Initial Hive Inspection Complete

I finally got with my mentor and conducted my initial hive inspection.  I am extremely pleased with how it went.  After my less than ideal installation of the Nuc, I am glad that I redeemed myself.  I feel much more confident in my abilities.  Larry (my mentor) offered some good suggestions and made sure everything went well.  He pretty much let me take control and just have at it.

Ronan lit the smoker and we both suited up and headed up to the apiary.  Jen joined us to take some great photos.  You will get to see them below.  I started out smoking the entrance and the outer cover.  Several people have asked me what the smoke is for.  There are several theories to exactly what it does.  First it masks the smell of the bee's pheromones, so they cannot communicate any warnings throughout the hive.  This is why I smoke the entrance first.  That is where the guard bees are.  Second, when the bees smell smoke, they react as if there is a fire.  They gorge themselves on nectar/honey in case they need to leave the hive (in the event of a real fire).  This keeps them busy and also makes them slower. 

Let the smoke do its thing.

 Once the bees were smoked and in the hive, I began my inspection in earnest. Larry pointed out that I had made a minor mistake when I installed the Nuc.  I did not ensure that my frames were snug together and equally spaced from the sides.  This can become a problem later because the bees will draw comb between them and stick them together.  Larry just wanted to make sure I didn't get into a bad habit.

The bees working.

Larry pointing out my mistake

From there, things went great.  I went frame by frame in the top box.  The outer frames had not really been worked.  Some comb had been drawn out.  I did determine that my bees could care less that I am using small cell foundation.. They drew the cells out to the size they wanted.

Drawing out comb.  A great sign!

Frame full of nectar

Lots of capped brood.

As I moved through the upper box, to my surprise I came across the Queen.  I was positive she would be in the bottom box.  I was more than excited to see her.  Since I didn't see her during the install, I was not sure that she had survived.  I knew she was in there once I started inspecting the hive because I saw eggs and larva.  Larvae means she was around between 4-9 days ago.  Eggs means she was there within 3.  It is always a good thing to find the queen and make sure she is doing her thing.  She is marked blue because she was mated last year and is in line with the international color coding.  I won't keep you waiting any longer...here she is.

Find the blue dot.  Isn't she pretty

Look at that fat abdomen full of eggs

Another little fun event was when Larry pulled a drone off a frame.  Drones have no stinger so can be handled without any fear of being stung.  He just plucked it off and handed it to Ronan. 

Larry shows the drone to Ronan

Ronan shows there is nothing to fear

That about sums it up.  After inspecting both the upper and lower box, I reassembled the frames.  All of the Nuc frames from the top box got put into the lower box.  Bees tend to move up and not out toward the edges.  I put the Nuc frames that were full of nectar and pollen on the outer portion of the box.  All of the brood was kept together toward the middle.  That gives them plenty of room now to move up into the upper box and begin expanding the brood chamber.

The final picture I will give you is an overall shot of the Apiary.  Not much action in the photo, but I like that it shows how much stuff is there even though it is only two hives.

The humble BEEginnings

I am in the process of editing and uploading video of the inspection.  As soon as that is done I will post it up.  I hope you all come back and check it out.