Sunday, June 10, 2012
Gone!
Sometime between noon and when Tom got home from work the 2 clusters of bees left for parts unknown. They did not accept my offer of free housing. Hopefully the bees in the hive will raise another queen and get back to work on filling up the frames.
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Two?
There appear to be 2 clusters of bees in 2 neighboring pine trees.
Are they really honey bees? Or some other insects?
I do think the nuc has swarmed, but since they appear to be raising a replacement queen the hive should survive.
How do they deal with the weather when they appear to be in the open?
More stuff to learn...
Reward: Missing Queen
Ok so I inspected the 3 hives.
As expected the 2 package hives are continuing as before. No swarm cells. Boxes still have some space for them to draw more comb.
The nuc however has about 8-10 swarm cells. I thought when I checked a couple of weeks ago there were no swarm cells. I also did not see the marked queen today. The bees seemed to be putting in more honey than anything else. There are still 4-6 empty frames so I don't know why they would swarm. I think I might have seen an unmarked queen, but I'm not sure. Oh well I'll just wait and see if there is more brood next week.
Maybe the swarm in the tree will move into the box I put in the yard. Then I'd have 4 hives which would be crazy, but interesting.
As expected the 2 package hives are continuing as before. No swarm cells. Boxes still have some space for them to draw more comb.
The nuc however has about 8-10 swarm cells. I thought when I checked a couple of weeks ago there were no swarm cells. I also did not see the marked queen today. The bees seemed to be putting in more honey than anything else. There are still 4-6 empty frames so I don't know why they would swarm. I think I might have seen an unmarked queen, but I'm not sure. Oh well I'll just wait and see if there is more brood next week.
Maybe the swarm in the tree will move into the box I put in the yard. Then I'd have 4 hives which would be crazy, but interesting.
Swarm!
I went out in the yard this morning to let my horse out to graze. I don't know why, but I looked up, and there was a swarm of bees in a tree. Strangely enough it is in a pine tree about 40' up.
I'm surprised I even noticed it since we are surrounded by pine trees. I'm surprised they didn't choose an oak or a maple, but those are shorter.
I have a bad feeling that they came from my nuc hive. There are a lot fewer bees going in and out of that hive. I'll do a hive inspection in an hour or two to verify that, but I want them to be all warmed up before I open up the hive.
I still had an empty medium box in the basement so I put that in the yard with 10 frames of foundation. I am currently only using screened bottom boards for my hives so I have 2 solid bottom boards so right now I have one of those under the box and one on top to make an impromptu hive. I sprayed it with some sugar syrup to try attracting the scout bees for the swarm.
Right now swarm watching is my spectator sport!
I'm surprised I even noticed it since we are surrounded by pine trees. I'm surprised they didn't choose an oak or a maple, but those are shorter.
I have a bad feeling that they came from my nuc hive. There are a lot fewer bees going in and out of that hive. I'll do a hive inspection in an hour or two to verify that, but I want them to be all warmed up before I open up the hive.
I still had an empty medium box in the basement so I put that in the yard with 10 frames of foundation. I am currently only using screened bottom boards for my hives so I have 2 solid bottom boards so right now I have one of those under the box and one on top to make an impromptu hive. I sprayed it with some sugar syrup to try attracting the scout bees for the swarm.
Right now swarm watching is my spectator sport!
Friday, June 1, 2012
Weekly Inspection
It's supposed to rain for the next 5 days so I thought I should do my inspection today. I didn't specifically look for queens so naturally I didn't see any.
I started with the Not-So-Happy hive. It is still working on the bottom medium hive box. There is brood in the middle 4 frames and honey in a couple of frames to either side, but they have not reached the end frames yet. The pattern of brood etc. is nice, but this hive seems to be quite slow to develop, and I don't think I'll be putting another box on top for another week or so. The syrup consumption is slower as well. Maybe I should be re-queening this hive? I'll have to read up on this, but I don't think I need to do anything in a hurry.
I then looked at the Happy hive. It still has not completely finished the bottom box. It is working on frames 1 and 9, but not yet 10. There is brood and honey in the bottom box. The next box up has about 3 frames under development with brood and honey so it is pretty much equivalent to one complete box and starting on the second box. Much quicker performance than the other package hive, but I've seen some evidence of mites in this hive. One of the little dead carcasses that were dumped on the "doorstep" was a larva with a mite clearly visible, and I've seen a few bees with misshapen wings that indicate viruses brought on by mites. I'm going to have to try something to knock down mites in this hive, but overall it appears to be thriving.
Lastly I looked in on the nuc. Each medium nuc box came with 5 frames "under development" and those frames are fully filled in. The top box has another frame under construction, but 2 frames on each side available for further expansion. The bottom box has expansion space in frames 1, 9 and 10, and this hive seems to be thriving. Hopefully I'll be putting a 3rd box on top by the end of June.
Here's hoping the weather man is wrong so the bees can bring in more nectar, and the farmers can put up some hay!
I started with the Not-So-Happy hive. It is still working on the bottom medium hive box. There is brood in the middle 4 frames and honey in a couple of frames to either side, but they have not reached the end frames yet. The pattern of brood etc. is nice, but this hive seems to be quite slow to develop, and I don't think I'll be putting another box on top for another week or so. The syrup consumption is slower as well. Maybe I should be re-queening this hive? I'll have to read up on this, but I don't think I need to do anything in a hurry.
I then looked at the Happy hive. It still has not completely finished the bottom box. It is working on frames 1 and 9, but not yet 10. There is brood and honey in the bottom box. The next box up has about 3 frames under development with brood and honey so it is pretty much equivalent to one complete box and starting on the second box. Much quicker performance than the other package hive, but I've seen some evidence of mites in this hive. One of the little dead carcasses that were dumped on the "doorstep" was a larva with a mite clearly visible, and I've seen a few bees with misshapen wings that indicate viruses brought on by mites. I'm going to have to try something to knock down mites in this hive, but overall it appears to be thriving.
Lastly I looked in on the nuc. Each medium nuc box came with 5 frames "under development" and those frames are fully filled in. The top box has another frame under construction, but 2 frames on each side available for further expansion. The bottom box has expansion space in frames 1, 9 and 10, and this hive seems to be thriving. Hopefully I'll be putting a 3rd box on top by the end of June.
Here's hoping the weather man is wrong so the bees can bring in more nectar, and the farmers can put up some hay!
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