I completed my first weekly hive inspection this past weekend. It was a mix of good news and bad news. The actual process of the inspection went off without a hitch. I had two dads from Ronan's Cub Scout den, and their sons, observing the whole thing. One of them attended the Beginner Beekeeping Short Course with me and decided not to start this year. Seeing the inspection made him regret not starting.
The girls were really well behaved. Ronan and I were suited up, but Jen, my two friends, one of their sons, and Moose were all in their normal clothes. They were all moving around the hive and not one of them was stung or even bothered by the bees.
Ronan was helping to record the inspection, but I lost him about half way through. We found a drone and he spent about the next 20 minutes showing it to his friends. Here are a few good shots.
As I said the inspection went really well. You can watch part one AT THIS LINK and part two AT THIS LINK.
In the video you will see what ended up causing me some concern and ultimately some extra work. During the inspection I noticed several Swarm Cells with larva in them. That meant that the hive was inevitably going to swarm. This was most likely caused by over crowding. When I did the initial install, I stacked the frames the same way they came out of the Nuc. Since bees prefer to move vertical and not lateral, they felt as though they had no space. I figured they had plenty but I was wrong. Had I put another box on top they may have been OK. Ultimately they filled what comb they had drawn out with nectar due to the flow being in full swing. This left little to no room for brood and the workers decided it was time to swarm. Swarming is how bees propagate the species by dividing the colony and raising a new Queen.
I was also concerned because I did not find the Queen on my initial inspection. I was not concerned initially because I saw eggs which meant that she had been there recently. The more I thought about it, I realized she may have swarmed the day before and I would have still seen eggs. It just gnawed at me and I decided I had to go back in and find her. I went back in and quickly moved through the frames and was able to locate her. This gave me some sense of relief because at least I knew I still had a mated Queen.
At this point I had several options, but I did not know what I "should" do. That is when I knew it was time to call my mentor. I gave Larry a call and he said that we should do a split and he would be over the following day to help out. He brought over a Nuc box and we opened the hive again. It was a good thing too. He said the Swarm Cells looked to be about 7 days old. Swarm Cells get capped on the 8th day and then it is bye bye to the Queen and the workers she takes with her. We did another hive inspection (no video for this one) and found the Queen again. We moved a frame of nectar and two frames of brood into the Nuc box. We also gave them two frames of foundation to build on. Hopefully we tricked both haves into thinking they swarmed. So now the Apiary looks like this.
Now I have to wait 14 days to check on both of them. This will give time for any brood to hatch in the initial hive, the new queen to hatch, and the queen to mate. If it is successful, any eggs I see in the hive will be from the new Queen. The Nuc is a little more tricky. Some, if not many, of the workers are leaving the Nuc and returning to the original hive. This is because they are so close together and the workers remember the location of the original hive. I checked on them today and only saw one worker returning to the hive and no guard bees. Once the brood in there hatch, they will not know anything different and they will only return to the Nuc. Hopefully enough workers stay to raise the new brood and make the Nuc strong.
I was not expecting my bees to swarm so soon. Lesson learned is to make sure they have plenty of room. If all goes well, I will have three hive once my package gets here (That is a whole other story.) If all three are successful then I will have gotten one hive for free.
I guess that is about it. Check out the videos and make sure you like, share, and subscribe. Pass the word to your friends if you like the content and I will be sure to keep it coming.
The girls were really well behaved. Ronan and I were suited up, but Jen, my two friends, one of their sons, and Moose were all in their normal clothes. They were all moving around the hive and not one of them was stung or even bothered by the bees.
Ronan was helping to record the inspection, but I lost him about half way through. We found a drone and he spent about the next 20 minutes showing it to his friends. Here are a few good shots.
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| No Stinger on a Drone. Feel free to pet. |
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| Just hanging out with Ronan |
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| Look at those big beautiful eyes |
In the video you will see what ended up causing me some concern and ultimately some extra work. During the inspection I noticed several Swarm Cells with larva in them. That meant that the hive was inevitably going to swarm. This was most likely caused by over crowding. When I did the initial install, I stacked the frames the same way they came out of the Nuc. Since bees prefer to move vertical and not lateral, they felt as though they had no space. I figured they had plenty but I was wrong. Had I put another box on top they may have been OK. Ultimately they filled what comb they had drawn out with nectar due to the flow being in full swing. This left little to no room for brood and the workers decided it was time to swarm. Swarming is how bees propagate the species by dividing the colony and raising a new Queen.
I was also concerned because I did not find the Queen on my initial inspection. I was not concerned initially because I saw eggs which meant that she had been there recently. The more I thought about it, I realized she may have swarmed the day before and I would have still seen eggs. It just gnawed at me and I decided I had to go back in and find her. I went back in and quickly moved through the frames and was able to locate her. This gave me some sense of relief because at least I knew I still had a mated Queen.
At this point I had several options, but I did not know what I "should" do. That is when I knew it was time to call my mentor. I gave Larry a call and he said that we should do a split and he would be over the following day to help out. He brought over a Nuc box and we opened the hive again. It was a good thing too. He said the Swarm Cells looked to be about 7 days old. Swarm Cells get capped on the 8th day and then it is bye bye to the Queen and the workers she takes with her. We did another hive inspection (no video for this one) and found the Queen again. We moved a frame of nectar and two frames of brood into the Nuc box. We also gave them two frames of foundation to build on. Hopefully we tricked both haves into thinking they swarmed. So now the Apiary looks like this.
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| 5 Frame Nuc as a new home |
I was not expecting my bees to swarm so soon. Lesson learned is to make sure they have plenty of room. If all goes well, I will have three hive once my package gets here (That is a whole other story.) If all three are successful then I will have gotten one hive for free.
I guess that is about it. Check out the videos and make sure you like, share, and subscribe. Pass the word to your friends if you like the content and I will be sure to keep it coming.
The comb they're building on the tops and bottoms of the frames is sometimes referred to as ladder comb. It helps them move across some of the larger gaps in the hive. I don't typically scrape that off unless they build it on the sides of the boxes or if it prevents other frames from coming in and out.
ReplyDeleteI have heard it called that as well. I know they use it to move between boxes. Every hive demo I have been too, they always scrape it. I will try leaving it on next inspection and see how it works. Thanks for the comment. I hope you are enjoying the blog.
ReplyDelete