Bee hatching

Mickey joined me on going into the hive. Bees were very calm. Saw the queen and lots of capped brood cells (in a good pattern) and larvae. A few drone cells. What I had thought was brood in the super isn't, unless all have hatched. There was only honey in the super, and it is beginning to feel heavier. We saw 6 bees hatching. Their heads were poking up from the cells and they were chewing away to make the opening larger. We didn't wait long enough to see one actually emerge.
We definitely saw a couple of bees doing the waggle dance. No bees squished!
I was able to get some used hive boxes from a friend who had unsuccessfully kept bees a few years ago. According to published advice, I scraped them and scorched the insides with a propane torch. I'll probably use them in my planned new hive next year which will have the two-deep configuration.
My current hive has one deep and a medium super
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Into the hive with Maidi

Maidi went into the hive with me today. She thought it was amazing. The weather was sunny, cool and calm. The main job today was switching the medium super. The kit I had bought did not have the metal strips for the ledge on which the frames rest. I had bought strips from Carrier's and put them onto my empty super. So today, I switched all the frames from the old super into the new one. Carrier told me the metal strips are important to keep the frames from adhering too firmly with propolis.
The above photo shows brood on a small area on one frame in the super. I guess the queen had taken a stroll.
The transplanted frame has new capped cells and larva. I moved it over one more space.
We saw the queen, 2 frames with a beautiful pattern of capped brood cells and larva. Still can't see eggs.
Sadly, I squished 4 bees.

A visit to Franklin Carrier

When I took my one day beekeeping class, several books were recommended. One is pictured here. Franklin Carrier started keeping bees while in college in South Dakota. After duty in the navy, he moved to the San Jose, California area to work in the aerospace industry. Throughout all that time he continued keeping learning about bees. In 1973, he quit his other work and opened a bee keeping store in San Jose.
This book looked good because it is written for beginners, is written mainly for this area and has a check list format for each operation. Unfortunately, it is out of print. I did find some used copies for sale, and the one I got is in excellent condition. It not only gives step-by-step instructions, it also has a lot of information about bee biology and behavior.
Two days ago I went by his shop on my way to work. It's in a house in the middle of San Jose. I had a pleasant visit with Mr. Carrier. He answered my plethora of questions and showed me his apiary. I must admit it was a little scary. He has 6-7 hives, each stacked up at least 6 feet in a small side yard. There were thousands of bees flying around, a veritable cloud. The ground was covered with a carpet of dead bees.
I bought a bee brush and a copy of his second book, "Keeping Bees". The brush I had been using was made of animal hair and the bees would latch onto it. The new one is made of plastic bristles.
Following his advice, today I removed the entrance reducer and made a new water source. I had made a small basin near the hive, but Mr. Carrier said it needs to be out of sight of the hive. His is over the house from the side yard. I had to find a spot not too far from the hive and out of sight of both the hive and the yard. The water source is now a bucket with a towel hanging over the edge behind a plant about 20 feet from the hive.
I'll be going into the hive again in 2 days.

Queen laying

No picture today.
It was overcast and a bit cool today. My girls didn't seem to mind; they were calm. The only time they weren't calm was when they were queenless. It makes all the difference. My daughter Laura went into the hive with me. She found it fascinating.
There was comb being drawn in some of the frames in the super.
Most of the cells in the transplanted brood frame had hatched. I moved it over one more space.
The queen was seen on a frame with lots of capped cells. I also saw a lot of larvae. I haven't yet spotted any eggs. Kathy told me she has never seen an egg. I intend to bring a magnifying glass with me on an inspection.
The brood frame was just as described in the books. In the center are the capped cells, then, moving outwards, the larvae, empty cells (probably some with eggs), then pollen, then honey.
No wax drawn on the two outermost frames.

Things are looking good

There she is, my new queen. (The one with the white spot, in case you weren't sure.) The bees seemed happy and calm. I was more calm, too, in my new bee suit.
The transplanted brood frame is still mostly capped. I moved it over one space closer to the edge. Ultimately I hope to get it to the very edge and then replace it with a new frame.
My nephew, Noah, was visiting and went into the hive with me. I wore the heavy leather gloves that I got from Dadant. I found them clumsy, and now I wear the rubber gloves that Noah has on.
I removed the entrance feeder. The bees aren't even going through a quart in 3 days and they are making lots of honey. Those are capped honey cells in the picture.
In my yard the bees are all over the blackberry blossoms and the lavender.

New worries!

I woke up in the middle of the night a couple of days ago with a new realization.
I put my bees in the hive 4 weeks ago; my queen was not laying eggs; the new queen's eggs wouldn't hatch for 3 weeks; bees live for only about 6 1/2 weeks; simple arithmetic- my hive (and queen) would be without any worker bees for a few days and my colony would die. I contacted Kathy, my bee mentor, and discussed the dilemma. We decided that putting a brood frame from one of her hives might supply enough workers to get through the crises. We visited one of her hives and placed a frame full of brood and covered with nurse bees into a nuc box. At my hive, we misted the bees on the frame and in the hive with 1:1 sugar water and bee essence. This covers up the bee's smell and promotes grooming so the implanted bees will be accepted. Now I hope for the best.
I also added a medium super.

Queen Replaced

I spoke with Tom at Bee Genetics on Monday. When I described the problem of no queen seen and no apparent brood cells, he wasn't too concerned. When I mentioned the two queen cells, he immediately said he would send a replacement queen.
The queen arrived Wednesday in her cage with about a half dozen workers. Because of work schedules, I wouldn't be able to inspect the hive with an experienced keeper until two days later. I wanted to be sure that my hive was queenless before putting in a new queen, of course. Here Kathy and I are looking vainly for the old queen. No queen, no brood and unhappy workers. We put the caged queen in the hive between two frames. We wanted to look in three days to make sure she was out; if not, she would need to be hand released. Once again my work schedule interfered with my bee schedule. Kathy offered to look for me, which she did today. The queen was out. Whew!