A late August swarm

We had just returned from an overnight with Julie and her children (a lovely time was had by all) and I looked out at the yard and saw bees flying around an unusual area, between the plum tree and the roses.  I went to look and saw a small cluster on one of the rose bushes (Elina, to be precise), only a dozen or so feet from the hives.

The swarm on the rose bush

I prepared a nuc to capture them.  Swarms this late in the year have a very low chance of survival.  This is because the honey flow is over so they cannot collect the necessary resources to survive. (Resources for bees, that is.)  Also. this swarm was quite small without enough workers to collect what is there.  I pondered my choices: let them alone and sink or swim; collect them and feed them until spring; collect them and add some bees and brood from another hive; collect them and give them some frames of honey.  I decided on the last choice.  It was pretty hot, so I chose to wait for it to cool down.  The cluster was being harassed by yellow jackets, and about an hour later, I saw the swarm on the move. 

The same bush, one hour later

I followed the bees to where they had clustered on my neighbors lemon tree

The cluster was a bit bigger than my fist.  I shook them into a nuc box where they spread out on the bottom and sides.  I looked for and spotted the queen.  By the time I got the camera up, the bees had covered her.

The queen is under all these bees

I do not know if this is clustering of if they are balling her.  I certainly hope it is the former.
I now went to get the frames of honey from the other hives.  I looked in both deeps of #1 and #3 and found no frames of honey.  Bad news for the planned fall honey harvest!  Now I will wait until spring and collect any honey left in the supers. 
How to feed the bees in the nuc?  I really did not want to feed them sugar water all winter long and perhaps they just need some to get them established.  I had some containers of honey soaked cappings from last year's harvest.  I smeared this onto a frame and put that into the nuc along with two frames of drawn comb (one with some old bee bread) and two foundationless frames with hand-sized drawn comb.

Honey soaked cappings smeared onto frame with some comb

I am pessimistic regarding the swarm's survival, but one never knows, do one?

Can you count the mites?

I took the MAQs out of the hives today.  Just for the heck of it, I examined the trays for dead mites.  I had scraped the trays clean when I had put in the MAQs.

What a joy to see all the corpses.  This is just a small, representative section.

Olea- come and get your hive!

Nothing personal, Olea, but your hive is causing me tsoris.  Although the philosophy behind top bar hives is compelling, the actual management is far from easy.
Top bars are supposedly more natural because the bees build comb without a frame or foundation.  Old wax is not reused, which is better for the bees.  They do not require any lifting of boxes heavy with honey and stay at a workable level.  Many of them have windows allowing for observation without opening the hive.  They are less expensive and are easy to build.  Yes, this is, and more, is all true.  However....
Inspecting the hive is exponentially more work than inspecting a Langstroth.  Each comb must have any attachments to the wall cut free.  Some of the cells thereby cut are filled with honey.  Soon there is honey all over the hive tool and my hands.  And of course, the tool and my hands become covered with bees.  Despite best efforts, a bee or two or three will get pinched and reflexively sting me unless I wear my clumsy leather gloves.  (Two stings today, both on my right ring finger.)  Bees get caught in the honey and die.  It is difficult to treat for varroa. (At least with what I already have; oxalic acid is supposed to work.)  Bees get squished while freeing the comb.  Bees get squished when replacing the bars.  And I have yet to harvest any honey from this hive.
Olea's hive has 22 bars.  I inspected it today.  I want to see the brood area, which is on bars ~3-12.  However, I have to start at 22 and move down one bar at a time.  That's at least 10 bars that need to be moved just to get started with the inspection.  And each bar has to be freed and moved down.  The bees are getting more and more agitated because of all the freed honey.
Today I only got to bar 10 and never saw the center of the brood area.  I did find a large number of drones and drone brood on frame 14.  There was worker brood with a good pattern on frame 10, and when I saw that, I decided I had had enough for the day.
So, Olea, whenever you want to take your hive back, let me know.

#2 inspection and alcohol wash mite count

Despite the heat, I went into #2 today.  This is the hive I under-supered 10 days ago.  And the one with the k winged bee.
Naturally, the top super was heavy and full of honey.  I only checked the outer 2-3 frames of the second super.  There was drawn comb and some honey, so the supply is still building.
In the top brood box, I spotted the queen.  There was a good brood pattern, too.  There was still a frame with drone brood.  Once again, I only looked at 5-6 frames. 
I did an alcohol wash mite count with the results in the picture below.

As you can see there is a dismaying number of mites- 26 to be precise.  This is way too many for entering the winter.  This is a good article explaining why.  So I need to treat and the question is when.  Most sources say to treat after the fall honey harvest and others say that here in mid-coast California, we should treat before mid-August.  I plan on treating now, tomorrow actually.  Each Langstroth will get 2 MAQs.  I will not treat Olea's.  One reason is that it is just too difficult.  (Probably the way to treat top bar hives is with oxalic acid dribble or vaporization.  I do intend to decide which method to employ and to get the supplies.)  The other rationalization is that it survived last winter, so by definition is a survivor colony.  By the way, Olea's population was diminished by swarming but now appears to have recovered with bees on all the combs.  Perhaps I will get some honey from it this year.
As a matter of housekeeping, let me know if you wish to continue getting this blog by email.

Second supers and k wing and more

Two weeks ago I went into #3.  I was pleased at how gentle my bees are.  I had looked into another beekeepers hive a day or two earlier and now I know what a hot hive is.  His bees were pinging us immediately upon opening, and Terry, who had on cloth gloves got stung several times. When we were done, the bees still came at us even when we were nowhere near the hive and I got stung on the cheek.
#3 looked very healthy.  The super had honey and a small patch of brood.  There was a lot of brood in the brood boxes as well as many empty queen cups.
Today I looked into #2.  The super was heavy and there was uncapped honey in the side-most frame.  I saw brood and eggs in the top brood box.  I also saw one bee with k wing deformity in the hive.

K wing deformity.  Not my picture

This can be a sign of tracheal mites. The best I can tell from my sources is that there is no need to treat now.  If I see a lot of crawlers with k wing, then I will.  Fortunately, formic acid is a good way to treat and, as you all know, that is what I use to treat varroa with MAQs.  It is likely that I will be treating in the fall.
I put supers on all three hives.  For curiosity (and because I had already removed the super in order to get to the brood box) I put the new super below the old one- bottom-supering.  The super on #1 had mostly drawn frames with some old honey and pollen in some while the super in #3 has all new frames.
I successfully moved the water source to my desired location by moving it 1-2 feet at a time and the bees are still going to it.

They like it!

Although one can not see them all, there are 10 bees on the rags and 3 or 4 flying around.
I have managed to move the station about 3 feet closer to its final destination.

Water source for my bees

Bees need a regular source of water, just like all other living things.  There are many ways of providing water for them and there are many studies regarding what they like to drink. 
Ever since I have had my bees, I have tried to provide a source of water.
Initially I placed a  small basin in front of their hive, which they never used.  Then I was told that they like their drinking fountain to be out of sight of the hive and in sun.  So I made a basin that was placed behind the new rose garden, hidden by plants from the hive and about 20 feet away.  Initially it had rocks in it, then sand, then peat moss, then a combination of sand, rocks, peat moss and cotton rope.  I had to cover the basin with chicken wire to keep out the raccoons.  Then I tried filling the basin with salty water.  And still, the bees were getting their water elsewhere.
A couple of weeks ago, I draped a towel in an old plastic wastebasket filled with water instead of the basin.  The towel kept moist by osmosis, giving them a safe and easy way to collect the water, but no bees.
Then... a couple of days ago I had watered some areas of the lawn (part of a large project to improve the croquet court)  and bees were there collecting water.  Brainstorm!  I moved the water source onto the lawn and added a blue rag to the red one that was already there.  I figured that even though the bees find the water mainly by smell I would make it more attractive by using a blue cloth as well since they see blue and not red.  Then I moved the wastebasket to the side of the lawn, out of the way. 
And IT WORKED!

My high-tech watering station

Two customers

I plan on giving them a few days to become habituated, then move it a couple of feet a day until I get it back behind the new rose garden.