Bees and Bears

Well life sure has a way of keeping me away from this Blog.  I did hive inspections on Saturday and Monday.  Here it is the following Thursday and I am just now writing about it.  It did take a little time to upload all of the videos. There are 5 new videos for your viewing pleasure.  I try to link the videos in my blog posts.  If you would rather read updates more often, let me know.  I will do that and post videos separately as they get uploaded.  Please comment on the videos so I know what kind of content you want to see.  For me, recording the whole inspection allows me to go back and review what I found and make notes in my log book.  I realize as a viewer, they may become monotonous.  If you like them how they are, that is great, it makes it too easy for me.  However, if there is something you would like me to talk more about, or focus on, I can edit the videos to just show that content.  As I have stated before, this blog/vlog is as much for you as it is for me.

Now let's get down to the good stuff.  I inspected hive #1 this past Saturday.  My goal was to find a Queen and ensure she was laying eggs.  Remember, I pulled my marked queen from that hive in order to do an artificial split before they swarmed.  There were multiple swarm cells and it appeared that a new queen was inevitable. I was confident that it was going to be a success.  You can see by the picture below that I was looking forward to seeing the new queen.  Even Moose was excited

The Hike up the Hill

Alas, it was not meant to be.  There was no sign of a queen.  No eggs were laid and I did not find a queen.  Not only that, but almost all of the capped worker brood had hatched.  The weather had been very rainy over the last two weeks.  It could be that a queen hatched, but was unable to make a mating flight.  This is the same reason my package bees were delayed.  The good news is that Jen actually suited up and got into the hive.  The video of the inspection can be found in here in PART 1 and PART 2,  Jen's reactions are funny.  You can tell she is nervous but does a great job and I think has a better appreciation for an inspection.

My initial thought was that I was going to need to do a combine and put the marked queen back in her original hive.  I discussed it with Larry and I had to reconsider.  The reason being, if there was a queen in Hive #1, then they would fight.  IF the marked queen died and the the other queen failed to mate, I would have two hives without laying queens.  Instead, it was decided to take a frame of eggs from Hive #2 and put it in Hive #1.  If there was no queen in there the workers will draw out an Emergency Queen Cell and raise a new queen.  The video of everything that took place in that procedure is HERE  I would know within 48 hours if they had drawn out the Emergency Cell. There was nothing there on Sunday, so I would have to wait until Monday to find out.

Monday is where the fun begins.  I had the Den 1 Bears from Pack 395 in the apiary for a demonstration of a hive inspection.  I chose to use Hive #2 since the queen is marked and there are frames in multiple stages of use.  Here they are gathered while I give them some safety rules.

They are good listeners

I then gave them a demo on lighting a smoker.

Little boys are fascinated by fire.

When it came time to start the inspection, one of the scouts volunteered to suit up in Ronan's gear and help with the inspection.  He was so excited.

New assistant.

He wasted no time getting his hands in the hive and had no apprehensions.  Check out his skill.

Looks like pro

The bees were also on their best behavior.  There were no stings even though the Scouts got up close and personal.

No Fear

I also got a hold of drone and was able to pass it around.  Some of the Scouts who were afraid of bees actually held it.  Drones are a great way to help people overcome their fears.

Drones are fun.

Their reactions to the whole experience are great.  You can see them HERE

After the inspection, I went into Hive #1 to check for an Emergency Cell.  Another Scout suited up and helped me out.

Another future beekeeper

He pulled the frame that had eggs in it and we looked for any sign that the workers were making a new queen.

Let's see what's going on.

Unfortunately there was nothing to be found.  HERE is the link for that video.  The only thing that I can imagine is going on, is that there is a Virgin Queen in the hive and she has just not mated yet.  I will check again this weekend and if there is still no sign, I may do another swap with a frame of eggs.  If that fails, then I think I will have to combine the original queen back in Hive #1

That wraps up this past weekend.  Since then, I have received my latest order from Brushy Mountain.  I will be posting an unboxing video in the next few days.  Let me know if there are any other video topics you want me to cover.

Thanks for reading and watching.  I have been told that people are having trouble commenting on the blog.  If that is the case, comment on a YouTube video instead.  I will read them and take whatever advice you have.  Thanks again.