Italian hive

Beautiful day today so I inspected the hive with the Italian queen.

The bottom box had lots of empty comb, a little honey and several frames of capped brood.
The middle box had nectar, honey, several frames of capped brood and the queen!
The top box had a little nectar/honey on a couple of frames
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I think the dearth might be occurring now and that might be why the bottom box has more space in it. The queen is still laying eggs and there are more bees in this hive than in the other one so I think it is still expanding. I put a new bucket of syrup on top of the 3 boxes to support continuing growth.

Both hives appear to be healthy right now, but I'm going to start thinking about a mite treatment before the cold weather comes.

She's in there!

Before I left on my trip (starting July 10) I did make sure that both hives had buckets of syrup and extra space. I did not see the hybrid queen so I started to worry.

I returned home on July 22 (delayed from the 21st) and did a quick check of syrup buckets. The bucket for the hybrid queen is still mostly full. The bucket for the Italian queen is empty. I put my ear to each of the hive boxes to see if I could ascertain how the bees are doing in a general way. The hive with the Italian queen sounds much bigger than the hybrid queen's hive so I continued to worry about that hive.

It poured on the 23rd so I did not do anything with either hive.

Today I checked on the hybrid queen's hive. I pulled all the boxes off to take a quick look at the screened bottom board--just to see if there were lots of dead bees or anything else odd looking--and there was the queen! I'm guessing that during my previous inspections she scurried for the darkest part of the hive under the bottom box and that's why I was unable to see her. The bees are working on one side of the bottom box and the frames on the opposite end are empty. The next time I go in I may try moving all of the brood frames to the middle and putting some of the empty frames on the outside to see if the bees will fill the bottom box more evenly. They have 3 or 4 frames of capped brood in the bottom box, and the queen is starting to lay eggs in the second box on a couple of frames. The second box still has plenty of space so I'm pulling off the third box since it just adds distance between the bees and the syrup bucket. Anyhow this hive is several weeks behind the Italian queen's hive, but I guess that's to be expected given she was starting later with fewer workers and too many drones.

I got stung on my toe walking through the clover on the way to the hives:) One of the hazards of wearing sandals. No stings while doing the inspection.

I'll check on the Italian queen's hive tomorrow--weather permitting.

Happy Fourth of July!

I looked in on the hives today. Both had finished off their syrup buckets.

I found the Italian queen in the lower box. She is doing great! Both boxes have frames of brood as well as uncapped larvae and eggs and frames of nectar and pollen. I added another box to the hive with a couple of frames of honey from last year's hives for food. I will probably still put a bucket of syrup on top since we will be coming up on the summer dearth soon and if the rainy weather returns I want the hive to keep building.

I did not find the hybrid (marked) queen today, but I did see evidence that she is in there somewhere. Frames with eggs, uncapped larvae and capped brood show she is in there somewhere. It's possible she walked between frames while I was watching a couple of baby bees starting to emerge on one of the frames. She isn't doing as well as the other queen, but she has had to deal with too many drones from the dud queen. As long as there are still eggs and the hive continues to get stronger I guess that's a win. I added a box to the hive although they probably don't need it yet. I also added a few frames of honey from last year. My hope is if they have enough food they will concentrate on expanding the population. I will also put another bucket of syrup on top with the second dose of fumagillin to make sure nosema is not a problem.

Since I'm going out of town for a week or so I want to make sure things are in order before I go. I'll be checking them again, but I wanted to get most of the work out of the way today since I don't know what the weather will be:)

Status 6/29/13

I checked on the hybrid queen's hive. I found her and evidence that she has been laying. Everything looks good so I gave her another box to work in so she has 2 mediums.

I looked in on the Italian queen. I only looked into the upper box, and I did not see her, but I did see eggs so she is working hard. Both medium boxes have some empty frames so I think things are Ok.

Both hives still had some syrup so I left things as they are. I decided with this lousy weather I would leave syrup buckets on the hives until they have at least 3 medium boxes each. At the current rate I'm hoping that will be by the end of July. 

I'm hoping that the manufacturer that sells HopGuard will start selling in smaller quantities. I like the idea of a food-grade mite treatment that can be used anytime at any temperature. After last year I'm a bit paranoid about mites and viruses. I don't want to medicate if I don't have to, but I'd like to get the bees through one year.

So far the no gloves experiment is going well. I've been stung less than last year--only once so far.