Someday I may know what I'm doing

A couple of days ago I thought I should treat the hives with powdered sugar.  As you recall, this is part of controlling the Varroa mites.  I got my sifter and powdered sugar and sticky boards, donned my bee suit and went to work.  I also removed the top feeders.  In each hive, I placed the sticky board beneath the screen, took off lids and any supers to expose the tops of the brood boxes and sifted in the powdered sugar, a couple of tablespoons per box.  A couple of hours later, I took out the sticky boards to check for results.  There was hardly any sugar and no mites.  What was happening?  I checked one source.  So, I didn't use nearly enough sugar and I checked the boards too soon.  Obviously I had forgotten how I had done it in the past.  Oh well, live and learn. In a couple of weeks I'll do it again.
I just bought Top-Bar Beekeeping by Les Crowder and Heather Harrell.  Today I read the emphasis he puts on the need to manage the combs to prevent cross-combing.  This makes it very difficult for both the beekeeper and the bees to harvest the honey.  He says that after putting a package into an empty box, one should check every couple of days to manipulated the bars so that they are straight and not cross-connected.  Oops, I'm several weeks too late.  So I went out today to see what I could do.  I took out the back board and the last two, empty bars without a hitch.  the next bar had a nub of comb, no problem.  The next was stuck on the glass; I had dealt with that before and cut it away easily.  That was the last easy.  When I pulled that bar away, I, too late, discovered that there was cross-combing and the comb was pulled free, falling to the floor of the hive spilling nearly ripe honey all over.  The bees were getting a little upset.  I lit the smoker, gave them a whiff and went into the house for a bowl.  I removed and moved bars so I could fish out the broken comb.  I went back into the house for tongs.  Fished out the comb.  Then I moved and replaced the 6 bars trying to follow Les Crowder's method.

I hope everything works out.  At least we got some honey and comb. 

Late spring report

In the past week I inspected hives 1,2 & 3.
Hive 1. I spotted the queen; the original queen with her orange dot.  She's now 2 years old (like Olea, almost).  Soon she will be superseded or I'll need to replace her.  She's already escaped one replacement.  I didn't check for brood, nor do I recall seeing much.  The queen was in the upper brood box.  At one time it was recommended to switch brood boxes so the queen would be in the lower box, but these days many beekeepers just let her alone and she eventually moves into the lower box.  There is still a lot of capped honey in the deep boxes and the honey super was filling up so I put on the second super.  Even though I don't recall seeing brood, the hive appears strong.  There were a lot of bees in the Vivaldi box when I first took the lid off.  Took out the used mite-away quick strips.  I removed the drone frame that had been in the upper brood box and placed an empty one in the bottom box.  There weren't a lot of capped drone cells, and they were even hatching as I watched.  Later I examined some pupa.  They were well past the purple eye stage; I saw only one mite.  The tray is now in the freezer. 
Hive 2. Spotted the queen.  There were larvae of different ages but no capped brood.  Since it takes 9 days from laying to capping, this makes sense.  This is the colony that had to make a new queen and had no eggs or larvae on May 1.  I inspected on the 15th which means that she had started laying a few days after I looked on the 1st.  I removed the spent mite-away quick strips.  The drone frame, in the upper box, had capped honey and honey-in-process.  I removed it and later scraped off the honeycomb.  Placed an empty drone frame in the bottom box.

Honeycomb for Seth

Hive 3.  Spotted the queen.  There were 4 frames of brood in the bottom box.  There was some comb being drawn in the middle frames of the top box and the side frames of the bottom box.  I scraped off some honey-filled brace comb that was between the two boxes.  This hive, started from the split I made, seems to be doing ok.  It's not very strong yet, but with all that brood I anticipate rapid growth.
Olea's hive.  I've decided not to go into the hive.  Through the window one can see that they're doing well.  They have built comb to about 6 inches from the back board and all the comb is covered with bees.
This is the honey flow.  Lots of flowers for the girls to visit.

This is the flower on the hedge behind the blackberries.  The bees really like them.  I saw a lot of it growing in Berkeley when we visited yesterday.  Do you know what it is?

Where's hive two's queen?

Collected pollen in comb

Hive 1- inspected 5 days ago.  Did not spot queen but lots of brood and larvae in top brood box.

Hive 2- took a look 2 days ago.  Did not spot queen.  There was some capped brood that was hatching, lots of empty cells, no larvae or eggs.  This was the hive that had swarmed, so it had had to have a new queen.  Since they swarm before the new queen hatches, there will be some delay until she starts laying.  I did see one torn open queen cell.  

Mine looked just like this

I wondered:  was she dead?  Had she been eaten while out of the hive to mate?  Has she successfully mated and not yet started laying?  This morning I read in Keeping Bees by Franklin Carrier that one should wait 3-4 weeks after swarming to check for a laying queen.  I looked after only 12 days, so I'll be patient and wait another 2 weeks.
I put sticky boards in a couple of days ago.  I had made a new one for hive 3.  I also made one for Olea's hive.  I foolishly inserted it to check for size and was rewarded by very angry bees and two stings.  I'd had to run into the house to get away.  Later, I put on my bee suit to slide the plastic sheet into the hive.  After it was in, I realized that since it was now the floor of the hive, it shouldn't be sticky.  I took it out, washed it off and re-inserted it.  The bees were initially confused about the altered appearance of their doorway.

End of non-sticky board at hive entrance

 The Vivaldi box arrived.  It was painted and now is in place on hive 3 with a top feeder inside and the entrance feeder removed.