#1 is in trouble

I put in sticky boards today, and as part of the procedure, cleaned out the trays (below the screen bottoms).  In #1's tray I saw a bunch of dark objects that I have not previously seen.  I collected some and examined them.  They are at most about 1 cm. long.  Too bad I do not have a better camera.

I looked online at several sites and photos and figure these are either wax moth or small hive beetle larvae.

The upper is wax moth and the lower is small hive beetle
I decided I better take a look into the hive.  I had not inspected this hive since moving the nuc into it April 24th.
What I found:  not many bees in top box.  Bottom box had fair number of bees, but I saw no queen activity, i.e., no larvae eggs or capped brood and no queen.  Also, no hive beetles.  I reduced the hive to one deep box. 
As you may recall, on April 24 I had seen the queen and capped brood in the nuc that I put into #1 that day.  So, what happened?  The queen seems to be gone- did she get injured or lost while being transferred?  Of course, we will never know.
So #1 is not back after all.  I thought of taking the queen from one of my nucs but I do not think I will.  I'll wait until one of the nucs has a laying queen, re-check #1 and if need be, carefully transfer queen and brood into #1.

So.... how did it go?

It went quite well!
Maidi and I suited up (unnecessarily) and got the frames into the nuc.  I lifted the top with almost all the bees hanging down from it.  Maidi placed the frames into the nuc and I then slowly lowered the top.  It hit an obstruction.  I looked and, not surprisingly, there was a hand sized piece of comb that I had to scape off.  The bees had built this in such a short time.  There was even some sugar water nectar in it.

I got the lid back on and replaced the feeder, which earlier had spilled some onto the table, and the nuc was back in business.

We went to take a look at Olea's.  I wanted to show Maidi what I had noted earlier.  There were 5-1/2 bare combs, more than yesterday.

There was also an opened queen cell.  A queen had emerged.

The lower cell is opened, the upper still capped

Close up of chewed off cap

There were still a few unopened queen cells.

As we were admiring the bees, I thought "Why are there so many fewer?  Could they have cast a second swarm?"
I looked up and around and there behind the apple tree on the trellis was this:

They must have swarmed yesterday after we had left for marimba.  Another queen should emerge within the next 24 hour..  I hope they do not cast a tertiary swarm.
When a colony casts a second swarm, the queen is still a virgin.  She will not mate until they have moved into a hive.  You can see how much smaller the cluster is than the primary swarm.  I have no intention of trying to capture this one.  Perhaps I will call another beek to collect it.

They're back!

As you can see, the cluster moved back to the bait hive today.  Now we know that they do not remember the attack yesterday or at least do not care.

In order to make the box easier to get to, after all the bees were in I moved it down to the table top with another improvised ant defense.
This swarm left its home 4 days ago and has not had anything to eat since.  Before swarming, the bees gorge on honey, enough for just a few days.  Now that they are in their new home, the number one priority is to draw comb so the queen can start laying.  It takes 7-8 pounds of honey to make a pound of wax.  A pound of wax is estimated to be enough for 3-5 frames.  Since my new girls (actually old girls; it is the queen and older foragers from Olea's hive) are probably a little low on food, I decided to feed them.
The entrance feeder would not fit.  The opening is high enough but there is a bar in the center making both sides too narrow.  In the lid of this nuc are 4 holes.  Two are not screened.   All four have moveable lids.  I realized the top feeders that I used in the Vivaldi boxes might fit.  Sure enough, the flange fit into the hole.  But the feeder did not lay flat.  There was a board in the way.

 What to do?  This board is not structural and is held on by staples.  Aha!

I had to be careful not to disturb the hive too much.  I could not use a hammer, which would have made it easy.  I actually used a screw driver for most of the prying.
The end result- the feeder lays flat.

I filled the feeder with 1:1 sugar water and the bees were in it right away.

Since the feeder is translucent and usually inside a box, I thought too much light might disturb the colony.  An easy solution.

All I need is some brown and orange paint!
Tomorrow, Maidi and I will put the frames in.  A report will follow.

I blew it, or learning from one's mistakes

Over the past couple of days there has been increasing activity of scout bees around the bait box.  They have been spending several minutes going in and out and staying inside for several minutes.  This increasing interest is encouraging.  They are at least considering my nuc as a new home.



I have been episodically checking the swarm in Paul's yard to make sure they had not gone somewhere else.



So, today, I heard buzzing in the yard, and there they were!



Just as a swarm from the hive settles into a cluster, these bees in a few minutes had settled at the entrance of their new home.

After just a few minutes they were all inside except for those at the entrance fanning their Nasonov pheromones into the air.

 

This is when, out of ignorance and inexperience made a big mistake.  I was only doing my best!

I wanted to put frames into the box before they started building comb.  I had already selected the frames to use and had painted the foundations with melted beeswax in preparation.

I climbed onto the table and lifted the lid of the nuc box.

As you can see, a lot of the bees were hanging from the top.  I had no way to set the lid down out of the way so I could but the frames in, so I gave the lid a little shake so the bees would drop into the box, which they did.  I then began putting in the frames.
Whilst doing so, I saw more and more bees flying around in front of the box.  I wondered for a short while and then realized they were swarming again, leaving the box!  I guess that is expected bee behavior;  do not stay in a new home that is frequently invaded by bears!

As I berated  myself for my poor judgement, the swarm flew across the yard and clustered in the magnolia tree.

I removed the frames from the briefly inhabited box.

Empty once again

Perhaps the scouts will not remember their traumatic experience and once again lead their mother and sisters back to my nuc.  (There were still several scouts examining the box later and I could see bees flying back and forth from the cluster to the nuc.)
I got a photo of a bee thief sitting on one of the rose stakes waiting to snatch a morsel.

It was Olea's hive that swarmed

Maidi suspected it was Olea's and her suspicions were confirmed.
I looked in through the window this morning.  There were three combs not covered by bees and, more to the point, I saw at least 4 capped queen cells.  There must be more away from the window.  I tried to photograph through the window.  There is a lot of reflection and the focus is inaccurate, but here they are.

Three uncovered combs at the back of the hive

So, I had taken an old queen from #3 and put it into Olea's.  She has now left and is currently in the bush in Paul's yard and a new queen will emerge in a few days.  The queen in #1 is new this year, coming from an egg from the queen in #2.  The current queen in #2 is presumably new this year, emerging from one of the previously described supersedure cells.  I have inadvertently re-queened the entire apiary!

Queen, queen, where is the queen? Or, yet another swarm.

When I was bottling beer, Maidi exclaimed "Another swarm!"  Sure enough, there was a cloud of bees near Olea's hive.  It slowly and erratically moved over the fence into Paul's yard.
Earlier today I had checked the cluster in his yard and it was still there.  So I wondered if this cloud could be the cluster on its way to its new home.  I scurried into Paul's yard and saw that the cluster  was gone. 
Was today's swarm the cluster?  A new swarm?  I watched it and surprisingly it settled onto the same bush that the older cluster had been on.
There are three clumps of bees, the smallest at the lower edge of the picture.  The queen is in one of them but they all have not yet figured it out.
I looked in Olea's window and there are still a lot of bees, but there is bare comb at the end.
So what's going on?  It certainly would be easier if each colony wore a different uniform.
Possibility 1:  The cluster left unobserved for a new home in the hour-and-a-half between the time I checked them and the time the swarm appeared, when, coincidentally, Olea's hive swarmed and the queen landed on the same bush only a foot away from where the cluster had been.
Possibility 2:  The cluster left for its new home but for some reason (perhaps the queen did not go with them) they returned to their bush.  While the cloud of bees was in the air, a woodpecker was flying through eating bees.  Could it have,against great odds, eaten the queen?
I do not think we will ever know the truth, but does it matter?  The bees endure.

House cleaning

When I shook the swarm into the box, several leaves and twigs fell in also.  I fished out some of them but a few were left behind.  Over the past couple of days the girls have been moving them out.

Meanwhile, the swarm is still in the bush next door.  Today there have been scouts in and out of the bait hive.  There has not (yet) been more than one at a time.

One scout leaving

Another one (or maybe the same) arriving

Ants in the nuc

I actually have two things to report.
Yesterday when we were leaving for marimba, Paul was in his driveway.  He tole me there were more bees in his yard.  Sure enough, in the bush next to the one that had the previous swarm there was another.

I pondered the possibilities: collect this swarm in another nuc; call another beekeeper to collect it; just let it alone.  Paul and I talked it over a bit and decided to let it alone.  It just may go to my bait box.  I added a couple more drops of lemon grass oil to encourage them.  If it does not go to my box, then it will find a home somewhere else and we will have one more feral hive.
This morning I took a look at my nuc and there was a trail of ants going into it.  I had figured they would get there eventually, but they are quicker than I imagined.  (Isn't nature amazing!)  I had to protect them somehow.  There are two may posts to the table and lavender plants touch it so tangle foot would be impracticable.  I had to get the nuc off the table top somehow.  I looked around and did this.

Water in the dish making a moat

If you look closely at the bottom picture you can see and ant or two trying to find a way up. 
The returning bees were confused for only a few seconds, quickly finding their way into the hive.

The swarm that did not get away

While working in the rose garden, I heard buzzing from over the fence in Paul Elerick's yard.  I peeked over the fence and saw bees flying around between these two bushes.  (The fence in the photo is in Paul's yard.)

I got permission to go into the yard, and sure enough, there was a swarm clustered on the larger bush.

I got an empty nuc box, taped the entrance shut and, while holding it awkwardly under the cluster, shook the branches vigorously. 

Here are the bees in the box.  Having failed to get the queen in past swarm capture attempts, I took a look in the bush to see how much of the cluster remained.

I decided to cut the branch (after getting Paul's permission) so I could shake all the bees into the box and be assured of having the queen.  I went back to get my clippers.  On my return I saw this:

You can see all the bees flying around, a mini-swarm.  The queen must have been in the box since all the remaining bees had left the bush. 
I put the lid on the box and left it for a couple of hours (while I went to Dinah's and inspected her hives with her).  On my return, the bees were all in the box except for a few.  I carried the nuc to our yard and placed it on the potting table.  Then I took off the duct tape and put in five frames, four with foundation and one foundationless.

The bait box on the frame and the nuc on the table.  Asparagus in the foreground

Now, what will I do with this colony?  

#3 is queenright

There were several frames with a good pattern of brood.  However, only about a quarter of the frame was with brood.  I conclude that there is a good queen but as of now there has been a bit of a shortage of nurse bees.  The queen will not lay more eggs that can be taken care of.  When the present brood hatches and the nurse bee population increases, I expect she will lay in larger areas.

One frame with an area of a good brood pattern

The bees had not done anything on the coated drone frame except maybe chewed a little.
I wanted to add bars to Olea's.  I saw a piece of comb on the bottom of the box and removed it.  In doing so, I had to take out another bar and this one had some cross-combing with honey.  I moved it to the back and a minute or two later I heard a the loud, short hum the bees make when jostled.  I looked and a big piece of the comb with honey had fallen.  It too was retrieved.  I put in enough bars to fill the box.

Comb laying on bottom of box

The honeycomb that fell

 I took a look into the top box of #1.  There may have been some comb drawn but nothing dramatic.  There was a small amount of nectar.
The woodpeckers are back snacking on the bees so I put up the pole with flash tape again.

Swarm escapes!

The fava beans cleaned up

I was cleaning up the fava bean bed, listening to my recorded book when I noticed a humming.  Initially I did not think much of it, but it seemed to be getting louder.  I turned around and there was a cloud of bees in the yard.  One of the hives had just swarmed!  I followed the cloud as it flew towards the back gate, then over the shed and around the plum tree.  It was fairly high up.  I ran out the back gate and watched the swarm head towards the redwoods.  I never saw exactly where it settled, but Maidi, Karly and I could see bees flying around near the top of the redwood tree, at least 80 feet up.  There will be no capturing that swarm.

The cluster is up somewhere up there

Which hive swarmed?  I looked in Olea's and it is still full.  I doubt #1 swarmed because it is so young having just started this spring.  So I figure #2 or 3.  I will be able to tell by going in the hive but I am reluctant to do so.  Only three days ago I inspected #3 and switched the drone frame in #2.  I will just have to wait, although knowing which one is only academic.
Maybe we can guess by doorway activity.

 The left photo is #3.  The right is #2.







Naturally I would like to capture the swarm, although I have no idea what I would do with it.  So I put a used nuc up for a bait hive.  It has a couple of frames with partially drawn comb in it and I will put some lemongrass oil in it and at the entrance.  It is on top of the potting shed frame.

Waiting for the swarm

Addendum, May 12:  I awoke early and thought about the bait box.  It came to me that the scout bees look for a certain size space and that they might not find a box filled with frames attractive.  I immediately got up and went to the box where I took out all but the foundationless frame.  I left the frame because it has lots of old wax and propolis on it.

Something for all four hives

A busy day today for the bees.  I did something in each of the four hives.
Olea's got two more bars.  First I had to cut some comb to remove the last bar.  There was honey and some cross-combing to the adjacent bar.  I put an empty bar between each of the two bars at the end and turned the last one (with the honey and cross-combing) 180 degrees.  Olea's seems to be thriving and most likely will give a comb honey crop.
#1 simply got a second deep box.  About half of the new frames have drawn comb.  The others are pristine foundation, which comes coated with wax or foundations that I covered with new wax.
#2 had the old drone frame removed and replaced with one of the coated frames that I prepared the other day.

The top box of #3

#3 was carefully inspected.  There seems to be a good number of bees.  I got the impression that the proportion of drones had decreased but I have a strong bias to want it to be so.
I did see larvae.  I remembered a hand lens and I did see some eggs.  I did not spot the queen.  The pattern of eggs and larvae was not a strong pattern.
I did see this:

An empty queen cell from which a queen as emerged!  You can tell she emerged by the sharply chewed edges of the opening.
What is going on in #3?  I wish I knew.  It does look like it is doing ok.  In another couple of weeks I will look again and I hope to see lots of capped brood.