First Honey Supers!

I went in and checked the hives on Tuesday evening...7/20.  The bees were very calm and pleasant...didn't need veil or gloves and minimal smoke.  Couple times I had an individual bee chase me around but I smoked the heck out of her and the hive and that seemed to distract her enough.

With two deeps on, it is a bit more difficult to do a full check of the hive.  First I had to loosen the top deep enough to remove it...and boy was it heavy!!  I then set it aside and started going through the bottom deep.  The frames were pretty much all in use with brood, pollen, honey storage, etc.  Found the queen on one of the frames where it was evident that brood had recently hatched.  I thanked her for all her hard work...  I went through the hive far enough to check out the drone frame.  I need to start practicing swapping out drone frames and freezing them over night.  This is done to kill off large number of varroa mites that tend to favor drone brood due to their incubation period being longer than worker brood.  Killing off drones does not harm the hive really as they don't do much work anyway.  Their only purpose is to mate with virgin queens...

Anyhow, I put the top deep back on and began going through those frames.  Quite a few were packed full of pollen and/or honey.  Nearly all of the frames were in use...time to put on a honey super for sure!  Between the top deep and the honey super I placed a "queen excluder" which is like a grate that is sized to allow worker bees through but the queen out.  This will ensure that the honey frames will be just that...and won't have eggs and larvae mixed in when it comes time to extract...yuck!

I neglected to take pictures this time...:(  Bummer.  I'll go in again in a week or so to see how they progress with the honey super...I'll be sure to take pictures then.

New Beekeeper Anxiety - An 'oops' Moment

These events actually happened a couple of weeks ago when the temps were really hot.  There was a ton of activity at the entrance to the hives.  I got down close to get a good look at what was going on and saw a couple of bees "wrestling".  I immediately jumped to the conclusion that my hive(s) was being attacked/robbed by other hives.  I know now that this was not the case...

Anyhow, one way to stop robbing or to at least give your bees a fighting chance is to reduce the size of the entrance.  By cutting it down to the size of a bee or two, that is much easier for the guard bees to defend and keep out intruders.  So that is what I did.

About 5 - 10 minutes later, I was surprised to find my hive looking like this:

Holy smokes - it really was being robbed!!!  Not really...but that was my first thought...again completely wrong!  After a little research on the web I found that bees will do this when the hive gets too hot inside...bees will vacate the hive so that it cools off and they'll camp out on the box and "fan" it with their wings.  Pretty amazing, eh?

I removed the reducer and the bees eventually went back inside...  Silly beekeeper...I nearly cooked my bees!

Birth of a Honey Bee

Went into the hives this afternoon just to see how they were doing.  At first I was concerned that there was some robbing going on as there was a lot of activity at the entrance.  But I think it was just a beautiful day and the bees were real busy.  More "new beekeeper anxiety", I guess.
The visit went quite well.  Was going to try it without any smoke even but after I opened up the first hive and removed the feeder, I had a bee start a staring match with me.  I decided then I better bring in the big guns...

The bees have begun to move up into the second story of the hive.  The middle frames are drawn out and I can see eggs and larvae so the queen even is spending time up there.  There was also a good amount of pollen and what looked like honey.  Most of the frames in the top section though were still quite bare.  I think I might make up another batch of syrup to feed them...that might at least help them draw out the frames quicker.  Before doing so, I am going to clean up the feeders some as they are getting pretty nasty.

I did not locate the queen in either hive but now that I know she is there, I don't need to find her every time.  I found plenty of eggs that must have been just laid recently...tinier than a grain of rice but still quite visible.  Some frames had a strange brown color to them and were pretty bare.  I wondered what that was all about until I saw the following:

You can see the brownish color of the empty cells.  At the bottom, the capped cells are capped brood.  There are baby bees in those cells.  And if you look close, you can see several where the cappings are being eaten away by the bees working their way out.  The next several pictures show the birth of a honey bee.  Happens hundreds of times every day in the hives...but hey, it was my first time witnessing the event.

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.