Time for a Quick Check-in on the New Queens

Every time a hive is opened it sets them back a few days so I've left the new queens to do their thing for a couple weeks.

Dmitry Hive

Dmitry Queen

I expected to see progress in the Dmitry hive today and she's laying in a good brood patter, but remains in the center 4 frames. Last year it took the Sasha split most of the summer to spread out in the first box so I'm not concerned at the lack of progress with Dmitry.

Dmitry Brood

Sasha Hive

Sasha Brood

Starting out with a hive full of bees has certainly given the Sasha hive and their new queen an advantage. The top box is heavy full of honey! And the bottom two boxes are full of brood so I added the third brood box (I use three mediums instead of two deeps).

OV Hive

The OV hive had two honey supers on top of the three hive bodies and, as of a few weeks ago, they had not yet drawn out the frames. But today I saw capped honey in the top box when I peered down between the frames so I added a third honey super!

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!

The Day I (Almost) Lost a Queen

New Sasha Queen

My special friends Leah, Alex and Macallan along with their Aunt Sara visited the hives to help me check to see if the new queens had made it out of their cages. We first looked in on the Sasha hive and found the queen out and about. She has not yet begun to lay yet, but everything looks good so far. Before closing up the hive, we all had a taste of honey fresh off the frame as the Sasha hive has lots of honey going on!

The Dmitry hive queen was still in her cage so I removed it to show the kids. Aunt Sara held it while I peeked at the brood. No one noticed that the candy in the cage was eaten away on the back side which allowed the queen to make her exit. All of a sudden I heard Sara say, "Oh, here's the queen!" as the queen crawled up and out the opening of the cage. I turned to look just as the queen took flight and circled round and round, up over our heads until I lost sight of her...

Dmitry queen safely back home.

#%!?*# was running through my head but with little guests at the apiary, I think I said something more along the lines of, "This is not good..." Yet as soon as she took flight, she came back down and landed on the edge of the articulating cover leaning up against the next hive. I had honey on one end of the hive tool from getting the honey for the kids to taste, so I simply put the sticky end under the queen and transported her back to her new home. 

I know how lucky we were that the queen returned and I promise that I will never do that again! Whew!

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!

New Queens Arrived and Installed

I began the morning with another inspection of the Sasha hive to look for the queen. Even with the excluders in place to keep her confined, I could not find her. You know me... I'd rather know where she is instead of where she is not, so with the help of the husband we moved the entire hive around the corner out of sight and, leaving an empty box back at the hive, we brushed off every frame. The theory being that the bees would return to the hive and the queen, if she was in the hive to begin with would be brushed off and left behind as she cannot fly. Nearly every bee made its way back to the hive and no queen was spotted among those left on the ground.

The queens arrived in small cages with 4-5 attendants in each and a candy plug for food. If you look closely in the left-hand cage, you can spot the new queen with a white mark on her back. It will take about 3 days for the attendants to eat though the candy which will then allow access to a hole in the top of the cage. The queen will simply crawl out and hopefully, begin to lay eggs. The time it takes to eat through the candy is important because it allows the other bees in the hive to accept her as their new queen. If the queen were released directly into the hive the bees would think her an intruder, ball her and kill her.

New queen cage placed in hive. 

Once all the frames were cleared of bees and back in box, we placed the queen cage between two frames with the hole facing up. If the hole were facing down and any of the queens attendants died, their bodies could potentially block the hole and prevent the queen from emerging.

It took only moments for the bees to cover the cage, thinking she's an intruder. Fingers crossed that she is accepted. I'll wait a week and then check to see that she's emerged and has begun laying eggs.

Rookie Dmitry Orlov

The other queen was used to make a split from the OV hive, adding a third hive in the apiary. This hive will be known as the Dmitry hive, named after another Russian hockey player for the Washington Capitals.

I pulled out three frames of mostly covered brood and house bees and placed them in a box with drawn comb. There was a big difference in how this hive basically ignored the queen cage. I put the top feeder on and will check again in a week to see if the queen has emerged and has begun laying.

While I was selecting the frames I wanted from the OV hive, I easily found the queen. This hive has been my strong hive, doing all the right things at the right time. I'm hoping that by requeening the Sasha hive and creating the Dmitry hive with a good queen, these hive will bring the apiary into full honey production next year. :-)