New hive inspection report

The new hive was inspected today, about three weeks after it cast its second swarm.  Findings:
The sticky frames (leftover from the honey extraction) in the super were no longer sticky.  The bees had cleaned them.  There was a small amount of capped honey.
There was no comb at all drawn in the upper brood box, just frames with foundation.
All the action was in the bottom brood box.  Only a little new comb had been drawn and there was only a bit of irregular comb on the drone frame.  However, five frames had either empty brood cells or capped brood.  I also saw larvae of all ages and maybe a couple of eggs.  I couldn't find the queen, but she had got to be there doing her job.

Hey, wha' happened?

Robert is wearing the bee suit for confidence

Yesterday evening, with the help of Maidi and Robert (visiting from Greenfield, New Hampshire), I  rearranged Olea's hive by raising it 16+ inches.  Now it will be more comfortable to inspect and, more importantly, easier to look in the observation window.

Olea's hive on its new stand with the observation window opened

 Maidi and Robert lifted the hive and I put a board on top to the bricks.  Then the old hive stand was put on the board and the hive set on top.  I placed each leg of the table into shallow plastic containers (saved by Maidi from the Whole Foods deli) that I will fill with water or oil to keep out ants.  I'll also make some protective screens like I did for the other hive stand.  Here is the entire apiary

Today, I checked out the activity at Olea's hive.  Many of the returning foragers were flying around where the old entrance had been and even landing on the board.  Wha' happened?

Miscellaneous pictures

Here are some pictures and a video that have not yet been displayed.

 This is looking through the observation window of Olea's hive a couple of weeks ago.  There were already seven combs (two are hidden).  They stick them onto the glass; that is what I cut with the steak knife three days ago in order to inspect the hive.

 After the extraction process two weeks ago, there was honey everywhere.  Here are some bees and their shadows attracted to the sweet stuff spilt onto a tray.


A close-up of one girl licking honey off the table top.

A couple of days ago, I saw a lot of dead bees in front of the old hive.  At first I thought it might be a massive die-off, but I was sure the hive was healthy since I had just inspected it a couple of days before and seen the queen and lots of brood, and there was still a lot of activity at the entrance.  On closer examination, I could see that these were dead drone pupae.  The bees were cleaning out the old drone frame and dumping the carcasses.  I expect birds and ants will have a picnic.

I noticed a scuffle going on at the old hive entrance.  I tried to capture it on video, but it was too blurry to keep.  While trying to figure out how to focus a video with my new camera, I took this photo and then this video.  No guard bee activity that I can see.  I will try to capture it on video in the future.




The other day was hot.  I was out in the yard that night and saw this.  This is bearding, something bees do when it is hot in the hive.  Sort of like us sticking our foot out from under the covers when it is hot in the bed.  This is actually a pretty small beard; they can be much larger.  The hive does get warm; I can feel the heat through the glass observation window.



To keep ants out of the hive, I set the legs of the hive stand in cans.  When I saw all the dead bees in front of the hive, I figured a lot of ants would be coming around.  So I put some water into the cans.  The next day there were a couple of drowned bees.  Today I made some screen guards to keep bees from falling into the water. 

Olea hive inspection

Today was the first inspection of Olea's top bar hive.  I watched a couple of You Tubes to see how to go about it.  I was also concerned about detaching the combs from the observation window.  I couldn't find any advice online, so I used a steak knife.  It worked quite well. 

The bees are doing great.  They have drawn 10 or 11combs (I can't take notes while I'm in the hive). They were working on the next comb, pictured to the right.

New comb being drawn

Comb with capped brood and honey

I have turned the bar upside down and rested it on top of the hive.

 

The next comb was not completely drawn, but all the rest were.

On the left is one of the combs with, I believe, capped brood. This may all be honey, however. The lighter capped cells at the bottom (actually the top; the comb is upside-down) is capped honey. 

 

As I continued inspecting frames closer to the entrance, I did find definite brood, including a section of capped drone cells.  Here is a beautifully shaped comb with hatched and capped brood cells.

Then I saw the queen on frame number 6.  I was able to get one or two pictures of her.

I believe she is the one from the new hive.  At least it looks like her- same size and color.

Close-up of the queen

Check out the eggs

When I was looking at the photo on Picasa, I saw that I had also photographed cells with eggs!  They're the tiny white things in the bottom of the cells.  Pretty cool, yes?

I took out the feeder, moved the false back all the way to the back and put in more top bars.  I put spacers between the last 10 bars.  This is where I expect they'll store the honey.

A sticky business

Maidi getting the equipment ready

Maidi and I extracted honey today.
The first step was to get the comb from the old hive.  I brought an empty super and a board down to the apiary.  I took the top board off, gave the bees a bit of smoke and then selected four frames of capped honey.  I had to brush the bees off each one.  There was always one stubborn girl who would run from side to side avoiding the brush.  I put the cleared frames into the empty super and put the board over them to keep other bees off.  I then replaced the four frames with new ones.  I then did the same thing in the lower super, getting 8 frames in all.  The box was so heavy, it was difficult for me to carry it up to the deck.

Removing cappings

After we had cleaned out the extractor, we cut the caps off the comb with the electric carving knife.  At first it wasn't working too well, then I realized I was holding the knife upside down.  After I got the blades properly oriented, it worked quite efficiently.

Loading the frames

I loaded two frames into the extractor, attached the power drill and started it spinning.  It was way off balance and the frames wobbled out of the holder.  I got the rod more vertical and the wobble was tolerable.  The honey started coming off the comb in threads onto the sides of the barrel (plastic garbage can).  It was a tedious business.  Each comb had to be de-capped, and we would often miss part or even forget one side.  The extractor continuously needed to be adjusted for balance and we got coated with a fine mist of honey.  Talk about sticky!  What wasn't sticky?

Honey and wax in barrel

Eventually all the frames were emptied and we had a fair amount of honey and wax debris in the barrel.  I had purchased some paint strainers this morning, and we used those to filter the honey into a variety of jars and bowls.

Honey being filtered

I put the sticky frames into a super and left it on the table outside.  Bees would come and eat a bit of honey.  I'll put the stickies back into the hive or maybe onto the new hive.  I've emailed Jeremy and asked if there could be a problem giving the to the new hive. 
Altogether we got about 28 cups of honey.  Next step is to get some small, lidded jars and fill them.

Queen cells examined

I went into the hives; I was, as always, too impatient to wait to see what was happening.
In the old hive, I saw brood on both sides of a couple of frames in the upper brood box.  I also saw my queen in the upper brood box.  She is smaller than other queens and very dark, so I figure she is from the Carniolan line. I didn't go into the lower brood box at all.  I did try to tip it up to look at the bottoms of the frames for swarm cells, but I couldn't get it up high enough and me down low enough to see.  Maybe a mirror would help.
In the new hive, I saw several open queen cells.  I pinched out a few for later examination.  There was capped brood and empty cells, but I didn't see any eggs or larvae.  I also couldn't see a queen.  Either the hive is queenless, or the new queen has not yet started laying.  She may not have even mated yet and a virgin queen is shy and hard to spot.  There was no comb drawn in the upper brood box and only a small amount of the new frames in the lower brood box.  I tried to estimate if their were fewer bees than before, but it looked pretty much the same.  The plethora of queen cells leads me to believe that this is the hive that cast a swarm...twice.  I put a drone frame in.
I put sticky board in both hives.  I'll check them on Thursday.
I took a look into Olea's hive.  The bees had already glued down the bars with propolis.  I loosened the first one and lifted it out.  There was a piece of comb about 8x8 inches with nectar.  Later this week I'd like to make a more thorough examination to check brood and try to see the queen.  If she's from the new hive, I know what she looks like since I saw her a couple of weeks ago.
Inside the house, I examined the queen cells.  I split one open and saw that it had fine webbing on the inside, the remnants of the cocoon.  One of the cells had the cap partially attached. I went online to see pictures of hatched queen cells, and sure enough, that's what I had.  The clear sign was the chewed away opening.  So, more than one queen had hatched in the new hive and one left in the afterswarm.  I can only hope whoever is left mates successfully and gets to work.

Afterswarm

Afterswarm cluster in plum tree

Yesterday while I was at work, Karly called me to tell me there was another swarm in the yard that had settled on the plum tree (videos by Karly).  Since I have no more empty hives, and I really don't want a fourth hive (at least now), I asked Karly to email and call local beekeepers.  No one responded until I reached James who said he would come out this morning. 

James happy with his gift

He was going to call first, but Comcast phone service went out and he couldn't get through.  We did eventually get into contact. He was at work, tending the vegetable garden at Dominican Hospital and couldn't get out until later.  So I shook the bees into a box, taped it mostly shut and placed it in the shade. He came by later to pick them up.  We had a pleasant and informative talk about gardens and beekeeping.  He has been keeping bees for six years.  His main point about caring for bees is to do just about anything you want.  Every bee person has a different approach.  I have bees because I like them, I'm not focused on a honey crop.  So I should just look in whenever I feel like it.  Each time one goes into the hive, it disrupts the bees and decreases their honey production.

I still don't know where the swarms came from.  Colonies may cast a second and even third swarm after the first.  These are called afterswarms or secondary and tertiary swarms.

Comb being drawn in Olea's hive

Maidi and I took a peek into Olea's hive yesterday evening.  We caught a glimpse of two sections of comb.  So the girls have built part of two or three combs.  The cluster of bees we see through the window is actually the bees hanging on the comb.  They are also taking the sugar water, about half-a-quart a day.