A disruptive inspection

Laura and I went into the hive today. It was clear, calm and warm. There were two tasks I wanted to accomplish. I wanted to check the drone brood frame and take it out if it had capped cells. I also wanted to trade two brood frames from the middle super with two in the top super. This is advised by Carrier to control swarming. I wanted to do it even though it is past swarm season. I decided not to use the queen excluder as in most discussions I read, beekeepers don't like them.
I thought I would use the old transplant frame to replace the drone frame if I took it out. However, this is what I saw when I took it out of its plastic bag.
There was also a moth on the comb. This is the trail of a wax moth larva. You can see the webbing and the frass. On the other side, there was some webbing. I was surprised to see this. I decided not to put this frame into the hive. Now I know why you store the frames with paradichlorenzene (PDB) crystals. I find it interesting that I have found two of the common pests in my hive, varroa mites and wax moths. I suppose I'll find small hive beetle, too.
So, into the hive we went. Some bees and very little comb in the top super. I took out two frames and set them aside. Took off the top super and set it onto the inverted lid. In the middle super, which actually is the top brood chamber, we found the queen and two frames with lots of brood. I wanted to take two of these, but the queen was on the one I wanted, and I don't feel confident enough to "shake the bees off over the brood chamber to be sure the queen is not moved..." as Franklin Carrier instructs (Keeping Bees, p. 137). So I took one frame with a fair amount of brood and one with some brood. We hung these on the frame holder and then took the middle super off and placed in carefully on the top super (remember it is on the lid on the ground) making sure that the frame with the queen on it is centered.

With a bit of difficulty, I was able to remove the drone brood frame. There were lots of capped cells and some larva, as well. It was also covered with nurse bees. I shook the frame and some came off. I then used the bee brush. They sort of peel off and about 2/3 just fall, but the rest take angrily to the air. So I set the frame down to deal with later. Now there are lots of bees flying about and the smoker had gone out. (One needs to give it a puff every couple of minutes, but we had neglected to do so.) Maidi, who was taking pictures, volunteered to relight the smoker, but she was already retreating from the bees. I got the smoker to her and a few minutes later she brought it back burning.
Then I spaced the remaining 9 frames together with gaps at both ends. I hope that's the correct spacing. I replaced the middle super. I put the two frames from the honey super in, made sure the queen was still there (she was, on the same brood frame) and then put the honey super back on. Laura had been holding the frame holder and two frames during all this. She now hung the holder on the side. When Laura picked up one of the frames with brood and nurse bees many bees fell off and onto the ground at her feet. As I was putting the frame in, she felt something crawling on her leg. And then she got stung on the thigh. We hadn't even thought about rubber bands around the ankles, as is recommended. She left and I put the second frame in. Then I brushed the bees off the drone brood frame, making even more fly around. The bees, who had been so calm at the start, were now in an uproar. I had bees buzzing at me,on my suit and face screen and there were still a bunch on the ground. Before I closed up the hive I tried using the brush to pick up bees from the ground and the back porch of the hive and put them into the hive. After I closed the hive, I did use a leaf to pick up individual bees from the ground and put them on the porch. I don't know how many girls were lost.
The drone frame was put in a plastic bag and into the freezer. Next inspection I'll uncap the cells (I can use a fork) and put the frame back in the hive. Apparently, the bees eat the dead larva and dispose to the dead mites.

Orientation Flights

I didn't do any inspections last week because we were away. We went to the Canadian Rockies for a few days. We stayed at Cathedral Mountain Lodge. The country is strikingly beautiful. We did see one young grizzly bear. I got some fishing in and actually caught some fish, but no hogs.
Above are two videos, taken one hour apart; they show the activity when bees are doing their orientation flights and the normal activity.
Bees that are between 7 and 20 days old make daily orientation flights. They do this to defecate (which healthy bees only do while flying), to get flying practice and to learn where their hive is and what it and its landmarks look like. This has to be done before they start foraging at 21 days of age. The flights occur in the warm afternoon, usually between 2 and 5 and last for 30-45 minutes. They fly only a few feet from the hive and then hover in front of the hive. They will flit to the side and back of the hive and will even rest on nearby plants. They fly in and out of the hive and when time's up, they all go back in.
I'll be going into the hive this weekend. I plan on putting in the queen excluder and doing some frame manipulation.

Drone frame progess and new smoker fuel

It was a short inspection today. It was mostly overcast and calm. No comb in the top super. The queen was spotted in the middle super. I only looked at half of the frames, 3 1/2 that I inspected had brood in an excellent pattern. This time the queen stayed in the middle super. I noted where she was and made sure that that spot was centered on the lid. When I put the super back, I pulled the frame she had been on and she was still there, although she crawled off and onto the adjacent frame. She's doing a great job. All the bees in the hive are her daughters.
I used pine needles for smoker fuel today. This is what Kathy uses. It worked great. The smoke seems thicker, too. That's the smoker on the right, some old fuel below it and some pine needles (duh). The old fuel came with the smoker from Dadant and looks like shredded cloth and small bits of wood. The white paper weight is the frame holder. I collected the pine needles from below the tree at the former Hospice at the bottom of Vienna Drive.
I pulled only the drone frame from the brood box. The bees were starting to draw comb in the center.