The queen is dead, combine the nuc!

Today I looked into the nuc-in-a-box to see if the queen was finally laying.  I took out a frame at the edge and saw activity on the floor of the hive.  It looked like a queen surrounded by her court, except the queen was not moving.  I tried to extract her as the bees continued to surround and climb atop the queen.

After some time, I was able to retrieve the queen's carcass.  She is currently in a jar in the freezer.

There are a few possible explanations.  The bees killed this queen by balling because they did not like her or that there was another queen they liked better.  Or, the queen died for some other reason and they were all around her because of her pheromones and were trying to carry her out of the hive.  (I did see them dragging her towards the entrance.)  Or there is another queen in the hive that killed her.  In any case, I looked through the rest of the frames and saw no sign of laying.

Empty and polished cells awaiting eggs

In any case, I will wait to see what happens.  We can hope that there is another queen who will successfully mate.  I will check again in 2 weeks.
Then I took a look in the nuc I had made by splitting from #1 a couple of weeks ago.  I had put the queen from #1 in the nuc and left eggs and young larvae behind so a new queen could be made.  (In another week or so I will look to see if there is a laying queen.)  There was a lot of brood, eggs and larvae in the nuc.  I impetuously decided to put these bees into #2.  This expert does not recommend doing this to save a laying worker colony.  This one says it can work;  as a matter of fact, I sort of did it a way she suggests.
When combining hives, one is supposed to put the weaker hive on top of the stronger hive, leaving the stronger hive in its locale.  This would not work for me; I want the hive over with the others.  So this is what I did.
I covered the entrance of the nuc and took it over to the apiary.  I took all the boxes of #2 off the bottom board.  There were not many bees left in #2.  The bottom box had drawn comb with empty cell, most bees and drone brood were in the top brood box and the super was very light.  Then I thought.  If I put the nuc frames (the strong hive)  on the bottom, the returning foragers would fight with the nuc bees, so I put the top box of the weak hive (#2) on the bottom.  I shook the few bees that were on the empty comb from the bottom into the hive and then put a double screen board (that I had made) on top. I then took the frames from the once bottom box and cleaned the box by scraping off as much propolis and wax as I could.  I put the empty box on top of the double screen board with the entrance in the back relative to the other entrance.  Into the box I put the 5 frames from the nuc as well as 5 frames of drawn comb.  On top went the honey super and I closed it up.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch...  returning foragers wondered where their home had gone.

The bees are looking for their former home which had been on the pots

Later I did see a couple of bees go out the back entrance.  So, we will have to wait three weeks or so to see if this works.  Of course, if all the remaining bees of #2 die, I will remove the double screen board and reverse the boxes.  It's almost like I know what I'm doing.
It was pointed out to me that the hive stand holding #1 & 2 likely would not be able to hold the expected 150 pounds of honey, so I made braces.  Tomorrow I will put angle braces on to keep them in place.  I think this winter I will build new hive stands, either of metal pipe or 2x4s.

Nuc girls grow up and no reversal for #3

The recently made nuc was population was all nurse bees, other than the queen, of course.  Nurse bees do not forage or leave the hive until they are about 3 weeks old.  So there has been no flying in and out of the nuc, or at least very little.  Until today.  There they were doing orientation flights.

This does not show well the large number of bees orienting

I also saw pollen being brought into the nuc-now-in-a-box. 

Pollen being brought in indicates that there is brood which means that the queen is laying.  This is the queen that was made after the swarm a couple of weeks ago.  In a few more days I will check to make certain that the queen is laying and, if she is, combine the nuc-now-in-a-box with the remaining bees in #2.
#3 INSPECTION
The top super light so I concluded that there was little honey in it.  The lower super was heavy and there was quite a bit of brood in the central frames.

What a healthy brood pattern demonstrating the bands of pollen and capped honey around the capped brood.
There was brood also in the top brood box.  Two frames, both of which were foundationless, were all drone brood.

The frames in the bottom brood box were empty but for some pollen. 

Typical frame from bottom brood box

I decided not to reverse the boxes in this hive as I had done in #1, believing Rusty Burlew who writes a blog I referenced last post and the article she referred to.  I will keep an eye on #3 and let you know when the queen moves into the bottom box.  I did see something new to me- pollen in the middle of the brood.

I think that the workers are filling the cell after a bee emerges rather than preparing it for an egg so that the queen will not/cannot lay there and therefore will eventually have to move into the lower box.

Another split, box reversal, emergency ant control and poor #2

It was a hot day and many bees in #1 were hanging out on the porch to keep cool.

This also was the day I was going to make a split from #1.  One makes a split for many reasons; I was doing so for swarm control and to have a back-up nuc.  There are many ways to make a split.  I was going use one of two methods depending on whether or not I found the queen.  If I find the queen, she goes into the nuc with 3 frames of capped brood with the attendant nurse bees, one frame of pollen and honey and an empty frame (preferably with drawn comb, which I did not have).  If the queen is not seen, then a frame with eggs and young larvae, two frames of emerging brood and two frames of pollen and honey go into the nuc.
So into the top brood box of #1 and on the first frame with brood I spotted the queen.  Into the waiting nuc box with that frame.  Then I searched for appropriate frames to add, rearranged and replaced frames in the brood box.  While looking through the hive I saw that the lower brood box was empty and that there was still some brood in the lower part of the frames of the lowest super.  In other words, the queen was still laying in the upper box.  I considered reversing the brood boxes, but I was getting very hot so I did not.  I took out the old MAQ strip and the spacer, reassembled the hive and put the nuc on the potting shelf.  I then had to stop because of overheating and I was unable to finish the job until several hours later.
Later that evening when I took a look at the nuc, I saw a trail of ants going into the box.  In the dark I raised the nuc on flower pots in motor oil moats and brushed off as many ants as I could.

The new nuc and the old nuc in a deep box

The next day, which was considerably cooler, I wanted to remove the spacers and old MAQs from
#2 & 3, which I did.  While I had #2 open, I took a quick look around.  I saw a spotty pattern of drone brood on two frames.  Do you all remember what that means?   It is a sign of laying workers.  This explains why #2 has not been doing well- it has been queenless for over two weeks.  Some beekeeper I am!  If I had known (by checking), I could have used the queen from the nuc to save #2.  Of course, then the nuc would not have swarmed and Olea's would still have no bees.  I will wait until the the new queen in the deep box (pictured above) is laying, then transfer her into #2.  How that is done will be determined by the then status of #2. 
I decided to reverse the boxes of #1 even though the need to do so is controversial.  It went smoothly.
Olea's hive is doing well.  They have built three new combs and I have stopped feeding them.
#3 seems to be doing well, but I did not inspect it.

Nuc plan changes and Olea's hive cleans house

After I picked up the old deep box from Kathy Niven, I began to go over my plan of combining and look for potential problems.  And I discovered one.  A new queen usually does not mate for several days after emerging.  But what would happen, I pessimistically wondered, would happen if she had emerged a day before they swarmed and then went out on her mating flight early and it just happened that she was out when I moved the nuc and then she would not be able to find her way back and thdae colony would die.  A very far-fetched series of possibilities, but remember good ol' Murphy.  So I changed the plan.  I would put the frames from the nuc in the empty box with 5 more frames as previously planned, but I would leave the box in same place the nuc had been.  Then in a 2-3 weeks I will look to see if the queen is laying and if she is, combine the hives.  Then #2 will have a new, young queen.
So two days ago, after coming home from seeing "Embrace of the Serpent" (which I highly recommend to all of you), I made the transfer.  It was very messy.  The bees had built a lot of comb and stored honey.  Removing the first frame was difficult and broke open some of the comb so honey was running all over.  However, I did get all 5 frames into the box.  I saw an unopened queen cell on one of the frames.  The box is now where the nuc had been and the bees are coming and going.

The box Kathy lent me was old and a bit warped.  I noticed the day after the transfer that there was a gap between the box and the bottom board, so I covered it in order to relieve the bees of the need to fill it with propolis.  Also, I did not have a lid for the box (the original plan did not require one) so I had to build a migratory lid.

The back of the box showing my fine carpentry

The swarm seems to be doing quite well in Olea's hive.  They are busy cleaning the old comb, have built some new and are taking lots of sugar syrup.  The picture below shows the debris on the hive stand that they have dumped out of the hive.

The bees beat me to it

Today was the day I was going to populate Olea's hive with a shook swarm from the nuc.  I had planned to then place the brood from the nuc into #2 in order to give its population a boost.

As a sidebar, I have been concerned about #2.  It has been the weakest hive and is not expanding as quickly as I would want.  After treating with MAQ, I saw no activity at the entrance of #2 and worried that they may have absconded.   This has happened after treatment with MAQ but usually when it is hot or the bees are disturbed too soon.

No activity at #2, on the left

Back to the main story.  Yesterday the nuc swarmed! 

It clustered low down on the orange tree.

Starting to cluster

Cluster formed

I was just getting ready to leave for my clarinet lesson but I quickly got Olea's hive ready to receive bees.  I was disappointed when I opened the bag storing the old comb as much of it was moldy.

One can use moldy comb, but three of them were just too foul looking for my taste.  They are sitting outside now and perhaps I can use them later.
Early this morning I captured the swarm in a box and then poured the bees into Olea's hive.

The box ready to receive the swarm

Olea's hive ready to receive the swarm

Bees in a box

Bees in another box

A peek through the window

Now what to do with the nuc and #2.  The nuc now has a virgin queen so I just cannot put in the brood frames unless I find and remove the old queen in #2.  So I contacted Kathy Niven who suggested combining the hives by use of my double screen board (that I built some time ago) and after the bees are acclimated, finding and removing the old queen (who apparently is not doing well as manifested by the weakness of #2 colony).  I need an empty deep box to hold the nuc frames and Kathy is going to lend me one.  I will get it this morning and combine the hives.