This post will focus on the beekeeping, and I'll get into my garden progress in a later post. I've discovered a new online tool called HiveTracks that I'm using to record weather conditions during inpections and overall status of the hive. I really like how it gives range rings showing how far the bees might forage. You can also see where other hives are at, if users have chosen to share the location. I'll give it a go this year, and see how well it works out.
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| Beautiful frame with capped honey |
Frame inspection:
Top box (the previous bottom box which was swapped last fall), using # on frame vs location in box, going left to right
2: 50% comb drawn on both sides, bees present on right side
13: from nothing to 90% drawn comb on both sides, heavy with honey, bees present
14: 95% comb drawn on both, with capped honey and nectar on both sides, bees
5: 100% comb drawn, really heavy with capped honey, bees
6: 80% comb drawn on both sides, some honey, pollen, open brood comb, bees
7: 90% comb built on both sides, wonky comb, stuck together with frame 11, some bee bread, open brood comb, bees
11: 95% comb built on both sides, wonky comb, heavy with nectar/honey
15: 95% comb drawn on both sides, really heavy, ~15 lbs, 75% capped honey on left, 30% capped honey on right, no bees
12: 50% comb drawn, no bees at all
19: 95% drawn on left side with 80% capped honey, 10% comb drawn on right Bottom box
16: 100% comb drawn on both sides, with some nectar and honey
1: 100% comb drawn on both sides, some bee bread, 20% honey on right
8: 50% comb drawn on either side, some pollen
4: 100% comb, some pollen 17: 100% comb drawn, 10% capped honey and lots of pollen
20: 100% comb drawn, 10% capped honey and some pollen
9: 30% comb drawn, empty
18: 100% comb drawn, lots of capped honey, heavy
3: 100% comb drawn, 40% capped honey
10: 95% comb drawn on both sides, 50% capped honey on left,
Overall impressions - left plenty of honey to overwinter, they did a great job drawing out comb near the end of the summer, seems like a good population of bees to start spring buildup with, but we didn't find Queen Beatrice. This is the most worrying. We didn't see ANY eggs, larvae, or capped brood. Even though they slow down during the winter, there still should have been something. Plus, we've always been able to spot QB, even when the hive was full. Not sure if we should be worrying yet or not. They were pretty calm if it is a queen-wrong hive.
Added some 1:1 sugar syrup to stimulate brood buildup. I was hoping to get a split off of this hive this spring, but not so sure that will be happening now.
17 April 2013: Added a pollen patty and checked syrup, they hadn't touched it. Pulled a few of the center frames and still saw no brood. DH came with to "ease into it."
16 May 2013: The population appears to be dropping, only covering about four frames fully now, although they've spread out a lot as it's warmed up. DH came out and helped too! Still didn't find Queen Beatrice.
Frame inspection:
Top box (using # on frame vs location in box, going left to right)
2: 50% comb, some pollen, scattered bees
13: 90% drawn comb on both sides, some capped honey, nectar, pollen, bees
14: 95% comb drawn on both, capped honey and nectar, pollen, bees
5: 100% comb drawn, capped honey, wonky comb cut off, drone cells, bees
6: 80% comb drawn on both sides, some honey, pollen, scattered brood with drone cells, empty queen supercedure cell, lots of bees
6: 80% comb drawn on both sides, some honey, pollen, scattered brood with drone cells, empty queen supercedure cell, lots of bees
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| Possible peanut-shaped queen cell? |
7: 90% comb built on both sides, wonky comb, stuck together with frame 11, bee bread, scattered brood, drone cells, lots of bees
11: 95% comb built on both sides, wonky comb where stuck to 7, nectar/honey and pollen, scattered brood with drone cells, larvae; might have cells with more than one egg laid in them
11: 95% comb built on both sides, wonky comb where stuck to 7, nectar/honey and pollen, scattered brood with drone cells, larvae; might have cells with more than one egg laid in them
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| But it's empty . . . already hatched or never used? |
15: 95% comb drawn on both sides, really heavy, 75% capped honey on left, 30% on right,
12: 50% comb drawn, some bees19: 90% comb, about 1.25 frames of capped honey, smattering of bees
Bottom box
16: 100% comb drawn on both sides, with some nectar and honey
1: 100% comb drawn on both sides, some bee bread, 20% honey on right
8: 50% comb drawn on either side, some pollen
4: 100% comb, some pollen, some scattered larvae 17: 100% comb drawn, 10% capped honey and lots of pollen
20: 100% comb drawn, 10% capped honey and some pollen
9: 30% comb drawn, empty
18: 100% comb drawn, lots of capped honey, heavy
3: 100% comb drawn, 40% capped honey
10: 95% comb drawn on both sides, 50% capped honey,
Overall impressions - hive is still pretty calm and quiet if they are without a queen. Our bees appear to be backwards though, as smoke seems to rile them up and make them louder, vs calmer. Removed the top feeder for cleaning, but added two entrance feeders with 1:1 syrup. Put remainder of pollen patty back on top of frames, even though they are bringing in some pollen. Not sure if we've got a new queen who just wasn't mated well, which could happen due to bad weather and distant location from other hives, or if there's a laying worker. Guess we'll find out soon enough.
If there's a laying worker, one of the solutions would be to swap out a frame with one of eggs and capped brood each week until they make a new queen. Since we don't have a second hive, this isn't possible. Another solution is to buy a new queen and introduce her to the colony (and hope the laying worker doesn't kill her first), or to buy a new queen and do a shakeout, where you walk your hive boxes at least 100 yards away, shake off each frame, then place the boxes back in the original location, making sure none of the bees were transferred with it. Then, all the foragers will be able to make their way back to the hive, but the nurse bees (including the laying workers) won't know how to get there. It's all kind of iffy. Most places I've looked are sold out of packages and queens for the moment. It was another rough year for beekeepers.
We also did a sugar roll to test for mites. Our numbers were really small (hopefully we did it correctly), but we did a powdered sugar treatment anyway, since it doesn't hurt them. Turn them into candied bees, yes, fatal, no.
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| Applying the powdered sugar to the top box |
I'm trying to work the bees without gloves this year. While I did put them on for the mite count, I've now managed two hive inspections without them. I have to remind myself to move slowly without any jerky movements. Sometimes it's hard when I get tickled by the bees wings! There was a happy moment when a bee landed on my finger to drink some nectar I'd accidentally got on me when I'd cut off some comb. The bees tongue is called a probiscus, and it's basically a tube that sucks the nectar up. It's WAY COOL to watch close up.
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| Bee drinking nectar off my finger |
Reminder that all beekeeping photos taken by Jason R. unless otherwise noted. Thanks Jason!
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