Experiment to save queen foiled

The colony in Olea's hive has been dying.  There are very few bees in there yet the queen has surprised me by surviving.  Today I decided that it was time to remove the comb so that I  could clean the hive and prepare it for the spring.
Once again I saw the queen with a solitary attendant.  There were at most 5 other bees in the hive eating honey.

I then took a close look at the cells on the frame.  There were eggs!  And they seemed to be in a good pattern, that is all cells in the area had an egg.  I tried to get a photo:

Those white smudges in the cells are eggs

Now what?  I thought Olea's had died because of queen failure, but maybe not.  These eggs were either dead or would soon be because there were no nurse bees to keep them warm and feed them.
But, I thought, maybe I could save the queen by putting her in a nuc with some brood from one of the other hives!
I closed up Olea's and got to work.  I fetched a nuc box from the shed.  I wanted to put in two frames of drawn comb, two frames of honey and one frame of capped brood with nurse bees on it.  I already had four frames of empty comb that had been frozen to kill any mites or wax moth eggs, so I selected two of these.  I then opened #2 and took two frames of honey from the top box.  I replaced these with two empty frames (that I had to run over to the shed to get).  I lifted off the heavy top box and looked into the bottom box.  I found a frame with capped brood, saw the queen on a different frame, misted the bees with my homemade honey-b-healthy and put it in the nuc.  Now to get the queen.
I figured I would mist her as well.  I had no idea if this would work at all.  I was essentially making a split in late fall.  The queen may have actually been failing or the nurse bees would not accept her or there were not enough workers or even something else.
I went back into Olea's and.... no queen!  I looked at each frame and the bottom of the box several times.  Where could she have gone?  Maybe crawled out and fell to the ground; I did not see her there but, of course, she would have crawled off somewhere.  Maybe a yellow jacket came and got her.  We will never know.
Now I had to put everything back into hive #2, which I did with some effort.
Lesson learned:  I brought a jar to the hive to put the queen in and then euthanize her.  I should have (shoulda, coulda, woulda) put her in the jar when I first saw her.  Then I could have later reported on the results of my experiment. 

Inspection on a cold day

On thanksgiving day I looked under the lid of #3 and saw no bees in neither the Vivaldi box nor on the visible frames.  This was the hive that had the pile of wax moth droppings in the tray.  I was concerned about its declining population so I knew I had to take a look.  
Yesterday afternoon the temperature reached 59, and even though I prefer it over 60, I felt the situation demanded an inspection,so with Seth's good help we took a look.

Photo from Maidi's iPhone

There were only a handful of bees in the top box, and after lifting it and its pounds of honey,
we searched for the brood. We tried taking the frames from one side of the hive but there was so much propolis that despite much prying we were unsuccessful.  I figure that in the cold the propolis is too hard.
We were able to get a frame loose on the other side with only minor damage to the box itself.
We looked at enough frames to find a hand-sized patch brood that looked pretty good.  It did have more empty cells than usual, but not too many.  
Since the population had decreased I wanted to decrease the hive to one box.  That way the bees would be able to keep warm and patrol for wax moths more easily.
We replaced 3 empty in the bottom box with 3 frames full of honey from the top box.
There were still a few frames of honey left so we cut one into comb honey.

 I will allow the bees to take some of the honey from the other frames then freeze them all (to kill any mites or wax moth eggs) and then use them in the hives next spring.

Giving back to the bees

 

Olea's hive is probably in trouble

Over the past couple of weeks I have noticed by looking through the observation window that the number of bees in Olea's hive seemed to be decreasing.  Today the apiary thermometer hit 62, so I was able to take a look.
There still is plenty of honey and pollen.  The brood pattern, however, did not look good.  Brood was present only in small areas on a few frames and it was spotty with lots of empty cells and scattered larvae.  I did spot the queen and saw a mite on one worker.
The most common cause of a poor brood pattern is a failing queen.  Disease such as chalkbrood or foul brood can also be a cause.  I did not see any sign of disease.
The remedy for a failing queen is to replace her but it is too late in the year for me to do so.  If the colony does not improve come spring, and they are still around, I will replace her then.  Or.... I could take the queen from my nuc and put her in the top bar hive.  I will have to think about that.

Rest assured, #2 is queenright

The thermometer hit 62 this afternoon, so I thought it would be ok to take a look into #2 in order to see if it was truly queenright.  A couple of weeks ago I had seen no larvae and no queen, but I was certain I had seen an egg, albeit only one.
The bees of both #1 & 2 were just finishing their orientation flights (as pictured above).  The top box was still pretty heavy, but I did not look into it.  In the bottom box I saw capped brood and larvae of various ages.  So even though I did not see the queen, I know she is in there doing her job.
I then took a look into the tray and it had many wax moth larvae in it.  After I cleaned out the disgusting creatures, I checked the two other trays and there were no wax moth larvae.  However, in #3 there was a pile of wax moth droppings piled up against one side like snow drifts.  So I took a quick look into just the top box and it was clear.  I figure the moths are in the bottom box and the bees know how to take care of them, I hope.

#2 is queenright, I think

There is plenty of honey in #2, mostly in the top box.  There was a small patch of sealed brood on one frame in the top box, just as there was in #1; this was worker brood, however.
In the bottom box there were 3 or 4 frames with capped brood.  I did not spot the queen nor see any larvae, but I am certain that I saw an egg.  So I will optimistically conclude that #2 is also queenright. 
Since the small swarm seemed to come from one of these hives, it looks like the bees knew what they were doing.... as usual.

Whats the haps in #1?

I am not certain that I know, but I will tell you what I saw today and what I think it means.
After I added two more angle braces to the hive stand legs, I decided to take a look into #1.  It has been two weeks since one of the hives cast a swarm and I wanted to see if both #1&2 were queen-right.  Even though it is an overcast day the thermometer is over 60 degrees.
In the top box are 8 frames full of capped honey so it seems the feeding was successful and it was okay that I stopped.  There was one small patch of capped drone cells, about a dozen, in one of the frames.
In the bottom box I saw plenty of capped brood and larvae of various ages, including less than a week old.  Even though I could not see eggs and did not spot the queen, I knew she was in there doing her duty.  So I conclude that #1 is doing well.
I then reassembled the hive (lifting again the very heavy top box).  Then I looked at the front of the hive and saw that the entrance reducer had been pushed back, far enough that bees were able to go in and out at one end.  I tried prying the reducer back into place with the hive tool, but this only succeeded in aggravating a few soldier bees.  Then I tried prying up the bottom box, but it was all too heavy.  Off went the 40+ pound top box.  I was then able to lift the bottom box but unable to move the entrance reducer.  This attempt stirred up even more bees.  I needed another tool to lift the bottom box so I could use my hive tool to move the reducer.  I got my

pry bar which has a flat, sort of thin end.  By first using my hive tool to lift the box a bit, I was able to insert the pry bar and lift the bottom box higher.  Of course, not only did the box move sideways, but also even more soldier bees were recruited.  I tried to shift the reducer, but there was too much propolis and after several attempts I abandoned that plan.
By this time there were bees flying all over the place with many landing on the netting of my bee suit.  Even though Ultra Breeze does not claim that their suit is sting-proof, I think I truly put it to the test today.
I finally just tipped the bottom box on end and moved the reducer by hand.  Then, nearly deafened by the high-pitched buzz of attacking bees, I put the hive back together (lots of heavy lifting).
I took the empty top feeders out of all the hives.  Angry bees followed me back to the shed where I used my Honey-B-Healthy spray on them.
After this overcast, possibly rainy weather passes, I will take a look into #2.

Breaking news. Cluster update

The queen has left her rock and is on the back of #2.  The number of bees traveling with her seems less.

The queen is not visible but is probably to the left of center under the ledge where a bunch of workers are facing inwards

Is she trying to get back into the hive?  I just asked Professor Seeley if queens do that.  From where she is, she can get between the beetle trap and the screen bottom.  Workers in the hive can feed her and spread her pheromones just like when a queen is in a queen cage.
I have no idea (or should I say many conflicting ideas) on how to deal with this situation.