Monday September 17 Foulbrood!

OK so I opened up the Not So Happy hive and gave it a thorough inspection. It appears that the hive has foulbrood. I think it is European since it has 'melted larvae', doesn't smell awful or have a ropey consistency. The larvae that I have dug out with a toothpick are white and gooey, but not ropey.

The nuc actually looks the best right now. It has the most bees (again) thanks to the fact that I was feeding it. It has capped brood. It probably does not have as much honey as the other 2 hives, but will probably put away more before the weather gets colder.

Queenless?

Well it's been a while since I did a full inspection of the hives. Since the "Happy" hive always seemed to have plenty of bees -- coming, going and bearding, I did not think I needed to do a full inspection. Apparently I was wrong. I noticed a drop in activity so I checked it thoroughly today and found no eggs, no larvae, no brood and apparently no queen! Rats!
Tomorrow I'm going to do a thorough inspection of the other hives and see if things are going OK for them.
The nuc hive has finished off another bucket of syrup so I hope they are drawing comb.
The "Happy" hive still hasn't drawn any comb on the foundation that I got from the Honey Exchange. I don't know what's up with that.
The "Not So Happy" hive seems to have bees coming and going just fine so hopefully things are good there.
Now I have to decide what to do with the queenless hive. I have at least 10 frames of honey and still some bees. Should I try purchasing a queen, or is it to late? Should I purchase a nuc? Bee Pride has nucs for sale. Should I try putting a frame with eggs from the other hives into the hive and see if they can start a new queen, or is it too late? Should I just put the frames from this hive into the other 2 hives to make them stronger for the winter?
I think that I'll wait until after tomorrow's inspections to decide, and maybe email Rick Cooper.

Just checking August 25

Since I was worried about the nuc I started feeding it sugar syrup in the hopes they would start working the third medium box. They have finally started, and they have finished off one bucket of syrup so far. Maybe they will have enough food for the winter.
In the not-so-happy hive I had moved 2 of the full frames of honey to the fourth box and moved 2 empty frames down into the third box to try and get them to start working the 4th box. That appears to be working, and they are now building comb in the other frames in the 4th box.
Since moving frames seems to work today I moved 2 frames between the 3rd and 4th boxes in the happy hive.
Both of the package hives appear to have totally filled the 3rd box with honey--before I messed with them so I think they'll have enough winter stores.
None of the hives appear to like the foundation I got from the honey exchange, or maybe it just seems that way since they are so slow drawing comb on it. Even with syrup the nuc is slow to draw out comb.
Now I need to start prepping for winter: Api Life and mouse guards to start, I think.

Today's inspection

I have been peeking occasionally into the hives to see if they need more space. They haven't needed more, but I have been worried about the nuc. The number of bees is so much less than the other hives. I decided to look and see is I could find the queen. The top box is still mostly empty, but they have started to draw comb in a couple of the middle frames. I started into the second box and the first four frames had honey. Finally I found a frame with eggs and capped brood and even a worker bee who was in the process of hatching. I'm still worried that I have an under-performing queen and maybe I should replace her, but since I have trouble finding her I am not confident that I can replace her.
I looked online and saw something about replacing a queen anytime between June 21 and September 21, but that was for a bee farm in Illinois. It may be too late in the season for Maine(?)

Weekly Check 7/15/2012

The Happy and Not-So-Happy hives are proceeding as expected. They don't seem to need another box yet. The nuc hive has eggs, larvae and capped brood so even if I can't spot the queen, there must be one in there somewhere. I don't know if it's the heat or just that I get spooked by the number of bees on a frame, but I can't seem to identify any of the queens now. I know I have seen a queen in each hive at one time or another, but I can't seem to do it consistently. I don't even know if it is really worth the trouble to disturb the hives just so I can practice finding the queen, and those boxes are really heavy when they are full! I'm afraid I'll do more damage and squash more bees if I keep digging around. I'm going to try just taking a peek into the top and adding boxes if they need it and see if leaving them alone will work out OK. The nuc hive has just about filled its 2 boxes, but not expanded into the top box yet. I'm not sure why. It's interesting to try and figure out why these 3 hives are all so different.

Weekly Inspection

OK. I made a run to The Honey Exchange in Portland. I needed to get parts for more mediums, but I've been with visiting relatives all week so it was hard to figure out where to go to get stuff.
Fortunately, Phil is running a special where the assembly of  a hive kit is free so this was just too good to pass up since I'm so short on time.
The kit has 5 mediums with frames and foundation, an inner cover, a telescoping outer cover, a slatted bottom board, a  screened bottom board, and a hive stand with legs. Phil gets his hive parts from another source than Brown's Bee Farm where I got my other hive kits, and the boxes are more square, and the 'fit and finish' appears to be higher quality. I think they are a bit more expensive, but the assembly was a real treat. I don't have a fancy stapler which is what it appears that Phil uses. I'm guessing it's like a nail gun so putting things together is a snap. The only thing that isn't assembled is the foundation into the frames so I'll be doing that tonight so I can put more boxes on the hives.
The nuc hive is still working the 2 original boxes since the old queen swarmed. I see brood and honey so I'm hoping there is a queen in there somewhere.
The Happy hive has pretty much filled 3 boxes so I'll be putting another box on top tomorrow.
The Not-So-Happy hive is making great strides in its 3rd box so I'll be putting another box on top tomorrow.
Since I now have a couple of spare boxes along with a top and bottom and hive stand, I think I'll put out all of my 'spare parts' as an empty hive in case one of the hives decides to swarm. I still don't trust what I'm doing since I lost the old nuc queen. I'm not entirely sure I got rid of the other swarm cells in the hives so this may be a good plan.

Weekly? Inspection

I checked on the Not-So-Happy hive first thinking there would not be much changed, but as usual with the bees I was wrong. They have finally almost filled 2 medium boxes, but they also have started building swarm cells. I tried discouraging them by removing those cells and adding a third box. We'll see if that settles them.
Next I opened the nuc hive. This hive has 3 medium boxes, but they are not filled up yet since the old marked queen took off. I saw some brood so I hope that means there is a queen in there somewhere. They have lots of honey but not much brood right now.
Then I opened the Happy hive. This hive appears to have filled up 3 boxes. I need to add another box, but I need to make a run to the bee store to get the parts. By the time I opened up this one I was too tired to do more than spot-check, but I don't think they have started any swarm cells. I'm still impressed by how strong this hive is.