Hives #1 and #2 holding their own, as well

A couple of days before Thanksgiving I looked into hives #1 and #2.  #1 seems to be the strongest of all with lots of bees.  There is even some nectar in the cells in the super.  The queen was seen in the top brood box with some brood.  The bottom brood box is mostly empty comb.  As I recall, the queen has always been spotted in the top brood box, although I have seen brood in the bottom box before.  Since this hive is so strong, I'll take brood from it (in the spring) if #3 needs help.  I'm also planning on trying to raise a queen, and I'll use #1 for stock.
#2 seems stable with a modestly sized colony.  I spotted the queen in the bottom box.
I put entrance reducers into both hives.

Hey! What happened to our door?

Hive #3 seems to be holding its own

I took a look into #3 a few days ago.  There was clear nectar in some frames in the top box, presumably from the sugar syrup.  In the bottom box were smallish patches of brood on two frames, much as I had seen on previous inspections.   There was a good amount of beebread.  I saw the queen, again.  The population seems about the same size, which is better than declining.  I hope that in the spring the size of the colony will rapidly grow.  If it doesn't, I'll probably transplant a couple of frames from the stronger hives.
After we had returned from our trip, I scraped out the honey that remained in the extractor.  I left the barrel out for the bees to clean up.  The girls didn't find it until the second day, which was warmer than the day before.  Perhaps the warmth let the honey aroma spread.

Lots of bees visiting the barrel

Lined up around the pool of honey

Same view as above, 1/2 hour later.

Back from abroad and some bad news

So there we were, at the top of Sacre Coeur on Montmartre in Paris, enjoying the view.  And there on the roof top below us....bee hives.
The day before we left, I noticed that there was decreased activity around Olea's hive.  I peeked through the window, and, yes, not many bees.  I then did a thorough search.  There were very few bees, spotty brood and dead pupae.

Dead pupae from Olea's hive

There was no bad smell and no goopy larvae.  Even though I was concerned that this might be foulbrood or some other contagious disease.  I did spot the queen after I nearly lost her by nearly dropping the frame she was on.  Since we were leaving the next morning, there was nothing I could do.  I did email Kathy Niven and got a response from her in Paris.  She didn't think it was foulbrood, so I was reassured even though I knew the colony was doomed.  Upon our return, I took a look at the hive.  On the porch was lots of debris.

Debris on the porch

Inside all the honey had been robbed, as anticipated.  The debris, which was also inside, is the chewed off caps of the honey.  The hive was otherwise empty except for two dead bees and a couple of robbers still looking around.  There was some (presumably) dead brood and lots of beebread.

Spotty capped brood

Beebread

Close-up of bee bread

I emailed Eric Mussen at Davis asking if he could identify the cause of death from my picture and description.  Of course he couldn't be positive but he suspected it may be chilled brood.  I can't explain what caused the drop in population that led to the death, but at least I won't need to sanitize the hive.
I tried to remove the beebread but it was just too tedious.  I do have a small amount;  it tastes somewhat sour and grassy with sweet overtones.  I will process all the wax.
I did use the honey extractor before we left.  It's not as easy to use I had hoped.  The problem is balancing the frames;  when it is off balance, the whole thing wobbles crazily.  We did get a few pounds of honey.  Yum!

Honey extractor for retirement and nuc report

The people in Urgent Care threw a retirement party for me a couple of days ago.  It was at the Cypress Hotel and was very nice.  They gave me a 4-frame honey extractor, a very generous gift.

The extractor on its stand

Looking inside.  The mesh cage spins around fast spraying out the honey into the barrel.

This morning I took the captured swarm over to Bruce and Gregg's.  Last night when all the bees had returned to the nuc I had taped over the entrance.  We dumped the bees into their box, put in some frames and closed it up.  Sadly, Gregg called me this afternoon to report that all the bees had left.  Bees abscond when there is something they don't like in their environment.  Perhaps they'll make it until spring, but I think it's unlikely as swarms this late in the year have a poor chance of surviving.

Mites, nucs and escape board

Two days ago I did a sugar shake count in hives 1&2.  The results, 23 mites in #1 and 27 in #2 were way too high.  Yesterday I put mite-away quick strips in all three Langstroth hives (only one strip in #3).
The legs of the hive stands are in cans with motor oil in them, to keep ants out.  One of the cans had developed a leak.  Yesterday, when I had the hives open with only the bottom brood box on the stand (to put in the quick strips), I used my car jack to raise the stand high enough that I could slip a plastic container under the leaky can.

Down side of escape board

Close-up of maze

Up side of escape board with spacer strips added

I built a bee escape board.  This is used as a one-way valve to get bees off of the honey supers when harvesting.  They aren't very expensive to buy, but I wanted to save shipping costs.  Besides, it's fun to do it myself.  After it was built, I realized it needed more space between it and the honey super so I added spacer strips.

While I was finishing the escape board this morning, Mark Lemon called to say that his crew had spotted a swarm in Watsonville.  I had one 5-frame nuc box available, but only three frames, two plastic and one of my so-called foundationless frames.  I added two drone frames to make five.  I met Mark in Watsonville (after a couple of wrong turns on my part) and he led me to the swarm.  It was in a bush and about football size.  I got the empty nuc box under the swarm and shook the branch.  To my surprise, there was a hand-sized piece of comb in the middle of the swarm.  We know they were there for at least 3 days.  I expect that they hadn't found a home and were building an exposed hive.  In any case, I put the piece of comb in the nuc box, too.  I shook more bees off the branch in order to be certain I had the queen, waited about 1/2 hour for more bees to go into the box and then put the frames in.  I waited another 15 minutes, put the top on and taped it down.  It's now sitting in the backyard under the orange tree.  Gregg Polubinsky has expressed interest in starting another hive, so I'll give him the bees if he wants them.

Captured swarm nuc in its temporary, I hope, location

Happy new homeowners

Honey harvest...kind of

One of two top bars of honeycomb

I went into Olea's hive today to take honey.  I had a big pot with a lid into which I would put the dark comb and a plastic lined wastebasket and a cardboard lid into which I would put the clean comb for comb honey. The wastebasket was the right size to hold the ends of the bars so the comb could hang vertically and not touch the bottom.   Only two bars had mostly capped honey.  There were two bars with comb and no honey and two bars without any comb.  The other three combs I looked at had only a little capped, mostly nectar and the last one had some brood, too.  I had planned to take only honey more distal than bar 12 (there are 21 bars), something I learned from Les Crowder.  I brushed the bees off the comb back into the hive and hung the comb in the wastebasket.  I then put the hive back together, rearranging the bars so all the comb was toward the front, one empty bar, then the back board.  I put an empty bar behind the backboard, as well.  I plan to cut the comb and put it into plastic containers- yum!
I took a quick peek under the Vivaldi box on #3.  It looks and feels like the bees are making some honey, presumably using the sugar I've been feeding them.  I still haven't figured how to get them through the winter.  I'm sure I'll have to feed them until the eucalyptus bloom in December.  I wondering if I should condense their space to one box or even a nuc.  I put the entrance reducer in place so they can defend better against robbers.  Now that the honey flow is over, the stronger hives could take advantage.

Entrance reducer in place

Some good news, some so-so news

Since the last post, I've been in each Langstroth hive once.

Frame of brood in #2

About two weeks ago, I opened #2 and, overall, it looked good.  In the super were two frames of capped honey and two frames with unripe honey (nectar).  There was some brood in the top brood box and some honey.  In the bottom brood box, I spotted the queen and four frames of brood. The girls still haven't drawn any new comb. Last time in, I had put in one of my jerry-rigged foundationless frames.  Not only was no comb drawn, the bees had also removed almost all the wax I had  stuck onto it.  Also, in the last inspection I had moved a frame with old, black wax to the side and this time I took it out and replaced it with another one of my foundationless frames.  (At some point, I'll need to take out my jerry-rigged frames and place a shim or wedge in the top groove like there should be for the bees to draw comb).  The old comb was in a frame with a wax foundation that came in one of the nucs I had purchased in the spring.  It was so dark that the sun barely shone through only a few cells. 

Old, dark comb

Mystery cups on the crossword

This picture is way too light, imagine it even blacker. When I broke it apart Iwas surprised to see small hard cups at the bottom of each cell.  I figure that this was the propolised feces and remains of cocoons from all the previous larvae/tenants of the cells. 

One of the cups in Karly's hand

Old comb broken apart and stacked

I intend to process all this wax by boiling rather than the solar melter.  I'll see if that method works well for old wax.
Yesterday, with some trepidation,  I looked into #1.  It was time to find out what had happened with the queen (refer to earlier blog).  I had been watching the entrance since last inspection and the amount of activity seemed stable.  However, it is common beekeeping knowledge that the colony can be dying in the hive and look normal from outside.
The first thing I noticed was that there were no longer a plethora of drones.  I saw this in the supers.  There was a lot of brood in the top box, and I spotted the queen.  As you can see, she is fat and golden unlike her small, dark predecessor.

Our new monarch

 I don't know if she was made from the frame I put in, or if the colony had already made a new queen via supersedure.  I may have inspected in the few day window in which the queen has hatched, mated and not yet started laying. 

Frame full of brood

 There was a lot of brood, and I saw some hatching.  Since it takes three weeks for a worker to go from egg to emergence, I knew that the queen had been laying for at least that long.  Even though I would expect a daughter of the old queen to be darker, the timing makes me think that the colony had taken care of matters on their own.

A new worker hatching

 There was some brood in the bottom brood box, as well.  I took out the drone frame and substituted a regular frame with foundation. 
I did get stung twice through my nitrile gloves.  Next inspection, I'll also wear a pair of exam gloves underneath.
I scraped off propolis, amassing a golf ball size hunk.  I think I'll get a propolis trap.

Today I went into #3.  The population still seems static.  I spotted the queen and 2-3 frames of brood in the bottom box.  No new comb, very little honey.  I decided to start feeding them in hopes of stimulating them.  Perhaps there's a problem with the queen, herself.