After posting to the CCBA, a fellow beekeeper (Keith) came out to help with our bees. He was surprised to see so many bees and confirmed that it, indeed, was a hot hive. We spent 2 1/2 hours working with the hives. Basically this is what we did:
-Removed swarm cells from A (Keith came out with 5 new virgin queens)
-Added queen to A from Keith's nuc. We didn't spot the queen, but
their was eggs. Just to be safe, we added a swarm cell. If there is no
queen than the swarm cell will emerge. If there is a queen she will
destroy the swarm cell.
-Scraped off excessive drone cells and checked them for mites (only found one)-Added supers to all of the hives so each hive now has 2 supers
-Combined one deep of bees from hive A with C (newspaper chew)
-Moved hive A into B's position and vice versa. This ended up not being necessary because B also had a strong population, but the thought was that the forgers of A would fly back into B (taking bees out of the overpopulated A and into B)
So now the hives stand thusly:
A (former B): 2 deeps, 2 supers
B (former A, "hot hive"): 2 deeps, 2 supers
C (nuc split): 2 deeps, 2 supers, 1 of the deeps filled with hot hive's bees
Swarm: still in it's nuc box waiting to be dealt with
Monday, May 28, 2012
Saturday, May 26, 2012
First swarm, second swarm, angry-angry bees
Earlier this week we successful caught our first swarm of bees. As I was leaving the house I noticed some unusual behavior around the hive...it was swarm activity. Fortunately David was home and we watched the bees cluster in a nearby tree. The bees were from B hive which is the hive we split a few days earlier. After several shakes we got the bees into a nuc box. The queen was spotted, but when we tried to catch her (so that she could be marked) off she went. Forgot that swarm queens can fly...
Swarm bees were relocated to the front of the property--what will hopefully serve as the bee yard next summer. The hope is that this location will be less likely to interfere with daily activities like gardening, playing in the yard...walking out the door. This year we have had some angry bees.
This photo really doesn't do the swelling justice, but suffice it to say I look like an Avatar Navi. Usually the bees just bother me, but those girls were po'ed today. David killed 3 or 4 before he was stung in the face. Currently he is sleeping off a benedryl-induced coma. This was received minutes after stepping into the garden to do some weeding (far away from the hives).
Shortly after the attack, the bees began to swarm (A hive). We followed them for a while but they high-tailed to the neighboring fields and we lost them. Honestly, I'm not too sad (nor surprised) about their retreat. After the other day's swarm, we got into A hive to make a split (David spotted swarm cells while pulling some honey for the swarm). We couldn't find the queen, eggs, or larvae and there seemed to be lots of honey. We held off making a split hoping to find a queen later. Guess there must have been a queen after all?
Swarm bees were relocated to the front of the property--what will hopefully serve as the bee yard next summer. The hope is that this location will be less likely to interfere with daily activities like gardening, playing in the yard...walking out the door. This year we have had some angry bees.
Exhibit A:
Shortly after the attack, the bees began to swarm (A hive). We followed them for a while but they high-tailed to the neighboring fields and we lost them. Honestly, I'm not too sad (nor surprised) about their retreat. After the other day's swarm, we got into A hive to make a split (David spotted swarm cells while pulling some honey for the swarm). We couldn't find the queen, eggs, or larvae and there seemed to be lots of honey. We held off making a split hoping to find a queen later. Guess there must have been a queen after all?
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Queen Marking
David here... After finding closed swarm cells in hive B on Sunday, 5/13, we decided to split the hive. That meant I had to try to find the queen and move her to an empty hive. In the 3 years we've been doing this, I rarely look specifically for the queen and when I do it always takes a long time to find her, sometimes we have to go over every frame twice. Luck was with me and I found her fairly easily on Sunday, but I decided that it was time to begin marking our queens. This basically means daubing a little drop of paint onto the back of the queen in order to 1) help locate her in the future 2) know that it's a queen you marked and not a supersedure queen and 3) know how old the queen is. There is a rotating color list to use based on what number the year ends in. With only three hives, I don't much care about the color and just want a color that will make it easier to find the queen in the future. So I picked up a white queen paint marker and a marking tube from Brown's Bee Farm and plan to mark the old queen from the split the next chance I get (and before she has a chance to populate the hive much). I also plan to try to mark the new queen in hive B and other old queen in hive A sometime this summer.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
It's time to keep track of our hives! First off, naming the hives...for simplicity sake (and until I get more creative) let's call them A, B...and so forth starting on the right (reverse reading order, I know).
A and B survived the winter and are going strong. So strong, in fact, that David split B over the weekend. He began feeding them about 1 week ago and the hives are thriving. B had several capped swarm cells, so the queen was found, moved into a new home (a deep rather than nuc box) and placed with several of her own girls and a few frames of brood from A. Now there is A, B and lil' C (soon to be big C). A had no swarm cells. Or at least David did not find any in the top deep--he didn't go down to the bottom. I tend to think that A is an aggressive hive, but that may only be because they seem to get stuck in my hair every time I go outside. But I digress...
As of today, there is C (one deep and being fed), B (two deeps and being fed), and A (two deeps and making honey). Because A is crowded, making honey and not needing to be split (yet), today I slapped a super right over the second deep. Seems like they need some room and hopefully the nectar is flowing. Dandelion bloom is well on it's way and other plants are blooming. The super consists of drawn-out frames mainly from 2011. Most of the frame is in good shape, although some has been chewed and there are a few bee bottoms that need to be cleared out. Get to work girls!
A and B survived the winter and are going strong. So strong, in fact, that David split B over the weekend. He began feeding them about 1 week ago and the hives are thriving. B had several capped swarm cells, so the queen was found, moved into a new home (a deep rather than nuc box) and placed with several of her own girls and a few frames of brood from A. Now there is A, B and lil' C (soon to be big C). A had no swarm cells. Or at least David did not find any in the top deep--he didn't go down to the bottom. I tend to think that A is an aggressive hive, but that may only be because they seem to get stuck in my hair every time I go outside. But I digress...
As of today, there is C (one deep and being fed), B (two deeps and being fed), and A (two deeps and making honey). Because A is crowded, making honey and not needing to be split (yet), today I slapped a super right over the second deep. Seems like they need some room and hopefully the nectar is flowing. Dandelion bloom is well on it's way and other plants are blooming. The super consists of drawn-out frames mainly from 2011. Most of the frame is in good shape, although some has been chewed and there are a few bee bottoms that need to be cleared out. Get to work girls!
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