Fourth hive established

I see the queen

At Maidi's suggestion, I started a fourth hive rather than putting the queen from the split back into the hive.  Last week I built a hive stand and determined where it would go. 

Trying out the new placement

I then cleared the area for the hive, put the stand in place, leveled it and then put the nuc on it so the bees could start getting oriented to their new locale. 

Hive stand leveled

Nuc on stand

I had ordered all the parts from Dadant & Sons and spent all day yesterday assembling and painting the boxes, screen bottom and frames. 

All the parts assembled and ready to be put together

Today I put the 5 frames from the nuc into the new hive.  I did spot the queen on the fifth frame.  I added 5 more frames to the box and put another deep box on top.  They don't need the room yet, but I figure it won't hurt.  The telescoping lid was back ordered, so I used an inner board and a piece of plywood to close the top.  I took the entrance feeder from inside Olea's hive and put it in the door.  The Vivaldi box has not yet arrived.  When it comes, I'll use the top feeder from one of the other hives.

Entrance feeder and bees unwilling to enter new hive

It took the bees about 20 minutes to start going into their new home even though the door was at the same spot that the door of the nuc had been, so there was a small cloud of bees in front of the hive.  Once some bees started going into the hive, they all quickly did so, thanks to the girls spreading the news at the entrance.

Nasonov fanning at entrance of newest hive

The new apiary has new names, also at Maidi's suggestion; 1,2 & 3.  Olea's is still Olea's.

Berries on the way

Waiting for the blackberries to bloom.

Finally!  I'd better go tell my sisters.

The brussels sprout bolted, but someone is still benefiting

Swarm collected

The cluster on the magnolia tree

The bees swarmed today.  Not the hive I had expected to do so- it was the hive I split 3 days ago.  I made the split to prevent swarming, and obviously was ineffectual.  When the swarm started, I told the family (Eric and Lynn and Samuel, Emory and Jessie Ingram) across the street because they had been interested in the bees.  They came over and Maidi, Cathy, the Ingrams and I watched as the cloud slowly moved across the yard and condensed on a low branch of the Magnolia tree.
I let them settle down for a couple of hours and then collected them in my remaining nuc.  The initial plan had been for me to hold up the nuc and for Maidi to shake the bees into the box.  Cathy suggested we'd have more control if we cut the branch, which we did.  I put the branch with cluster into the box and shook them off.  The video (click this link) unfortunately turned off just before the branch was completely cut off and doesn't start again until I'm putting the frames into the nuc.

Nasonov fanning on the nuc

The bees started fanning their Nasonov pheromone at the door to let everyone know where to go.  Over the next 20 minutes they had almost all gone into the nuc.  I will move the nuc onto the bench at the bottom of the yard at dusk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shortly after closing the nuc

six minutes later

20 minutes after closing the nuc

Now I have two Langstroth hives, one top bar hive and two nucs.  I could re-introduce the queen in nuc #1 into the new hive in a couple of weeks.  That would entail killing the queen that will be there, something I really don't want to do.  Or...to save postage.. I'm going to order a new hive (that will give me 4 hives) and put it to the left of the footbridge. I'll populate it with the nuc I made a few days ago and sell the nuc I collected today and when the other hive swarms, which I expect it to do soon, I'll call some beekeeper and let them collect it.

Questions partially answered

So, what was going on in the old hive?  Was the new queen doing well?  Was it getting ready to swarm?  Could I prevent a swarm by making a split?  Inquiring minds want to know.  The only way to find out was to go into the hive, so yesterday I did.  My plan was to make a split if I found the queen and capped queen cells.
Overall, there were a lot of bees.  The hive looks strong.  There was a lot of capped brood in the top brood box and larva of various ages.  I didn't see eggs.  A careful frame by frame search did not reveal the queen.  I did find two capped queen cells on the bottom of one frame.  I made a mental note of which frame (second in) and set the top box aside.  I went through each frame of the bottom box.  A lot of capped brood, larvae and one capped queen cell.  The bees were making a new queen.  Either the hive was queenless or they were getting ready to swarm.  I didn't want to scrape the queen cells unless I knew the queen was there and laying.
I put the top brood box on and looked through it again.  And there she was!  The queen...small, dark and with a dab of orange paint on her back- my old queen!  I hadn't seen her on the two previous inspections. (Btw, the paint on her wing was gone.  My attempts at washing it off at the time of marking had been successful.)  I have never seen the queen that came with the nuc.  Had the purchased queen been killed in transport?  Had the two queens fought and the old queen prevailed?  Perhaps the workers from the hive, who outnumbered the workers in the nuc, had seen the new queen as an intruder and done away with her.  This latter possibility seems most likely to me.  But then, what do I know.
In any case, what should I do?  Make a split with the old queen?  Make a split with capped queen cells?  Let it alone?  When in doubt, do nothing.  And that's what I did.  I figure that the hive will swarm within a couple of days taking the old queen away.  I'll try to capture it and put it in my remaining nuc box.  I hope that the new queen is a daughter of the purchased queen.  If she's a daughter of my old queen, that would be all right.  After all, I have little choice.
Maidi and I have been talking about starting another hive with the nuc we already have.  This would be instead of selling it or trying to re-introduce the purchased queen.  (The queen cells in the new hive probably came from the old queen's eggs whom I was trying to replace.)  An elegant solution; but where to place it?   Do any of you want to take up beekeeping?

Swarm or not to swarm

Settled on hive

I was out in the yard today, heard a lot of buzzing and looked at the apiary.  There was a cloud of bees in front of the new hive- it was swarming!  I watched and the cloud did not move.  I watched some more and it still didn't move.  I went and fixed the bush in the front yard and the swarm was still around the hive. 

Settling on hive

 Finally it condensed, onto the hive itself.  I determined to capture it in one of the nuc boxes I recently acquired.  I wanted to video it, so I set up a tripod, took some video and then went to change my clothes.  But wha' happened?!  The bees had gone back into the hive.  The swarm didn't swarm.
After some reading and discussion with Kathy Niven, I figured what must have happened.
As soon as I had removed the old queen prior to removing the double screen board,the now queenless bees in the bottom box started building queen cells.  When the boxes were combined, the workers thought it was time to swarm.  However, the queen never left the hive so everyone went back in.  But they will swarm soon.

It's all over, for now

So, more reading-  How to prevent swarming.  It was already too late for many preventive measures leaving only making a nuc.  I found many different methods for making a nuc and went for the one that seemed the easiest. Here's what I did:
1. Search carefully for the queen.  I looked at each frame in the top box.  The first two with no comb or only a little went onto the frame holder.  The next frames, with brood, went into an empty nuc box after I didn't spot the queen.  Four frames with brood followed - no queen.  One frame had two capped queen cells.  Also, when taking frames out, two other queen cells were broken open.  One had mush in it, the other an obvious queen pupa.  Then I repeated the search process on the bottom box- still no queen.  So another search of the frames in the nucs, frame-by-frame, and there she was on one of the frames from the bottom box.
2.  Leaving the frame with the queen, brood and nurse bees in the nuc, I then added another frame with brood, one with honey and one with pollen.  The fifth frame was empty, drawn comb.
3.  Re-assemble the hive.  I put the frame with the capped queen cells in the bottom box with other frames of brood beside it.The bottom box was filled.  I put five new frames into the top box and put the hive back together.
I hope it works.
I'm going to take a look into the other hive tomorrow to see if there are queen cells.  If there are, I'll make another nuc.  Then I'll have two nucs and I don't want another hive.  I'll try to sell them through the Santa Cruz Beekeepers Guild.

New nucs combined, continued

Webb Ranch Fruit stand.  Bee pick-up spot

Beekeeper Mike

I drove to Portola Valley 4 days ago to pick up my two frames of brood that Beekeeper Mike was giving me in response to my complaint about the paucity of brood in the nucs I had purchased.
When I got home, I gathered what I needed to add the two brood frames and remove the double screen boards. 
I did the new hive first, and I think it went well.  First I took off the top box with the double screen board in place.  I took a look into the box, located the frames with brood, took out a frame from the edge and shifted the broodless frames over leaving a space next to the brood.  Then I took the top box off the double screen board and placed it on the bottom box.  There was more brace comb that I scraped off first.  I did look carefully on the screen to make sure that the queen hadn't been shaken off the frames.  I took out one new brood frame, sprayed the nurse bees with honey-b-healthy, sprayed in the brood box, too, and then placed the frame into the box.  I put a super on and added the top feeder with 1:2 (sugar:water) syrup as Mike had suggested.  Ta-da!  One hive combined with an added frame of brood.

One hive done

 I then repeated the process with the old hive.  Here I also had to look for the queen.  I looked very carefully and could not spot her.  There were a few queen cells; I pinched off some.  Since I had marked the queen and hadn't been able to find her on two occasions, I figured she was gone.  I finished the combining as with the new hive.  I can only hope there is one good queen in the hive.  I won't be able to look for at least a week and I think I'll give it two weeks so that all the added brood will have emerged.

Looking for the door

I had rotated the double screen doors two days before and returning foragers were still going to the back of the hive.  These bees had left the hive from the door in front but the entrance in the back was imprinted in their little brains.  I wonder how long the imprint will last..  This will take some research; I'm sure the studies have been done.
After all was done the bees were flying around and all over both the front an backs of the hives.




Olea's hive seems to be doing well.  They are eating the syrup, have eaten a small amount of the pollen pattie and there is new comb.
A week before I had removed some frames from the hive that had a bit of capped honey.  I had intended to collect it for you honey lovers, but the bees got to it first.

Chewed open and empty cells at bottom

Eating the honey

The bees had built some comb on the screen

The raspberries have blossomed

New nucs combined

My new bees.  3 pound package on left and two 5-frame nucs

I drove up to near Palo Alto yesterday to pick up my bees from Beekeeper Mike; two nucs and a package.  Mike turned out to be as unusual, if not more so, in person as he had on the phone.  I did get some helpful advice from his helper, Aden.
I gathered all my supplies: newly constructed double screen boards, homemade honey-b-healthy in sprayer, water in sprayer, frame-holder, small jars with lids, hive tool, bee brush and camera.  Carried the nucs down to the apiary and got to work on the new hive .
I opened the hive, took off the super and carefully inspected frames in the top box for the queen; the queen will often bee in the top box in the spring.  I didn't find her there so I took off the top box.  This box would be used to hold the five frames from the nuc, so I took out frames from the sides that had no drawn comb and shifted the others leaving space in the middle.  There were drone cells in the brace comb between top and bottom frames and some larvae fell out, attracting workers.

Then I searched for the queen in the bottom box.  I noted that there was no comb on the drone frame and I took out the plastic frame I had previously moved to the side.  It had some capped honey, which someone will get to eat.  I put in one of the frames I had removed from the top box.  I found the queen on the first round of searching and put her into the jar.  A couple of workers got in as well but I was able to get them out.

 

Trust me, she's in there

 The next step was to put the frames from the nucs into the box.  First I had to put on the double screen board on, but before doing that, I wanted to shake the bees off the frames and into the bottom box.  I did so and misted the remaining bees with honey-b-healthy (hbh).  The double screen board was then put on top of the bottom box, being careful that the door was oriented properly.

I transferred the frame from the nuc into the middle of the top box, misting the bees with hbh.  The supplier puts a push-in cage over the queen to protect her.  Apparently, if the hive is disturbed much, like on a bumpy ride, it can upset the bees enough that they will kill the queen.  The cage has a removable tab.  I took it off and put a piece of marshmallow in it so that it would be a few days until the queen is out in the general poplulation.  These are the instructions Mike provided:

Tom

Thank you for getting your Beekeeper Mike nuc.  I wanted to send you a written summary of the instructions during pick up:

There is a plastic cage confining the queen in your nuc. It was installed to protect the queen from possible hostilities of the worker bees that might have been disturbed by during their trip. 

• Please remove the frame containing the cage. If it should fall off, don't worry, the queen is most likely on the frame. So, gently remove the cage and place the frame back into the nuc or box you transferring the bees into with the intention to disturb the bees as little as possible.  
• If the cage is still in place do not try to push it further to not hurt the queen. There is a small plastic plug on the lower part of the cage. Remove the plastic plug and put in a marsh mellow in the hole. The bees will eat the marsh mellow and release the queen in a day or so.
  
  
  Once all the frames from the nuc have been transferred into your standard bee box you can dump or bang the rest of the bees in front of the new hive. Do not hit or bang the box you are transferring into or the bees could kill your new queen. Do not disturb the bees or open the box for five days or the bees will possible kill your queen. You can remove the cage in five days.
  
  Thank you,
  Beekeeper Mike 

Push-in cage

Marshmallow plug

When all the frames were in place, I put on the Vivaldi box and the hive cover, and one combination was done.  I left off the supers for now.  In one week I have to take things apart to remove the double screen boards; I'll put the supers back on then.

 

 When I looked at the door for the top box a little later, a few bees were going in and out.  About an hour later, there was a fair amount of activity.  Even later, the bees were doing orientation flights.



 I then went through the same process with the other nuc and the old hive.  This time, it did not go so smoothly.  I had to go through twice to find the queen.  I was beginning to think I would have to look again in a week and/or use the strainer method when I spotted her.  Into a jar with her. There was one frame of irregular comb and drone frame that I took out of the bottom box.

With the other hive, I had placed the top box onto the double screen before transferring the nuc frames; I neglected to do so with the old hive.   I was using the footbridge as a work space.  I saw that the push-in cage was placed so that it hung over the edge of the frame.  This made a space allowing anyone, queen or worker, to easily leave or enter the cage.  I wanted to know if the queen was in the cage so I turned the frame to look in....and the cage fell off onto the rocks of the dry creek.  Was the queen now on the ground?!  I put the frame on top of the nuc and frantically looked at the bees on and between the rocks.  No queen and no bees bunching up as they do around a queen, so I continued.  One of the frames in the top box had some burr comb on it making it impossible to place the nuc frames in without squeezing.  Since I didn't know where the queen was, I didn't want to take a chance.  The easiest thing to do seemed to be to just scrape off the burr comb, which I proceeded to do.  It was full of honey, causing a flood of honey to flow over all the frames trapping some bees.  I had to shake the comb off my tool onto the ground a few times.  With the burr comb removed and honey all over, I finished the transfer and re-assembly of the hive.  Obviously, I still don't know what I'm doing.
I worried that maybe the queen in the second nuc had been damaged or lost by me, or harmed by her own workers since she was not adequately protected.  I decided to put my old queen back in as a safety back-up.  I wanted her to be easier to find, so I tried marking her while she was in the jar.  I did mark her but got a little paint on one of her wings.  I hope that won't be a problem.  I put her on the porch and watched her crawl back into the hive.
I had to wait a few hours until close to sundown to put the package into Olea's hive.  This was easy.  All I had to do was take the cork out of the queen cage and put in a piece of marshmallow, then hang the  cage from a top bar.  I used a thumb tack to hold it.  Then mist the bees and pour them into the hive, replace the top bars, and done.  I did place the entrance feeder inside the box in the space behind the back board as I had done when I had captured the swarm.  I will be making ersatz pollen patties today with soy flour, brewer's yeast and sugar to place into Olea's hive.

Constructing double screen boards and only two trips to the hardware store.

I will be getting my new queens in their nucs and a package for  Olea's hive this weekend.  I had been mulling over the best way to combine the nucs with the current colonies safely.  The one time I added a frame of brood, we just sprayed the bees with honey-b-healthy, so I figured that that would be the way to go.  But I wasn't certain and I contacted Kathy Niven.  She was the lady who taught my first bee class long ago.  She helped me with the aforementioned brood frame and has given me other advice.  I emailed her and she called back that evening because there was too much to say for an email.
The problem isn't the workers accepting each other, which is what the honey-b-healthy spray helps, but the old workers accepting (and not killing) the new queen.  She recommended using a double screen board or having the queens in cages.  The latter can't be done, so I looked for double screen boards.  These boards are placed between the two brood boxes with the nuc and new queen in the top.  This allow the old bees to get used to the pheromones of the new queen without being able to get at her.  There needs to be a separate entrance for the top box; this is part of the double screen board frame.  I didn't think I'd be able to buy them in time, and being frugal, I decided to build my own.
I found plans on Beesource- a well-constructed board involving router work for dado cuts and overlaps.  I haven't the skill or workshop to do that so I modified the plans to match my carpentry level.
First trip to Orchard supply for the 1/4" board and hardware cloth.  Second trip later to get more hardware cloth- I hadn't calculated for the 'double' of double screen board.

My workshop

I used plywood I already had for the frames.  The measuring and cutting of the pieces went (mostly) smoothly.  I only had to do one second cutting on one board to make it 1/8" shorter.

No bees will squeeze through

All cut and ready for assembly

After all the wood was cut, I cut the hardware cloth and then assembled the frames. I used a plethora of staples to fasten the screen to the boards, enough that I had to twice refill the staple gun. I then nailed the frames to the screened boards.  Getting the nails to hit the center of a 1/4" fiberboard was challenging.  I had about 80% success on the first attempt.  Then a nail into each overlapping frame end, and voila!, a double screen board....without a door!  You can see on my plan a note to "cut entrance", but who follows instructions?
My choices: take the frame apart, cut the door and then re-assemble or cut the door with the board already together.  The choice was obvious and now I had to figure how to cut out a 4"x3/8" notch without tearing the screen apart.  The jigsaw was too awkward, the reciprocating saw may have been too much, the hacksaw was just right.  I made two cuts and then used the jigsaw to cut out the door; it worked so well that I cut the door in the other frame piece the same way.

Completed frames

Close-up of door

Then it was time to go to Marimba.  Finished the frame this morning.  Now we'll see how they work this weekend when I install by new queens and bees.