Elusive Queen...

Went into the hives again last night...mostly to see if they were doing anything in the second hive body recently added as well as to try once more to find that queen.  I was about half way through the hive with the "missing" queen when a beekeeper friend showed up to offer assistance.  Right away he told me it was evident I had a queen.  He was able to tell that by the abundance of WORKER BROOD present.  As I have said and have known all along, a laying worker will only lay DRONE brood...  I apparently had forgotten that drone brood cells are actually noticeably larger than worker brood cells.  This was very apparent when I compared the cells on the green drone frame with the cells present elsewhere in the hive.

Anyhow, it was not long after he told me this that we both spotted the queen doing her thing.  Bill also gave me a tip that you likely won't find the queen on frames that are full of capped brood...she's already done her work on those frames and has likely moved on.  Sure enough, she was on a frame with open drawn out cells and was probably busy laying eggs!  I do feel much better now that I have found her...but realize I was full of worry for no reason.  I should have known all along that I had a queen and not a laying worker.

As for the second hive bodies, one hive and just begun drawing comb on one of the frames.  It was definitely early for me to put them on...hopefully the bees won't have too much trouble keeping the hive at the right temperature.  Debated whether or not to remove them for now...but decided to keep them on as I'll be away for nearly a week...and the weather is supposed to be quite nice during that time.

Eggs and Larvae...but no Queen?

Sunday afternoon turned out to be absolutely perfect for checking on bees and that is just what I did.  I began with the hive that I had previously found a queen in.  I figured this would give me the opportunity and practice in spotting eggs and larae in various stages and sizes.  I was right!  You can see the larvae in the photo below.

I also found the queen again so all seems to be well in this hive.  They had drawn out the comb cells in all but the outer frames.  I think those eggs will begin hatching in the next week or two.  The syrup in this hive was pretty much all gone as was the pollen patty I had provided.  As I finished up, I decided to make more room for them so that when these little ones do hatch, they won't feel crowded.  I did this by putting on the second hive body (doubled their hive, really).  I then filled the syrup.

On to hive #2...  After just a couple frames, I began finding lots and lots of eggs of all sizes!  This should mean that there is a queen...though it could be a laying worker.  If it is a laying worker, all the eggs will develop into drones...which do no work in the hive.  From what I have read and heard, a laying worker will deposit multiple eggs in cells and the eggs will not be positioned in center.  It looked to my untrained eye that there was only 1 egg in the center of each cell.  Even so, I really wanted to find the queen to put my mind at ease.  I went through the entire hive and couldn't find her...and then worked my way backwards through the hive all over again...still no queen!  She must be well-camoflaged or really good at hiding...or maybe she isn't there at all.  I added a second hive body to this one as well and refilled its syrup. 

I forgot to mention, when I removed the hive-top feeder from this hive, there was a bunch of extra "burr comb" built between the feeder bottom and the tops of the frames.

I had to scrape all this off...from both the feeder and the frames.  I felt bad about destroying all that comb they had worked on building...but really, there was plenty of frame space they should have been working on!  Silly bees!

Below is a picture of one of the frames.  You can see the white honey cells toward the top.  I think the darker colored capped cells is capped brood. 

I am hoping that I can get a beekeeper friend to go through the hive with me sometime...to help identify some of these features as well perhaps help me in finding that elusive queen.  Perhaps tonight...as it is supposed to be quite nice!

Finally, here is what the hives look like now that they are two-high.

Support Your Local Beekeeper

“Even our honey industry is under siege from imports of Chinese-origin honey,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York. “Ongoing schemes by Chinese exporters to circumvent U.S. anti-dumping, food labeling and food safety laws, threaten the continued health of the U.S. honey industry and by extension the health of agricultural industries.”


Schumer said that China is guilty of violating anti-dumping laws, is running honey through several other countries then into the United States to avoid tariffs, and is even shipping honey contaminated with antibiotics.

http://home.ezezine.com/1636/1636-2010.06.09.13.51.archive.html

Daredevil

I forgot to mention in last week's post a funny tidbit about my daughter Olivia.  She is 3 years old and is very excited about our new "pets".  She has heard me talk about them all winter...  Anyhow, prior to last week's more thorough hive inspection, I suited up in my jacket, veil, gloves, etc.  I told Olivia to stay outside the fenced-in area that the bees are kept and then went to work.

As I was removing frames looking for the queen and really causing quite a stir, I turned around and found Olivia standing right next to me.  So there I was in all my bee garb and there she was in her shorts and tank-top!  Thank goodness our backyard is somewhat private or otherwise I would likely have been charged with child endangerment!  I do wish that I could have gotten a picture of that! 

Hopefully this Saturday we'll get some more good pictures of the hives.  I am sure Olivia will not be far away.

Quick Look

Monday night I checked the hives real quick...found them low on syrup again and so gave each hive a half gallon.  There were fewer drowned bees this time around...so it seems the piece of wood I placed has helped some.  I would still like to get a small dowel properly sized so that even fewer would die needlessly.

While there, I also checked to see if they had eaten the pollen patties I had placed last week.  Both had been completely devoured!  I put in another half patty in each hive.

It was later in the evening and the temps were cooler so I did not doing anything else.  This Saturday is supposed to be very nice...ought to provide the perfect opportunity to go queen AND egg hunting!

Wish me luck!

1 Queen Found!

I went into both hives this afternoon...it was a lovely day...hot, sunny, and little wind.  I had my 3-year old helper who is fearless of bees.  I imagine once she is stung for the first time, that might change. 

So I went and suited up and got my smoker going.  Looked inside the hivetop feeder of hive 1 and found that it was pretty low.  That's a good sign, I guess.  Thankfully, I had a couple gallons still on hand.  I then removed the feeder and got a good luck at the tops of the frames.  Plenty of bees in there, that is for sure.

I then started removing frames starting from the outside.  The first couple really did not have much of anything going on.  But as I got closer to the center, there were many more bees on the foundations and I could see where they had drawn out quite a bit of comb.  With each frame I removed, the number of bees present increased dramatically...until the whole frame was pretty much covered top to bottom.  At this point, I was really hoping to see the queen.  But with all those bees and my untrained I, I lost hope.  Then I came to the green "drone" frame. 

It's cells are a bit larger than the others and so drones are normally raised there.  These are the useless males...they are also the ones targeted most frequently by the dreaded varroa mite.  By providing a full frame of drone brood, I can remove it before the drones hatch, throw them overnight in the freezer and kill off the mites that have infested the brood.  This is one natural way to control the number of mites in your hive.

Anyhow, when I got to the drone frame, I noticed some large oval shaped cups toward the top of the frame...looked like supercedure cells...which would indicate the hive is trying to replace a missing or unproductive queen.  I am not sure if this is a "good" sign or not.  I guess if a new queen hatches, then I will be all set with that hive...at least then I know I will have a queen!

At this point I closed this hive up, replacing all the frames carefully so as to try not to crush too many of "the girls".  I also added a pollen patty and shim to the hive...we'll see if they like the patties.

On to the second hive...same procedure.  This time, I pulled out the center frame and there she was...the queen!  Whoo hoo!  This made my day!  Let's see if you can spot her...

I was not able to see any eggs but perhaps it is early for that...after all, the bees were still drawing out foundation.  Perhaps if I knew what to look for and where, I might have found eggs.  I am sure in a week or so, they will be more easily seen. 

I had previously put a pollen patty in this hive...and the bees seemed to be enjoying it (see below).  It's syrup was also nearly gone.

In both hives, there were many drowned bees in the hive top feeders.  I read that putting a small dowel or piece of wood where the bees drink up the syrup can help them keep their footing and prevent drowning.  I made up some slivers and put those in...and cleaned out all the dead bees.  Hopefully that will help.

My First Stings

Got stung a couple times Sunday evening...it was my own fault. I know that the best time to open up a hive is in the afternoon of a nice sunny day with little wind...basically when most of the bees are going to be out foraging for nectar and pollen. Sunday evening it was still pretty nice but the sun was definitely setting and there was a bit of a breeze. Even so, I came up with the bright idea of seeing if the bees might like some pollen patty that I had purchased.

To use this on the hives, I would first have to take off the hive-top feeder I use. Once that is accomplished, the hive is completely exposed from the top. The next task was to put on a shim which would allow room for the pollen patty on top of the frames and under the feeder.

Anyhow, the bees did not appreciate me taking their feed from them... As soon as I took the feeder off, I got stung on ankle through my sock which was fortunate because I think the sock pulled the stinger out rather quickly. The offending bee was probably one that was on the feeder when I set it in the grass. The second sting was on my wrist. It was at this point that I realized I should probably get a veil and gloves... So I ran up to the house and put those on real quick calling myself all sorts of names on the way. I have now left the hive wide open...another no-no. Oh well. What's going to happen right? I was coming right back...

Thankfully nothing did happen. I was able to put the shim on, the patty in, and replaced the feeder with no further excitement. This process did stir up quite a bit of excitement...so I decided I'd better wait for a sunnier day to do the other hive.

It has been very difficult for me to curb my curiosity and not go queen hunting. I am really worried that the bees assassinated the queens. My only hope is that the queens picked up the scent of the other bees enough while they were in the same packages together. If the weather is right on Wednesday, I hope to go in and look for some eggs. If there eggs in the cells, then I know I have an egg layer at least. Of course, this could be a worker laying in the absence of a queen...these eggs will only develop into useless males. If it is a queen laying, then there will be only 1 egg/cell and the eggs will be positioned in the middle of the cell. If it is a worker laying, then there could be two eggs/cell and the positioning will be messy.

If I find that the queens have been killed off, I will have to order replacement queens. Hopefully I will have better luck (or perhaps a better PLAN!) for introducing the queens!