Queen in #1 is laying

I just took a quick look into #1 and saw larvae and capped brood.  There must have been larvae and eggs on last inspection, but these old eyes failed to see them.

How are the new queens doing?

It has been 2 weeks since the packages were hived and 8 days since the empty queen cages were removed.  In the order I inspected the hives:
#3:  I saw capped brood and larvae; did not see the queen.  The girls had started building comb on an empty frame.

#2:  I spotted the queen (unmarked) and saw larvae, no capped brood
#1:  I spotted the queen, but no eggs or larvae.  I wrote to Olivarez bees asking if it is too soon to conclude that the third queen is not laying for some reason, perhaps not mated.  I will check again in 3-5 days unless OHB tells me there is a problem and then I will replace the queen.

The swarm is still in the tree, so I assume it will build an exposed hive there.  I am keeping an eye on it with the spotting scope.

A couple of days ago a neighbor let me know that there was a swarm in front of their home.  I went down the next morning.  The swarm was pretty small, about the size of a casaba melon.  I cut away some branches, placed an empty nuc box below it and shook the branch.  This swarm was not the docile bees one usually finds in a swarm cluster!  I was stung 4-5 times and rapidly retreated and put on my veil.  I decided I did not want this colony in my yard- who needs a hot hive?  I left the box there and put out the word that a (hot) swarm was available.  A beek from Bonny Doon was interested and drove down.  The bees had already left by the time he got there, within 3 hours.  That means somewhere near here is a hot bee hive.  Thankfully they did not move into my bait box!

Swarm still in tree

It has been 9 days and the swarm still has not found a new home.  Perhaps the cold, rainy weather has hindered their search.  Over the past 2-3 days, I have seen no activity around my bait box so I figured they had rejected it.  However, I do not give up easily, so today I made a new bait box that they may find more attractive.

This is a deep box, closer to the ideal size bees look for.  I placed it higher above the ground, as well.

I am concerned that the swarm may not survive.  The bees take only about 5 days worth of food with them when they leave home.  If they do not find a home, it is possible that they will build a nest outside of a cavity. We saw one such hive in Tassajara and I believe it was pictured in a blog.

The queens are free

Empty queen cages

I just removed the empty queen cages from all three hives, being careful to push the frames together.
The new queens are now, presumably, laying 1,200-1,600 eggs per day. 
In one week, I will inspect the hives, expecting to see larvae.  I will keep you posted.

Now there are four- and a lot more news

This past Saturday I went to Orland to pick up my bees.  It was hobby day at Olivarez Honey Bees as well as pick-up day, and I looked forward to hearing and meeting Randy Oliver.  I always enjoy his articles in the ABJ and have used the information from his blog to make beekeeping decisions.  Unfortunately, his talk was a demonstration for newbies on how to inspect a hive.  I did get to meet him and express my appreciation for his articles.
OHB used a new kind of plastic box for their packages:

These are probably easier for them to use, but more difficult for the end user.  The door on the side is very difficult to open and the boxes come connected to each other and are hard to separate.  However, the bees are in their new homes, flying about and eating the syrup.  I can tell by the debris in the trays (beneath the screened bottoms) that they are cleaning up the old comb.  I will uncap the queen cage tomorrow and then check again this weekend to make sure the queen has been released.
The bee supplies had filled up my garden shed making it impossible to access what I needed, so I had to build a new shed for the bee equipment.  I finished it earlier this month.

Ready for occupancy

Supplies moved in

Olea's hive stand has rotted and is in danger of imminent collapse.  Yesterday I built a new stand, similar to the others.  Pesach today, so tomorrow I will replace the old one.  Due to poor planning, the new stand is about 2 inches lower than the old, but I am sure the bees and I will adjust, and it will be easier for Olea.

Last, but not least, yesterday a swarm was in the yard.  It clustered high in a tree behind us.

 Can you spot it?

Here is a closer view.  It is a pretty large swarm.  I assumed it was from Olea's hive, but when I looked in the top bar this morning, it still looks full.

In the past, a swarm had come from the west and I thought it came from the apiary down the road.  But now I believe there is a feral colony in the trees behind Paul's house. 

In any case, I set up a nuc with some old comb and lemon grass oil to act as a bait box to capture the swarm.