees were surprisingly gentle! I needed to really bang the package to get them out and into the hive and very few got riled up from the process.

I put them in a deep super with frames of foundation. The entrance is minimized to give them less to defend while they get settled into their new home and I'm using an entrance feeder so that I can check in on them in a few days without needing to remove a top feeder full of syrup. I'll put a top feeder in place once the queen has been released from the cage.

Now back to three hives in the apiary, one strong and two budding, I'll have a fun spring. I predict the package will develop as nicely as the textbook examples. There's just something about how beautifully they stayed clustered and how extremely gentle they were.

But who's to say how the split will progress?! A walk away split queen is known as an emergency queen - one that is made from necessity and not by design. I eventually replaced the 2011 emergency queen as she never really laid well and we struggled for a year supplementing the hive with more bees from one of the strong hives. I am hopeful that this new queen, made from a strong and feisty hive will be just as strong herself.

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!

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.

New Queen Doing Much Better

When I opened the hive today, the first thing I noticed
was the increase of bees, all looking up at me.

Thanks to the additional brood and nurse bees added to the Sasha hive, I was less worried about them making it through the cool nights we had this past week when temps dropped into the low 40s.



There is a much better brood pattern and the queen has even been laying on the near side of next frame, instead of remaining on her birth-frame. That's quite an improvement! 

The frame pictured here is the frame of brood that I introduced last week so the spotty brood pattern is from those bees hatching but as you can see, the queen as filled in the spaces quite nicely, and there is a nice pattern of eggs visible in the lower right area of the pic.

I did kill two wax moth larvae and they still don't seem to be feeding from the top feeder. I refreshed that with sugar syrup with a bit of Honey-B-Healthy to see if that will get them to take. They are not yet drawing out any new frames, but they are storing nectar.

It's been 32 days since the Queen hatched. She's a late bloomer but seems that she's finally on her way!

New Queen Not Yet Up to Full Stride

Checked in on the Sasha hive with the new queen. There are so few bees in that hive that the queen is easy to spot. There are some larvae but didn't see any eggs, if they were there. The may be a very few (1 - 3) capped brood cells, but that's hard to say because the bees have not yet cleared away all that died. (Dead from a few cold nights after making the split and the cluster couldn't keep them all warm.)

I watched the queen travel all around the frame pictured here. Every cell in which she chose to want to lay was already occupied with nectar. She would travel to the other side but that frame has a wax moth trail (I killed the larvae) so the queen would just walk around, eventually returning to the other side.

Concerns:

• The brood pattern is not large or tight.
• The bees are not drawing any new comb, nor taking from the top feeder.

Interesting to note, the queen is always found on the frame from whence she hatched. I have never found her on the other frames.

The hive does have foraging bees so pollen and nectar are coming in. I'm worried about the queen's progress — but it is still early in her young life. Next week should be much better!

We Did It! We Successfully Split a Hive!

It's finally safe to celebrate that we have successfully split a hive and created a new queen! Today we saw that she has begun laying her eggs! I didn't fund as many as I had expected, or was hopeful to have found, but we did have cool, rainy weather this past week which probably delayed her maiden flight.

Here is my lovely, all mated and beautiful and running away from me. She would bury herself under the bees so I couldn't get a clear picture and she wasn't happy that I kept wiggling a finger to move them.

I have had the top feeder on for a week now but they don't seem to be taking it at the moment. There is plenty of pollen and nectar stored on the frames. Will keep the feeder on to encourage them to draw out the frames.

I did find another wax moth larvae, but he was encouraged to visit the "big hive in the sky" under my hive tool.

Interesting of note were the large amount of covered brood still existing on the two frames. They should have all hatched by April 9th. Are they delayed through the stress of the split or did they die. Will research this further and report on the findings.

Queen Out for a Sunday Jaunt

Needed to check on the OV hive today to see if they were getting ready for another box. Actually, they are not ready but are doing very well. The bees have removed the queen cups that were at the bottom of the frame and I easily spotted the queen along with eggs, larvae and pupae. But the replacement frames that were put in when I pulled some for the split are not yet drawn out, and there is plenty of room for food and brood elsewhere, so I simply closed up the hive.

As I was right next door, I did a quick check to see if I could find any eggs in the Sasha hive, even though I'm not expecting any before tomorrow... but you never know!

There's not much to inspect as the one frame of food is heavy with pollen and the other two frames that were brood are now hatched and mostly covered with bees. No further wax moth larvae have been found, so I'm pleased about that. The queen's cell remains intact (except for the end where she chewed her way out.) There is no trace of the queen cell that was on the right-hand side of the frame.

While doing my inspection, I happened to look down to see the queen on the edge of the box! She sat there for a few moments then crawled down between the frames. At that cue, I put the feeder back on, surrounded by a short box, and then the inner cover. It was then that I looked towards the hive entrance and spotted her walking back out.

I was treated to a rare (at least for me... ) experience of witnessing the queen's orientation flight. She'd crawl around a bit and then fly up and down, and side to side before taking a rest as pictured here on the inner cover. She even flew up to check me out a couple of times.

It was an incredible experience!

The Need for Hive Nicknames

Because of the need to differentiate between the donor hive that I have had for a year and the new hive made from a split, we've given them the names of two Russian hockey players. (Russian cause that is the type of bees that they are and the player selection is from the Washington Capitals, my home team.)


(Photo by Greg Fiume/Getty Images)

The split hive is the left-hand hive of the two, as is Alexander Semin in this photo, and so is nicknamed Sasha.

Of course, that means the donor hive on the right-hand side is Alex Ovechkin, nicknamed OV.

 If life were like hockey, bees would need really little pads, skates and sticks. :-)

Spotted the New Queen!

Spotted the new queen today! That's her by herself, facing downward towards the bottom of the photo.

All looks well in the hive with pollen and nectar being stored.

You can see in the photo to the right that the queen cell that was on the right-hand side of the frame is being cleared away.

This sure has been a fascinating learning experience!
Next, we'll be looking for eggs beginning April 11th.

Second Queen Cell Still Intact - Why?

The second queen cell had not yet hatched as of yesterday afternoon and that queen would be 18 days old as of then. No sighting of the first queen but you would think that she would have destroyed any other queen cells in the hive.

Nearly all the dead bees that were on the bottom screen were now cleared away. Things seem well in the hive... but where is she? She will not beging to lay eggs until at least the 11th of April but I would sure feel better knowing she's around.

Happy Queen Day! (It's a Girl)

Came home this afternoon to check on the hive and found the left queen cell open and empty! I searched for some time for the queen, but it was a cool, breezy day so the bees were keeping tight together. I tried blowing on them, doing a gentle finger wiggle, etc. to scatter them some but still could not find her. The queen cell on the right of the frame was still intact. No matter how hard I tried to clear the bees away for a photo, they were staying put. I will do a quick check tomorrow to see if the second queen cell is empty.

About day 23, April 11th, the queen will start laying eggs. The top feeder was placed on the hive just 3 days ago but I'm not seeing evidence they are using it. They have eaten all the nectar and honey that was on the frame included when I did the split. Pollen is now in most of those cells.

There are a few pieces of hard fondant containing Mega Bee remaining on the top of the frames. Feasting on a piece was the wax moth larvae, so it paid for it's gluttony with it's life. I was happy to see a couple of bees cleaning out under the comb eaten out by the wax moth larvae. I didn't see any new evidence of other wax moth larvae so am hopeful that will be the end of that for the time being.

Reassuring Advice on Rearing a Queen

Mentors are everywhere! At work yesterday, by pure happenstance, I found myself on the phone with Chip Whipkey, President of the Association of Southern Maryland Beekeepers and we were discussing my concern over finding wax moth larvae in the new hive and the disappearance of the first queen cell. Chip explained that I considered a gloomy scenario can be fixed as simple as destroying the wax moth larvae the next time I am in the hive. Whew!

More puzzling was why the bees totally removed any trace of the first queen cell. While I knew that a queen reared from a young egg is infinitely better than one reared from larvae, I assumed they had done so, given the range of brood on the frame. Chip explained that the bees probably knew which egg/larvae would make for a stronger queen and took action accordingly.

Knowing that I created the split on March 19 and that the egg was at least a day old on that day, and that it takes 16 days to rear a queen, that makes today Queen Day at the Apiary! 

We have storms passing through today but I hope to take a peak in the hive should there be a break in the weather just to ensure the two queen cells have hatched.

Thank you Chip for being there with your wisdom! While I had read so much about a walk-away split, making a queen and wax moths, I was second guessing myself. But this is how one learns!

Lessons in Making Your Own Queen

Checked in on the new hive today and evidence of how much stress a queenless split places on the bees is quite evident. There are lots of dead bees on the bottom screen, to include two pupae, and one frame has waxy moths. I killed one wax moth larvae and was tempted to pull that frame, but there are so few brood in that hive right now that I don't want to weaken it further by removing population. A strong hive will kill the wax moth larvae so I'll keep an eye on it to see how things progress. Just another week or so and hopefully, I'll have a laying queen.

The original queen cell is gone, the queen cup that was to the left of it is now capped and there is a second queen cell on the right. (Both queen cells are visible in the picture.) I searched for some time for a possible new queen but as she is smaller than she would be were she mated, I cannot say she was definitely spotted, which further makes me believe that the bees removed that queen cell. In comparing last week's photo to this one, you can see that there is no trace of the first.

I put the feeder on and am giving them 1:1 sugar syrup with Honey B Healthy. I've gone from being excited last week, to now worried about the wax moths. Hopefully, these Russian bees will be able to hold it off until the numbers increase and they can then remove the problem.