East Hive Inspection

I popped over to dad's house Sunday to take a look at the little swarm hive. Dad has been complaining of bald-faced hornets around the hive, so I had to get the different cover on the hive that will allow him to switch out the sugar jar without having to monkey around with too much equipment.

Overall the hive is weak. They have drawn out about 6 frames, which is about what they had two weeks ago, and two weeks before that. The county bee inspector stopped by last week and came to the same conclusion. Therefore, we must feed.

There is still a nice brood pattern, and about 4 solid frames of brood, but just not a lot of volume. Hopefully those four frames of brood will hatch in the next week or so and give the hive a good chance to take advantage of the fall flow and build up before winter.

East Hive Inspection

Yesterday I was over at my dad's for some dinner and to inspect the East hive, started from a swarm in June. As an added bonus, we had a special guest! A friend of mine from work's wife is thinking about keeping bees, so I had her come over and get her hands in a hive. I think she enjoyed herself enough to maybe give it a try next spring.

The bees are only occupying about six of ten frames. I sure would like to see them build up more than this, but we've been under a drought for almost two months now, so that might have something to do with it.

Our friend Amy was very curious, and was able to spot the eggs right away. The queen is definitely healthy and laying, but she might not have a lot of room to lay with not a lot of wax drawn on the extra frames. Hopefully with the rain we've been getting now, some stuff will start blooming and they can make more wax. My dad doesn't want to feed them anymore because he's already dumped about $50 of sugar water in there. I can't say I blame him.

East Hive still queenless

Visited the East hive on June 3rd and found it to still be queenless. There is a laying worker in the hive and all the brood are drones. This hive will eventually collapse as the bees die. There are only about two frames of bees in there. Sad - my dad is bummed out about it but he will have more bees soon!

Okay, so maybe it's all okay out East

Inspected East apiary today... Things seem to have worked out! Frames 3, 4, 5 and 6 all have good, very solid pattern of brood and eggs, so the queen has definitely worked things out!

Added a second box as all but one of the frames is drawn out.

Nice, solid pattern of eggs and larvae. No fear of queenlessness anymore!

Look at that nice brood pattern

This is an old frame

Sad news at the East apiary

We did some family camping this weekend down in Lisbon, so I stopped up at my dad's on Saturday to check on his bees. The bees at my dad's came from a swarm from a beekeeper friend's hive. It was moved about 30 miles before being put into place.

Opening up the hive, right away I knew something was wrong. The bees were humming loud and seemed agitated, though they were not flying more than other hives I have opened so far. When I opened it up, I noticed there weren't really many bees in there, though that would be the case on a swarm hived less than 2 weeks ago, as the new brood would not have hatched yet. Here's what the inside looked like:

OK so that looks pretty decent, but there was a big problem - no brood! No eggs, no larvae, no brood. That means no queen or at least no effective queen. What sad news! I did see something curious on one of the frames though:

I think that's a queen cell. All the pics of queen cells I've seen look something like this. Looking around, I didn't see much brood. When I got this picture onto my computer and blew it up a bit, I did see some eggs but I think I might have a laying worker because some of the cells look like they have two eggs in them:

I really regret not looking more closely when I had the hive open. I can't tell for sure if these are single or double eggs in cells. If I have a laying worker I am not sure what I should do - if it's even worth it to buy a mated queen and put her in there. I will consult the almighty Internets and see what they have to say.

Here is a blown up pic of that queen cell.

The new East apiary

Tuesday on my way home from work, I got a call from Scott, a fellow beekeeper in my neighborhood. Scott's wife noticed that one of Scott's three hives was swarming and gave him a call. He retrieved the swarm and contained it in some equipment he had on hand: a deep box with six frames, sitting on an inverted telescoping cover, and a bee escape turned upside down on top so bees could come in but not go out. Since Scott is not looking to expand his apiaries this year, he very nicely gave me a call and said the bees were mine if I wanted them, or he would give them to someone else. Free bees? Sign me up!

Next came the panic over logistics. The bees were trapped in their box, with bellies full of honey and probably anxious to start building comb. I had to get them moved to a good location and get the equipment straightened out that night. So where should I put them?

There's only one hive at the "North" apiary in Akron at Essie's house, but we're hoping to get a swarm from her bee tree, so I didn't want to put a new hive at her place. The South apiary, at my house, was too close to Scott's house. Dad has been wanting a hive on his property for a few weeks now. Ever since I got my bees, he's been fascinated with the little critters, with swarm traps, with stories I tell him about bee behavior.  I gave him a call. He agreed to host the hive at his house, under the agreement that I would manage them, since he "[doesn't] know what to do with those things." He said he would prepare a site with a nice level base.

Next was the logistical panic. Unfortunately, Tuesday was me bee club meeting and Corissa's night for her moms' meeting, and she was intent on leaving the kids with me if I wasn't going to Bee Meeting. So I needed to figure out a way to pick up the bees and take them to Salem, with kids in tow. I decided to attach the hitch mounted platform carrier to the Jeep, strap the bees to that, have the kids inside, and go for the drive. I had a plan. Good.

Next was the equipment panic. Scott had the bees in a deep, with six frames, on an inverted top cover, with a bee escape on top. The bees could not get out of the hive in that condition. I had a solid bottom board on hand that I had made before I decided to build screened bottom boards instead. I did not have an inner cover or a top cover. I went home and masterfully constructed an inner cover and top cover from scraps in the garage. I am getting damn good at building beekeeping equipment. Now I was ready to go get my bees!

I went to Scott's house and found the bees right where he said they would be. With curious neighbors looking on, I strapped the box to the car and drove off. Forty-five minutes later in Salem, I found the beautiful stone platform Dad had built for the bees. I suited up, lit the smoker and moved the bees to their new home. I opened up the box and found six frames and an empty space with a tree branch in it. I pulled out the tree branch and put the box on the bottom board. I added two frames of honey that Scott left for me, and two empty frames. I put on the inner and telescoping covers I had constructed, and watched the bees march into the entrance. It was an awesome sight. I forgot to bring my camera (drat!) but my mom took a few pictures with hers:

Smoking the bees, who were slightly annoyed about being bounced around on the 45 minute car ride.

Making room for the extra frames

Adding frames for a 10-frame hive. I had one undrawn plastic foundation frame and one foundationless frame with a starter strip. 

All hived up, with the original hive "bottom" and the bee escape leaned against the stand so the stragglers would go inside. By noon on Wednesday, they had all gone in.