Honey harvest...kind of

One of two top bars of honeycomb

I went into Olea's hive today to take honey.  I had a big pot with a lid into which I would put the dark comb and a plastic lined wastebasket and a cardboard lid into which I would put the clean comb for comb honey. The wastebasket was the right size to hold the ends of the bars so the comb could hang vertically and not touch the bottom.   Only two bars had mostly capped honey.  There were two bars with comb and no honey and two bars without any comb.  The other three combs I looked at had only a little capped, mostly nectar and the last one had some brood, too.  I had planned to take only honey more distal than bar 12 (there are 21 bars), something I learned from Les Crowder.  I brushed the bees off the comb back into the hive and hung the comb in the wastebasket.  I then put the hive back together, rearranging the bars so all the comb was toward the front, one empty bar, then the back board.  I put an empty bar behind the backboard, as well.  I plan to cut the comb and put it into plastic containers- yum!
I took a quick peek under the Vivaldi box on #3.  It looks and feels like the bees are making some honey, presumably using the sugar I've been feeding them.  I still haven't figured how to get them through the winter.  I'm sure I'll have to feed them until the eucalyptus bloom in December.  I wondering if I should condense their space to one box or even a nuc.  I put the entrance reducer in place so they can defend better against robbers.  Now that the honey flow is over, the stronger hives could take advantage.

Entrance reducer in place

Some good news, some so-so news

Since the last post, I've been in each Langstroth hive once.

Frame of brood in #2

About two weeks ago, I opened #2 and, overall, it looked good.  In the super were two frames of capped honey and two frames with unripe honey (nectar).  There was some brood in the top brood box and some honey.  In the bottom brood box, I spotted the queen and four frames of brood. The girls still haven't drawn any new comb. Last time in, I had put in one of my jerry-rigged foundationless frames.  Not only was no comb drawn, the bees had also removed almost all the wax I had  stuck onto it.  Also, in the last inspection I had moved a frame with old, black wax to the side and this time I took it out and replaced it with another one of my foundationless frames.  (At some point, I'll need to take out my jerry-rigged frames and place a shim or wedge in the top groove like there should be for the bees to draw comb).  The old comb was in a frame with a wax foundation that came in one of the nucs I had purchased in the spring.  It was so dark that the sun barely shone through only a few cells. 

Old, dark comb

Mystery cups on the crossword

This picture is way too light, imagine it even blacker. When I broke it apart Iwas surprised to see small hard cups at the bottom of each cell.  I figure that this was the propolised feces and remains of cocoons from all the previous larvae/tenants of the cells. 

One of the cups in Karly's hand

Old comb broken apart and stacked

I intend to process all this wax by boiling rather than the solar melter.  I'll see if that method works well for old wax.
Yesterday, with some trepidation,  I looked into #1.  It was time to find out what had happened with the queen (refer to earlier blog).  I had been watching the entrance since last inspection and the amount of activity seemed stable.  However, it is common beekeeping knowledge that the colony can be dying in the hive and look normal from outside.
The first thing I noticed was that there were no longer a plethora of drones.  I saw this in the supers.  There was a lot of brood in the top box, and I spotted the queen.  As you can see, she is fat and golden unlike her small, dark predecessor.

Our new monarch

 I don't know if she was made from the frame I put in, or if the colony had already made a new queen via supersedure.  I may have inspected in the few day window in which the queen has hatched, mated and not yet started laying. 

Frame full of brood

 There was a lot of brood, and I saw some hatching.  Since it takes three weeks for a worker to go from egg to emergence, I knew that the queen had been laying for at least that long.  Even though I would expect a daughter of the old queen to be darker, the timing makes me think that the colony had taken care of matters on their own.

A new worker hatching

 There was some brood in the bottom brood box, as well.  I took out the drone frame and substituted a regular frame with foundation. 
I did get stung twice through my nitrile gloves.  Next inspection, I'll also wear a pair of exam gloves underneath.
I scraped off propolis, amassing a golf ball size hunk.  I think I'll get a propolis trap.

Today I went into #3.  The population still seems static.  I spotted the queen and 2-3 frames of brood in the bottom box.  No new comb, very little honey.  I decided to start feeding them in hopes of stimulating them.  Perhaps there's a problem with the queen, herself.