Fall inspection report

Last week, when Jay and Cathy were visiting, Jay and I took a look into #3.  Unfortunately, no pictures were taken.  We were surprised to see nectar in the super (previously a sticky).  I wonder what flowers are providing where the nectar; it could be the cascading rosemary in our yard.  The foragers are also going south over the fence.  There were a couple of frames with capped honey in the top deep box and lots of brood and larvae in the bottom box.  We did not spot the queen.  We did not see any drones; presumably they have been ejected for the coming winter.
Today I went into #2.  There was no nectar in the super, so when I put the hive back together I put the bee escape board in and will remove the super tomorrow.  There were several frames with capped honey in the top deep as well as pollen and a small patch of capped brood.  There were still quite a few drones about.  I saw the queen in the bottom box where there also was a moderate amount of brood, no drone cells.
Both colonies look like they are doing well.  I plan to make at least one split in the spring.  If I can figure out how to populate the top bar hive with a split, I will do that.  Otherwise I may buy a package of Carniolans for the Olea hive.
No pictures from these inspections, but here is a picture of two honeys visiting the vortex hive last summer

Lesson learned

Before I share what I have recently and painfully learned, a quick update on the rest of bee activity.  

A couple of days ago, I pulled out the trays (from below the bottom screen) to clean them.  As always, there were a number of dead bees on top of them, albeit more than usual.  I also noted that there were a fair number of drones, definitely not as usual.  If you can enlarge the picture, you will see that 42% of the bees are drones.  The bees evict the drones in winter, but I wonder if they started early this year and that these fellows were trying to get back in.

I started bringing in the fall harvest of honey.  Since I only have one escape board, I can only get one super each day.  I extracted the honey from two supers (one from each hive) today and put one sticky back on, with the bee escape board.  Tomorrow, I'll take off the super and put the escape board and remaining sticky onto the other hive and the day after that, I'll be able to extract the rest of the honey.
I did take a look into both hives but looked no further than just finding capped brood.
For the past several months I have been saving the propolis that I scraped off the frames.  I now have a  small jarful.
Now for the hard-learned lesson: pay attention to the experts.
Most sources recommend storing comb in special ways, but I erroneously figured that if they were getting air and some light, that would be enough.  Today, I looked in one of the nucs in which I was storing some comb, and this is what I saw:

 

Close up of the webbing and frass

The (out of focus) culprit

These two frames are ruined and I will scrape them clean.  In the meantime, two frames with only a few cells with webbing are currently in the freezer.  It looks like I need to purchase some Paradiclorobenzene (PDB), 80% acetic acid or a large freezer.

Hive #1 robbed

FOOD RIOT IN HIVE #1

HUNDREDS KILLED

September 25, 2014

It was an ugly scene at the Sherwood Apiary this afternoon when hive #1 was robbed of its honey stores.  Since the demise of its queen in June, its population has been gradually diminishing.  Even though, the intrepid insects continued to bring in nectar and pollen.  Although the hive had been reduced to a single deep box and the entrance reducer was in place, Tom Sherwood, beekeeper, expected that eventually the population would become too small to defend itself. 

"I noticed an unusual amount of activity around the hive this morning", Sherwood said.  "I suspected it might be robbing especially with the bees flying erratically, climbing on the walls of the hive and gathering around the vents of the Vivaldi box."

This afternoon, Sherwood donned his bee suit and went into the hive to get a closer look and confirm his suspicions.  "I first looked closely at what was going on at the entrance.  Immediately I could tell this was robbing because of the large number of fights occurring."

A yellow jacket drinking its fill

He next examined the tray below the screen for chewed off capping.  "I didn't see cappings, but there were about a dozen bees and a yellow jacket on the tray."  Another yellow jacket was in the Vivaldi box and one or two others were on the comb.
Inside the hive a few bees were fighting, but most were busy chewing open the cells and drinking the honey.  On the picture to the right, one can see the rough edges of the robbed cells and a small mob of bees gorging themselves.

Fallen dead on screen bottom

Uncounted hundreds of bees lost their lives defending the honey they had worked for so hard.
At the time of the inspection, there were still untouched stores, but Sherwood expects that it will all be gone within a couple of days.

Yet to be robbed capped honey

"It was to be expected", said Sherwood philosophically.

#1 down to one box

There are subjectively fewer bees in #1, although still a fair number.  I did see many wax moth larva in the tray but saw no damage in the hive.
Because the population had diminished, I removed the top brood box.  I selected frames with no comb or the least nectar/honey/pollen and removed them, combining the remaining frames in a single box.  There was one frame that had some capped drone cells, so it seems another worker has started laying.  I removed that frame as well.  I leaned it against the bridge while I checked the honey production in #2 and 3.  (There is still room in the supers for more honey.)  When I went to put things away I discovered a cloud of bees around the frame, eating the nectar and honey.

Capped drone cells in middle and feeding bees at the ends

I will leave the frames out until it cools off this evening.

 This is from later on.  The bees have chewed open and eaten all the capped honey on the frame.

What to do about those danged woodpeckers

The woodpeckers have now found the hives to be a reliable source of food.  There are four or five that regularly hang out on the stakes in the rose bed to gorge on my girls.  I'm not the only beekeeper who has been plagued by these birds.
I have to do something.  I thought of a scarecrow or an owl statue.  Then I remembered my roll of flash tape.  A search through my collection of stakes uncovered one long enough to reach between the hives.  We will see tomorrow if this works.

They found the water hole

Many weeks ago I had made this watering spot but the bees never went to it.  I kept it filled but they did not visit.  Many weeks ago I let it dry out.  A couple of days ago, after considering the generally dry conditions, I refilled it.  Today I saw this girl as well as one other drinking their fill.

Mites and bee death

Yesterday the sticky boards had been in #2 and 3, so I took them out for the mite count.  There was not much debris on either, so I was hopefully optimistic when I sat down to count.  The optimism was short-lived.  I stopped counting at 60 mites when I had not even examined more than half the board.  More than 20 mites per day translates to more than 800 mites in the hive, way too many.  I needed to treat right away.
I already had a supply of mite-away quick strips.  When I have used them in the past, I was unhappy with the way the pads became somewhat squished between the boxes, so I wanted to put in some sort of spacer.
Looking around at my collection of hive parts, my eye fell on the two inner covers that had I had replaced with the Vivaldi boards.  These were just the right size; all I had to do was remove the Masonite. I pondered my choices- cut it out or disassemble the frame.  I elected the latter move since I would then have the Masonite to use for some other project.
Using a screwdriver and vice locks, I removed the nails with a minimum of damage, took out the board and put the frames back together.

 

 

My usual workshop

The frame/spacers worked well giving the formic acid pads plenty of room.
It was a warm, sunny day, but the #3 bees were still testy, so I crossed "bad weather" off my list of possible explanations for their unruliness.
Later in the afternoon, I took a look at the hives and noticed several dead and dying bees.  I recalled that the mite-away strips could kill bees (#6) and a quick search confirmed my belief.  This is what I saw this morning.

#3

#2

I have confidence that they will do well in the long run.

Testy three

I inspected #3 yesterday.  It looks like it's doing well with reasonable honey stores in the brood boxes and lots of brood.  I didn't see the queen, though.  I observed that the drones were concentrated on the outer frames just as they had been in #2.  I tried to find reference to this online and in my books to no avail.  I can speculate regarding this behavior, and I do, but it would be nice to have a more authoritative explanation.  My theory is that the workers do not want them around the "work" areas and chase them off to the sides.  Soon, the workers will be chasing them out of the hive altogether.
The bees in hive were testy, pinging  me frequently (that is, bumping into my veil) and buzzing about my face. One guard started after me as soon as I took the top off!  To stop the annoyance, I got the spray bottle of my honey-bee-healthy and spritzed the buzzing girls.  Then I got the smoker going and smoked everyone.  Then I just did my best to ignore them. 
There are several reasons why a colony is testy; no queen, no honey flow, bad weather, robbers, etc. I seem to remember that this colony has been testy in the past, so I'm a bit worried that it might be this hive's personality.  In the future, I will keep the smoker handy and note their behavior.  If it continues to be aggressive, I will re-queen.

Back from Ireland

A small stream along a backroad

After a 2 week visit to Ireland, I took a look into hive #1 and 2.

Frame from #1 with capped honey and nectar

I had expected almost all the bees from #1 to be gone and the remaining honey being robbed as the hive has been queenless for over 6 weeks.  Removing the lid, I was surprised to see lots of bees at the hole in the vivaldi box.  There were still a lot of bees in the hive and they were still bringing in nectar.  There was no sign of robbing, either.  All the bees working there are close to 6 weeks old, so I expect them to drop off soon.
#2 is looking very strong.  I did not check the frames in the supers.  The top box did not feel very heavy.  In the top brood box there were several frames with capped honey and some pollen.  There was also a bit of brood at the bottom of a couple of outside frames.  There was a lot of brood in the bottom box.  I did not spot the queen.  I was looking for eggs and noticed a large number of cells that had a glistening white substance in them.  I suspected this might be royal jelly.  You may remember that all larvae are fed royal jelly for their first three days.  I went online and found pictures that confirmed my suspicions.This is pretty much what my frame looked like.
There were still a lot of drones concentrated on the outer frames.
In the next couple of days I'll get into #3.

Hive #1 frames salvaged

Yesterday and today I went into hives #2 & 3.  I also opened #1 and selected frames with honey, nectar or pollen.  I placed one of those frames into each brood box of #2 & 3.   There were some drones hatching on one of the frames I removed from #3.
There were still a fair number of bees in #1.
The girls had done a good job of cleaning the stickies that I put on earlier this month and they had already started filling the comb with nectar.

You can see the sun reflecting off the nectar.  This had been one of the stickies in #3.  I left the super on, so #3 now has two supers.
There were a LOT of drones in both hives.  The picture below is from a super frame in #3.

Can you see all the drones?  If not, I marked all the ones I could find.

Perhaps one of you compulsive types can figure the percentage of drones.
There were a few frames with a good brood pattern in #2 bottom box.  I did not see, nor search carefully for the queen.
We did get nearly 2 gallons of honey.  The bees cleaned the extractor for us.

Last week I saw several small bees hanging onto an asparagus berry.  All but one had left when I got back with my camera. I am sure one of you wants to identify the species for all of us.

Honey from #1

I extracted the honey from the #1 supers.  I do not yet know how much there is but it looks like a couple of gallons.  I put the stickies onto #2 and 3.  I looked into #1.  There were still a fair number of bees but it looks like close to 1/3 are drones.  There were only about 1/2 dozen scattered capped drone cells.  The girls are still making honey and there are a couple of frames full.  I need to figure when it would be best to transfer the honey and pollen into the other hives.

Laying workers in #1

Well, hive number one is on its way out.  I went in yesterday and had to accept the bad news.  I saw no queen or worker brood.  There was scattered drone brood much of it in worker-sized cells.  I looked for eggs to be 100% certain but could not see any.  I did not take any pictures, but this is a good picture similar to what I saw in my hive.
I looked in one of my beekeeping books about what to do.  If this happens early in the spring one can try to re-queen in a number of ways, but it is too late in the year for that.  Franklin Carrier says in his "Keeping Bees" that one can combine the queenless hive with one of the strong hives.  I would like to do that, but we are going to Massachusetts tomorrow and I won't be around to perform the necessary steps.  I emailed Kathy Niven last night and she concurs that it is too late in the year to do anything and she does not recommend combining.
#1 had been my strongest hive, so I'm sad to see it go.  At least its old queen lives on in #3 (remember I made a split) and she's doing well.
Today I put the escape board below the two supers and tomorrow, before leaving for the airport, I'll put the supers with all their honey in  the garage.

Animal helpers

Since trying to clean up the cross combing in #3 at the end of May I have had a bunch of sticky comb sitting in a large pot. Before I could  process it in the solar melter, I had to get all the sticky off, so I put the pot in the yard for the bees to clean, which they did in two days.  Here they are, hard at work.

I had removed the drone frame from #2 last week.  After leaving the frame in the freezer over night, I put it out to be cleaned by the birds and the bees.  The jays really like to eat the pupae and the bees remove all the sticky

Hive #1 looks like it is failing.  I inspected two days ago (yes, it was a couple of days earlier than initially planned).  There only capped drone cells and no queen seen.  I'm afraid there may be a laying worker.  However, hope springs eternal- I saw one capped queen cell.  Once again, time will tell.  I did put the entrance reducer in because the colony is not very strong.
#2 still looks strong.  I found the queen on the drone frame in the upper brood box.  There was a lot of capped brood in the bottom box.  There were a lot of drones running around.  Oddly, there was brood on the frame facing the edge of the hive.

Visible foundation is on frame behind

#3 has nothing new in the super.  The girls are making honey in the irregular comb on the foundationless frames in the top brood box.  There was a lot of drone brood on one of the foundationless frames in the top brood box.  I tried using my new scratcher to remove the pupae.  It is not as easy to do as I had been led to believe from reading internet postings.  Mostly I just squished comb and brood.  I did manage to extract a score or so of pupae and saw one mite. 

The woodpeckers are eating my bees

 A couple of weeks ago I saw woodpeckers hanging out in the plum tree by the hive and in the tall tree behind our house.  They would swoop down and grab a bee out of the air.  I had no idea woodpeckers ate this way.  This site describes that sort of behavior.  I did video one flying in to capture a bee.

Post-Hawaii inspection

In recent inspections I had removed the drone frames.  The bees just were not drawing much comb on them.  Drone brood culling is one method of Varroa control but I did not want to remove the regular frames with that had plenty of capped drone brood.  I should probably get a capping scratcher to remove as many drones as I can.  I left the drone frames on top of Olea's hive.  This bee was gleaning propolis- you can see her booty on her corbicula or pollen basket.

Hive #1.  After returning from Hawaii, I noticed that the activity around the entrance was less than around the other hives, so I inspected it first.  I looked into every box.  My subjective impression was that there were fewer bees than before.  I saw no eggs, larvae or capped brood and did not spot the queen.  My first pessimistic conclusion was that the colony was queenless and dying.  But I did come up with a more optimistic theory that fits all the facts, i.e., while we were away the colony cast a swarm (explaining fewer bees)  and the new queen has not yet started laying.  I did not see here because new queens are very shy and quick.  I will wait a couple of weeks and then check for signs queen activity.  I was concerned that there might be too much space in the hive for the bees to effectively patrol for wax moths so I put the bee escape board in and removed the top super.  I ultimately placed the super on #3.  I am also keeping a lookout for robbing activity; if/when I see any, I will replace the entrance reducer.

Hive #2.  This one now seems to be the strongest.  I spotted the queen in the top brood box and watched her lay three eggs.  (If I had my own GoPro, you would get some great pictures and videos, clue, clue.)Most of the brood is in the top brood box, but there is some in the bottom box.  There were a lot of drones all over.  The drone frame in this hive and very irregular comb, many drone cells and some capped honey.  I took it out and inspected the pupae for mites.  I only looked at six and found four mites!  I did not replace the drone frame, but I have just now decided to get a scraper and use it assiduously

Hive #3.  There still is cross-combing, but I think it may be a bit better.  The number of bees looks good.  There is honey in top box as well as drone brood.  I did not go into the bottom box.  Placed honey super from #1 (that had some honey already in it) on top.

Bees in Kauai

We recently spent a relaxing week on Kauai at a lovely home with some friends.  One evening, just as I got out of the shower, I was called urgently into the study.   There were about 100 bees crawling around on one of the windows.  We looked for  the way they got in, but found none.  We also saw bees flying around outside.  Figuring there was a swarm nearby, I went out to try to locate it.  There were many bees flying around the eave above the window, but palm fronds prohibited me from getting a clear view.  Then I noticed a 4-inch diameter hole in the siding below the window (where a cable had been brought in) and a few bees were flying in and out.  We notified Mike, the caretaker and he called Oliver, a local beekeeper who promised to come out the next day.
Meanwhile I discovered a small opening behind a soffit from which a bee would periodically emerge.  We covered the hole with packing tape.  Overnight, the bees in the room died.
When Oliver came out the next day, he found bees flying into the dryer vent and into another opening on the opposite side of the house.  There were more bees in the study (now called the bee room) as well as a couple in the bathroom and in the downstairs room.  Oliver set up a bait box, but no one went into it.  He also showed us from where he had removed a colony from the walls of the house last year.  The next day, thousands of bees suddenly appeared and settled just above the bathroom skylight and crawled into a gap in the flashing.

In this photo, most of the bees had already entered the wall.  Note the lizard looking at a potential meal.  There were geckos and lizards all over, as always in the tropics, and they were feasting on the bees.  One lizard was on the wrong side of the glass (not this one) and kept snapping futilely at the bees.
Oliver came back, removed the siding and...no bees.  They had crawled into the gap below the joists.  He had to drill several holes in the wall of the bee room and spray in his homemade bee repellent (that smelled heavily of almond) to drive the bees out to the roof where he patiently scooped them up and put into a nuc box.  Finally he caught the queen in a special cage.  Now all he had to do was wait for all the girls to go to their queen in the nuc and then take the nuc away.
We swept up the dead bees and now could go barefoot again.

Debris on the sticky board

Yesterday I took out the sticky boards to count the mites.  The results were overall good.  #1, 7, #2, 20 and #3, 9.  That is fewer than 10 mites a day and does not warrant treatment now.  According to the Beebase calculator, I should treat #2 in about a month and the others in about two months.  Of course, I will do another count before treating.

There seemed to be much less debris on all the boards than I usually see.  These are the three (home-made) sticky boards together.  In the past there has been debris all across the boards.  I'm not certain how to interpret this.  At first I thought that the boards had been scraped while being removed, but careful forensic inspection uncovered to tell-tale marks.
The debris conains lots of chewed wax, some wax flakes, pollen balls and pieces of bees.  I had also often seen these:

I had wondered what they were, so did a bit of a google search.  What I found out was not encouraging- wax moth worm poop!  Since I have seen no damage to the comb, I assume the girls have this pest under control.  I have often found wax moth larvae or their webbed tunnels in the thick piles of debris that accumulate in the trays, but since these are beneath the screen, I have'nt worried.
I also saw some new (to me) debris in the tray of #1 when I cleaned it out and again on the sticky board:

These look like thin cups.  Above shows one curved up and the other down.  It seems that these are the top of drone cell pupa cases.
Finally, one more picture of why we have sticky boards at all:

I visited Bruce and Gregg's hive yesterday.  While watching the queen, we saw her lay two eggs, a first time and thrilling experience.

Quelle mess! Or, I still don't know what I'm doing

Blackberries are on their way

Two days ago I looked into all three hives, only the top box to check for honey.  #1 has not drawn any new comb that I could see in the top super.  I added a second super to #2, checkerboarding four frames of unripe honey from the first super.
When I looked into #3, for a moment I was pleased to see comb and nectar in the foundationless frames, but quickly realized that they had built from the bottom and the comb was every which way, mostly crossing the frames.  I pondered what to do and then did nothing and closed up the hive.
I put sticky boards into all three hives finding and squishing a fat was moth worm in #3.  Then I went inside to research what to do about the crosscombing in foundationless frames.
It is not uncommon for the bees to start building from the bottom if they do not have a "ladder" to get to the top.  The beekeeper should intersperse frame with either drawn comb or foundation.  Live and learn.
Yesterday I went out to try to correct the crosscombing.  First I had to remove the frames attempting to do little damage.  Dream on!  I took out two frames from the edge and gazed with dismay at what the girls had wrought.

The first part of the mess

A closer view

Another angle

To remove a frame, I first had to separate it from its neighbor.  I used a knife and the hive tool to slice through the comb, much of which had ripening honey in the cells.  It quickly became messy with sticky gloves and tools as well as bees coated with honey or squished.  I tried to leave as much comb on the frames as I could, but large hunks fell off.

Pieces of comb from first frame with the girls lapping up the honey

It still looks neat in the above picture.  Later there was honey, pieces of was and gooped up bees all over the tops of the frames.
I worked away, freeing frames, trimming the comb so it was not sticking out and putting them back, alternating foundation and foundationless.  Most of the comb that was left was not oriented properly but I decided to leave it anyway hoping the bees would straighten things out.  More likely, they will just continue the comb at the same angle and cross comb to the foundation.  (Live and learn.)
Then I came to one set of three frames that I could not see how to break apart.  (I was looking between the frames and there were bees all over.)  These frames came out as one unit.

Block of three frames

I stuck wads of wax at the junction of the ridge and the top of the frame to encourage the bees to start building there.  Of course, there is still a lot of wax on the bottoms of the frames.
I also got a bunch of wax and some unripe honey to process.  In a week I'll take a look a look- keep your fingers crossed!

Underneath #1

Before inspecting the hives today, I pulled out the trays below the screened bottom of Nos. 1&2.  I was surprised to see a lot of bees on the #1 tray as well as some comb. 

I crouched down, with some difficulty, and looked underneath, worried that there may be a hole in the screen.  There was no hole, but there were a lot of bees on the screen.
The poor quality picture on the left was taken blindly, pointing the camera under the hive.
Inspection report:  #3-There is some come being drawn in the top brood box, no other significant change from last week
#1- I only checked the top super for new honey production or comb.  There was a fair number of bees on the frames but nothing else.
#2- Lots of brood, at least eight frames!  Two of these were in the top brood box.  I saw the queen in the bottom box and then saw her again on the next frame I removed; an active monarch.  There was some honey production in the top brood box.
Overall, the apiary appears healthy.
After inspecting the hives, I cleaned out the trays, brushed the bees off the screen and replaced the trays.  There was a large amount of debris in the #1 tray.  The black tab in the center is about 3/4 of an inch high.

Inspection update and #1 is queenright

The apiary this afternoon

There are two inspections to report, one two weeks ago (May 3) and one done yesterday and today.
Hive #3- The split is developing into a good colony.  On the 3rd, two of the foundationless frames had been completely drawn.  The queen was on one of them with capped brood.  A couple of other frames also had capped brood.  The brood ball was off center so I shifted everything over one frame.  Eight frames were drawn, so I added a second deep box. 

Yesterday, Sophie inspected #3 with me.  There was still a fair amount of larvae and capped brood, but nothing was happening in the top brood box.  Sophie did get to see brood, larvae, hatching worker, the queen, drones, workers doing the waggle dance, stored pollen and honey.

Hive #2- Two weeks ago, there was no activity in top brood box but five frames filled with capped brood.  The queen was not spotted.  Today I saw capped brood, larvae and eggs in the lower part of a couple of frames in the upper brood box.  I did not inspect any further.  Full of optimism, I added a honey super.
Hive #1- Two weeks ago, I saw lots of drones, honey being made and empty cells where there had once been brood.  I looked through the entire hive and saw no queen nor sign of a laying queen; no larvae, brood or eggs.  I did see one empty queen cell.  I worried that #1 was queenless and wondered what to do- transplant a frame with eggs from #2 so they could make a queen?  Combine #3 with #1 with the newspaper technique?  I emailed Kathy who pointed out that it had been only a bit over two weeks since it had swarmed and it takes at least that long for the new queen to hatch, mate and start laying.  So I waited until today.

 

 

There she is, on the frame in the center

Before I spotted her, I had seen capped brood, both worker and drone.

Capped worker brood

Capped brood, mostly drone cells, on foundationless comb

There was lots of honey in the supers, so I added a third box, checkerboarding three frames full of honey from one of the other supers.  We should get a good honey harvest.

The three dark frames are full of capped honey