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.

Good news about Olea's

Olea's hive has survived and seems to be doing well.  I have seen lots of pollen coming into the hive.  Yesterday I took off the entrance reducer and today I inspected to bar #6 (there are currently 17 bars).
The two combs I broke a couple of months age have been rebuilt and there is unripe honey in one.
Bar 11 had some capped drone brood and a few larvae.  Honey until bars 7-9 where there was capped brood.  The pattern was ok, but a little spotty.  I saw no pollen on those bars, but there was a lot on #6.  I saw the queen on 8, but did not see here again when reassembling the hive.  The hive has not yet started the spring build-up.  I saw no drones walking around.  About a week ago I saw a drone with deformed wings at the entrance.  This is cause for some worry, but, as I mentioned, the hive looks pretty good.  Any mites there will get diluted when the build-up starts.
I pick up the new bees April 8 in Orland.  Anyone is welcome to come along; there will be speakers and demos.
Because Olea's survived, I would like to continue the line.  One way is to make a split with the shook swarm method.  The other, and maybe easier, is to wait for them to swarm and then capture the swarm.  I will probably do the latter, but I may get ambitious.

It is tme to order packages

There has been a break in the rain and yesterday the sun was out and it was warm enough to go into the hives.  I had been nervously awaiting this day, wondering just how the bees were surviving.  I was wishing for the best even though I really expected the worst.  And my expectations were fulfilled.
I checked the nuc first.  There was only a handful of bees left, no brood, no stored food.  They did not seem to be taking the syrup and much of the pollen patty was left.  I just left the nuc as it was knowing it will be empty of bees in a few weeks.  Actually, I was a little surprised that there were still any there.
It was sad to look into #2.  Even though there was light activity at the entrance, there was less than a frame of bees in the top box.  There was still plenty of capped honey and some bee bread.  The bottom box was empty and the comb was moldy.  There was some wax moth evidence.  There was some dead brood and one pathetically small queen cell.  There were no nurse bees on the brood.  There was a teaspoon or so of water in the tray below the screen indicating, along with the mold, that there had not been enough bees to properly ventilate the hive.

Dead brood without nurse bees

 

Pathetically small queen cell.  A futile attempt

No. 2 will clearly soon be without any bees.  I took some time considering my options and decided to just leave the hive there.  I did not see any robbing activity and I did not want to add these bees to Olea's.
Olea's hive looks strong.  There is both capped and uncapped honey.  I inspected to bar 10 which had pretty healthy looking brood.  There was a lot of pollen coming in the entrance.  The bad news is that I saw one bee with DWV, but even one bee does not bode well.  I am just going to let Olea's alone (i.e., not treat).  We can all hope it makes it.
I plan to order three packages with VSH bees..  Harris Bees looks like a good source.  However, he has not responded to my several attempts to contact him.  I do not know if he is even still in business.  I will probably get the bees from Olivarez Bees.  They say all their bees are VSH.  I will order the packages this week from one or the other.  Pick up is in April and it since it is a 4 hour drive, it will most likely involve an overnight stay somewhere.
If Olea's does not survive, I will repopulate it with a split, or if I get lucky, a swarm.

Olea visits her hive, and some bad news for #2

Olea got to use her bee suit this past weekend.  We looked in the nuc, #2 and Olea's.  She had no fear of the bees buzzing about her and the only problem was getting a good view into the boxes.
When we looked into Olea's, I inadvertently broke two comes filled with capped and uncapped honey, so we took out the broken pieces for an unexpected honey harvest. 
We checked the nuc to see if they were taking their pollen and syrup.  There was still plenty of each.  I fear that there just are not enough bees in the nuc to survive.  I had considered moving a frame or two of bees from #2, but than plan was shot down by what we saw in #2.
There was plenty of honey in the top box of #2, at first encouraging.  But then I saw the brood.  The pattern was spotty with several uncapped cells with dead pupae.  Also, I saw 3 bees with deformed wing virus.  This probably is Parasitic mite syndrome, but I have unrealistic hopes that the dead pupae may be from being chilled.  I had treated this hive and believed I had the mites under control, so what could have happened?  I think I know.
Not far from here is another backyard beekeeper.  He had 6-7 hives and believed in no treatment beekeeping.  This has become controversial in the beekeeping world with the main objection to it is that when an untreated hive dies, the mites get into (often by robbing) surrounding hives.  I noted that my neighbors bee yard is now just stacked boxes, so I assume his hives succumbed.  And my otherwise healthy have was overwhelmed by the mites.
In any case, #2 is very sick and I do not expect it to recover.  I did treat it with Apiguard and will hope for the best.  If Olea's survives, I may try to make splits from it.  Otherwise I can either buy new bees, have only one hive or hope to capture a swarm.

Can this nuc be saved?

Today the rain stopped and it warmed up a bit, so I was able to take a look into the nuc.  I made this nuc as a walk away split last July using #2 as a source.  The nuc seemed to be thriving and I had intended to use it this spring to replace the lost #1.
However, over the past 1-2 weeks I noticed decreased activity at the entrance and was awaiting an opportune time to inspect.  It was not quite 60 degrees this afternoon but I took a look.
There were not a lot of bees, only a hand-sized cluster on 2-3 frames.  There was no honey, no pollen and no brood, only empty cells (with a scattering of crystallized honey).  I did see the queen, though.
What to do?  They obviously needed resources and fortunately I still have some pollen patties.  I got one and put it on top of the frames.
Next, carbohydrates.  Unfortunately the entrance feeder does not fit in the nuc doorway.  Fortunately I have some inside feeders given to me by Bruce.  One of them had a cap and ladders and is a double frame size, too big for the nuc.  The single frame feeders have no cap.  I could use them, but I do not like the idea of some bees drowning.  So I did what Eddie would have done- I made it myself.
I took the ladders (plastic mesh tubes) and cut them to be the correct length and then made a "cap" from aluminum foil, using cellophane tape to hold down the edges.

I filled it with 2:1 sugar syrup and replaced one of the outside frames with it.
Perhaps the nuc will survive.  If not, I will be making 2 or 3 splits this spring.

New hive stands

I was not satisfied with my old hive stands for two reasons.  Firstly, I was uncertain about their weight bearing capacity.  Secondly, in order to keep the ants out, the legs were in cans holding motor oil.  Bees would get into the oil, when it rained the water/oil mix was disgusting, oil would leak or spill into the soil and also soak into and up the hive stand legs. 
At the UC Davis apiary, the hive stand legs were metal pipes and they kept the ants out with Tanglefoot  protected from dust and bees by upside down cans.  I decided to replace my old stands with ones similar to those at Davis.
I decided to use 2x4's and some sort of pipe for legs.  Initially I planned on bolting the legs to the wood, but then realized it would be better and more aesthetic to bore holes in the frame for the legs.
I found some inexpensive electrical conduit pipe at Home Depot.

Pipes and wood before cutting

I found pvc end caps for the ends of the pipe, lag screws to hold the wood together and old tomato cans to protect the tangle foot.

Parts ready for assembly (not all wood or cans shown)

I had to be careful to line up the pilot holes for the lag screws and had only one small error.

An assembled stand, sans cans

I put the cans onto the legs using duct tape to hold the loose ones in place.  Then I painted them with spray on enamel.

A finished hive stand

Today, with the good help of Mihir, after putting Tanglefoot onto the pipe, the old double hive stand was replaced.