First hive inspection reveals Squill is off to a good start!
Three weeks afterinstalling his bee package, Brian finally got to inspect his hiveSquill.These bees took a while towarm up to the queen, so Brian was wondering if she was in there and laying or if the girls had decided to reject her and had either killed or superceded her. Pollen was going in the hive which is usually a good indicator of brood and a happily laying queen (although not definite).
Upon opening the hive, Brian was very happy with what he saw. Seven frames of wax were being drawn out on wax foundation frames. Four frames were filled with capped brood and the queen had an excellent laying pattern. There was pollen and capped honey in the hive. On one of the frames, the wax was chewed around the bottom and sides and it looked very similar to thefoundationless frames in Willow.
Brian also noticed his marked queen had paint all over one wing. Someone got creative and colored outside the lines when painting her. I wonder if this will affect her ability to fly? Does anyone know? All in all this was a great inspection and a relief to see that although this hive was off to a bumpy start everything is now moving along smoothly.
This is a great brood pattern.
Box Breakdown
Bottom Box – Frame 1 starting to be drawn. Frame 2 capped honey in the corners, pollen and a few capped drones. Frame 3 capped honey in the corners, capped brood. Frame 4 capped brood, capped honey, pollen, nice brood pattern. Frame 5 great capped brood pattern, capped honey at the top, drone brood near the bottom and the queen. Frame 6 capped brood, capped honey, pollen. Frames 7 pollen in different colors. Frame 8 undrawn. Frames 9 undrawn. Frame 10 undrawn. Moved frame 8 to 2.
To see more detailed pictures and descriptions please view the gallery below. Just click on a picture then scroll through the slide show by clicking on the arrows. If you click on the picture the gallery will close. If you are viewing this in an email or reader you may have to read this post on the website for the gallery and descriptions to display properly. Enjoy!
Several weeks agoEssex County Beekeepers Associationheld a workshop called building aHot Box and Wax Purifier / Cleaner. One of the members of our club came up with the design and Brian went to the workshop to build it. When he brought the completed hot box home I was so impressed. It is just awesome! This little contraption takes wax from a solar wax melter and purifies it so it is clean enough to be used in candles and molds. In addition, it melts beeswax for candle making or any other purpose, liquefies crystallized honey in jars and warms up honey in the frame ever so slightly so it extracts easier in the fall when the temperatures are cold.
Brian and the wax purifier.
I’m so excited to use this wax purifier, I keep thinking of other things I could use it for until my wax is ready. After I put it to the test I will show you the results but for now you’ll have to wait.
Hot box and wax purifier.
If you are not involved in a bee club, a workshop like this is one reason (out of many) why you should join one. My club holds workshops to teach members new techniques and to help us build new beekeeping equipment. There are many experienced beekeepers there you can learn from, and beekeeping speakers and scientists who are brought in for meetings. In the summer the club has hive openings at member’s houses, which is always an excellent way to increase your beekeeping knowledge. Thanks Brian and ECBA for this great new beekeeping tool!
The weather has been strange this year with extremely warm weather followed by cold and a week plus of rain. Several local beekeeping friends have seen early swarms in the last couple of days and/or capped queen cells in the hive. Many people are already making splits of their hives. If you’re local (I’m in MA) and haven’t checked your hive in a week or more you might want to take a look inside and see what’s happening. It only takes eight days to get a capped queen cell and if you are worried about swarms it is a good idea to check your strong hives once a week for the next month or so.
This is a queen swarm cell with royal jelly and larvae in it. This picture was taken last week from a friend's hive. Photo by Nathaniel Brown.
Crocushas adifferent problem.They built up very quickly during the warm weather, with little stores. Most of their food was going to raise new bees. The return to the cold left them caught without enough supplies in the pantry. The girls beganuncapping and removing drone larvae and pupae and killing live drones. (They are also very cranky and have stung me twice now – ouch!) Even though they were bringing in pollen and nectar, it wasn’t enough for everyone. The cold weather caught the girls off guard and the poor drones were evicted. I guess if you’re only good for one thing, it’s easy to get fired!
I tried feeding them a quart of syrup to help them out a little, but the hive was reluctant to take it with nectar still available. The queen has reduced her egg laying and seems to be self-regulating, so I’m letting nature take its course. Here are a few of the drone pupae I found outside the hive last week.
The photos below are of a drone that had been sitting outside for day or two in the rain (hence the yellow tinge.)
Further inspection on 5-6-12 revealed Crocus had in fact deconstructedALL of the drones cells from the previous inspection.There is hardly any pollen in the hive and only one frame of eggs (compared to the 10 plus frames I was seeing a few weeks ago). The entire hive is filled with bees but has only one frame of capped honey and one frame of nectar (which is more than they had the week before). There are a few live drones still in the hive but most have been eliminated. We are going on two weeks of rain now with a day or two of sun in between. There are a lot of dead bees outside all the hives. I’m hoping the storms have passed at last so the bees can get out and get the food they desperately need.
Tuesday, April 27th was my first inspection of Dandelion afterinstalling the package on April 15th. It was cloudy, 52 degrees and probably much too windy to do an inspection normally. Despite the weather, the girls were still bringing in lots of orange pollen. I wanted to do a quick check to see if the queen was alive and laying. These bees consumed 3 quarts of syrup in 12 days. This is much more than my other new hives who have taken less than a qt.
When I opened up the hive the bees were actively drawing wax and building comb. I had to disturb the festooning and pull the bees apart to get the frames out. As you can see they were very busy. Four frames were almost finished and completely covered in bees.
Four frames were filled with bees, they were drawing wax before I removed this frame.
Underneath the bees, one frame was full of capped brood and another had eggs and larvae. The queen was laying well with a good pattern. This frame had the queen and lots of eggs.
The queen and lots of eggs.
The bees were drawing out an additional frame with wonky comb resembling the shape of queen cells. Hopefully they will fix this as they continue to finish drawing wax.
One frame had strange looking comb on it.
After closing up the hive, a field bee dropped by to say hello. Look at all the pollen on her face! She is a just a cutie!
Field bee with pollen on her face.
It is probably dandelion pollen she is carrying all over her – how fitting! What a perfect way to end my inspection of Dandelion hive.
For more information about this hive please visit Dandelion Hive.
There are manyreasons to go foundationless,and here are a few: the bees prefer to draw foundationless comb; they will build natural size comb instead of the size the foundation dictates; natural size comb is supposed to help control varroa mites; and the most important reason to me, natural comb drawn by the bees does not have chemical contaminants in it. Commercial foundation contains chemicals in it from beekeepers using mite products and other pesticides in the hive. Those pesticides accumulate in the wax that is melted down and molded into foundation or put onto plastic frames. Foundationless frames use all or mostly wax that is made by the bees themselves, avoiding these contaminants. These reasons and more suggest foundationless comb is healthier for the bees.
However, I have never seen someone in person using foundationless frames in a langstroth hive with deep size frames (but you can find people online who are doing so). When I approached several beekeepers I knew and respected, they advised me not to try it because the bees will make a mess of things and it will be too hard to extract honey without the comb falling apart. Maybe they are right, but I really wanted to try it anyway and so this experiment began.
After I read all about foundationless frames onbeesource,Linda’s BeesandMichael Bush’s website, I took a webinar and emailed Michael Bush (who is very nice and helpful) and other people about the methods to go about using them, because there are many. I decided to wire the frames completely and alsouse a wax starter stripwhich I cut from foundation without wire. Wiring the frame gives the wax more strength against breakage, and the starter strips give the bees a guide for the direction to build the comb. I wedged the strip into the top bar in the same way a full frame of wax foundation would fit inside. This is what my frames looked like before I put them in the hive.
I was all set to start the hive with 10 frames like this, but after speaking to several other beekeepers, I instead decided to alternate between frames of foundation and foundationless frames. This would help guide the bees toward the right direction of comb building. Needless to say, I was both nervous and excited to see what the bees would do with the configuration I gave them.
To my amazement they are doing absolutely incredible and better than I ever expected! They are drawing the foundationless frames correctly. In just 12 days time, they have started working on 8 frames and just about finished 6 of them. There is also capped brood in the hive. Since it takes 9 days to cap worker larvae, this means the queen was released and started laying after being in the hive 1-3 days. That is amazing!
Here’s what the foundationless frames look like when the bees start working on them (2 frames looked like this).
A foundationless frame the bees just started filling with wax.
Here’s what the frames look like when they are almost complete (2 frames looked like this).
Foundationless frame almost complete.
The bees built all this wax and they have almost filled the entire frame.
There is a lot of larvae for a new package, lots of pollen, and even some capped honey. I’m feeding them but they are not taking the syrup. All this was built from their own collection of nectar. These bees and their queen are doing just awesome! Here’s a picture of her majesty.
The queen. Isn't she a beauty?
This hive is doing an amazing job building out both the foundationless frames and the foundation. I’m so proud of them! I can’t wait until the next inspection.
Do you use foundationless frames? What is your method? Let me know in the comments below.
Box Breakdown
Bottom Box – Frame 1 wired wax foundation (wwf) undrawn. Frame 2 foundationless frame (ff) newly drawn, being filled with nectar. Frame 3 (wwf) partially drawn, nectar and pollen. Frame 4 (ff) nectar, capped honey, larvae, eggs, pollen. Frame 5 (wwf) capped brood!!!! Eggs, larvae, nectar, pollen, capped honey and the queen. Frame 6 (wwf) capped brood!!!! Eggs, larvae, nectar, pollen, capped honey. Frames 7 (ff) nectar, larvae, eggs. Frame 8 (wwf) nectar and pollen. Frames 9 (ff) newly drawn. Frame 10 (ff) undrawn. Moved frame 9 to 10 and frame 1 undrawn foundation to 9. Moved frame 10 to 2. May need to super next week.
To see more detailed pictures and descriptions please view the gallery below. Just click on a picture then scroll through the slide show by clicking on the arrows. If you click on the picture the gallery will close. If you are viewing this in an email or reader you may have to read this post on the website for the gallery and descriptions to display properly. Enjoy!
The last time Brian checked his new hive the queen had not been released yet. The bees were clustered all over the cage and some appeared to be biting the wires. A week later, Brian was wondering if the queen was even still alive. Upon opening the hive, clusters of bees were on the top bars and some were on the queen cage (although far less than before). This is what the hive looked like inside.
Bees on the top bars and the queen cage.
Brian brushed the bees off the queen cage with a feather.
Brushing bees off the queen cage with a feather.
Peering inside the cage there was no queen to be found. Hooray! At last, the queen had been released by the bees! Colony crisis averted. Relieved and not wanting to push his luck, Brian removed the queen cage and rim board and closed the hive back up.
The queen is no longer in the cage.
I was dying to get a look inside and check the queen but Brian wanted to wait and give them more time to get settled. Since he is the boss of this hive I guess I’ll have to be patient a little while longer. I’m glad to see his queen was out and the bees were bringing in orange pollen (probably dandelion). This is a great sign the workers have accepted the new queen and brood is in there or on the way shortly.
This is an online version of my hive inspection notes. More descriptive posts about this hive can be found on theCrocus Hivepage.
The weather has been seasonable but rainy and windy and the bees have not been out much the past 3-4 days. It was sunny, windy and 54 degrees when I opened the hive. The girls were taking orientation flights and were somewhat agitated. I had to smoke them to look at the hive. I saw yellow and orange pollen (I think this is Dandelion) coming into the hive. The hive was buzzing loudly. I was worried about their food supply after the rain and also concerned the bees may be getting ready to swarm since the hive is filled with bees and swarm season is underway. Friends hives nearby have swarmed this past week which is earlier than normal for this area. Since my hives are in a suburban environment I need to prevent them from swarming as much as possible. So I needed to do a quick check.
When I opened the box there were plenty of bees. The honey super had not been touched at all. The entire top box except two frames was filled completely on both sides with capped brood. The other frames were empty.
The top box is filled with capped brood in frames 2-9.
The bottom box had 1 frame of capped honey, plus maybe half a frame of honey combined on all the other frames. There was little nectar and a tiny amount eggs and larvae. One frame was full of capped brood. The rest of the frames were empty. There was no pollen in the hive, although they were bringing plenty in.
Drones cells were on the bottom of three frames. Some of the drones cells were uncapped. I think I may have bumped some pulling the frame out and accidentally uncapped them, but there were a few other drones cells which were uncapped that the bees appeared to be chewing open. They were very also cranky and kept flying at me the entire time I was in the hive, which is not normal for them. While trying to get a picture of a frame I got stung on my finger – it was my fault because I smushed the bee by mistake. That’s what I get for not wearing gloves. It was my first sting of the year! I hope it’s the last.
One of the three frames with drones on the bottom.
Close up of the drone cells.
Some of the drones on this side are uncapped but I think this was my fault. When I removed the frame I may have bumped them. A few of the drones on the other frames appeared to have been uncapped by the bees, it looked like the bees were chewing them out. If I didn't get stung I would have taken a picture of that too!
It was alarming the bees appeared to be uncapping drone brood. This means they are going into starvation mode. When there is not enough food, they ditch the drones. So much for thefruit bloomor my bees ability to get at it! When I removed their one and only frame of honey to look at it they got very perturbed. The rain must have been hard on them the last few days. Hungry bees are cranky bees!
I think they ramped up too quickly with brood during the really warm weather and then the return to the cold and rainy weather left them without enough stores. I think the queen knows it too because there were so few eggs and larvae in the hive. With all that capped brood hatching soon the hive will almost double in size and they should be able to get all the pollen and nectar they need. I may move a frame of capped brood to one of the package hives to lesson the stress on these bees, but I haven’t decided yet. I also really don’t want to feed them and need to be careful I don’t feed them so much they back fill the cells with syrup and swarm. There is food out there and they should be getting it. Besides, what they really need is pollen. I would rather feed the bees then let them starve, however, so I decided to give them a quart of syrup, see if they take it, and remove the honey super for a few days if they start to (so they don’t store it there). The weather is going to clear up so I’ll skip the pollen patty supplement. Hopefully that will get them through the hump, the rain stops and they will be foraging again soon!
Box Breakdown
Honey Super – Empty and undrawn.
Top box - Frame 1 empty. Frames 2-9 filled entirely with capped brood. Frame 10 empty.
Bottom Box – Frame 1 capped honey. Frame 2 half filled with nectar. Frame 3-4 empty. Frame 4 one quarter filled with eggs and larvae. Frame 5 capped brood. Frame 6 about a quarter filled with eggs and larvae. Frames 7-10 are empty.
Three days after weinstalled our bee packages,it was time for Brian and I to peek at the queen cages to see if the queens had been released yet. First, we checked Brian’s hiveSquill.Brian slowly lifted the covers and peered inside. This is what he saw – bees tightly clustered all over the queen cage.
Bees clustering on the queen cage.
Although we both suspected it, further inspection revealed yes the queen was definitely still in there. If you look at this picture closely, you can see her peeking out through the bars of the queen cage where there is a small clearing of bees.
If you look closely you can see the queen looking out through the bars.
The candy plug had barely been touched at all. The girls also did not appear to be feeding the queen and some bees, but not all, looked like they may have been chewing the bars. Three days is on the early side to check for the release of the queen. Sometimes it can take package bees a week to ten days to accept her. Brian closed the hive up carefully and decided to leave the hive alone for a week. Hopefully the bees would eventually accept her.
Next, I inspectedWillow.As soon as I opened the hive I saw the Queen walking around a few frames over from where the queen cage was placed. The marked queens are so easy to spot with the dot on their back. Seeing her right away was a bonus because I knew she was released, the bees had accepted her and I also knew exactly where she was in the hive.
I decided to remove the queen cage, because except for a few frames of wax foundation, this is a foundationless hive. I didn’t want the bees to get the wrong idea about where to build comb.
After removing the frame holding the cage, I could see inside the hive. In 3 days time, the bees had started building out 2 frames of foundation and at least one frame of foundationless comb. They were also building it correctly! I hope they keep that up.
The girls were even filling the new comb up with pollen and nectar. Way to go bees! The queen cage was securely waxed into the comb. If I left it there any longer it may have been completely engulfed in comb in a few days time. This is what the frame looked like.
The queen cage was being incorporated into the comb. Look at all the color in the cells. They bees have already started filling them with pollen and nectar.
I slowly took the queen cage out, trying not to damage too much comb. I removed the rubber band as gently as possible, wishing I had brought scissors with me to do it, so as not to disturb the bees as much. Then I put the frame back and closed up the hive.
It’s too early to do an inspection yet and important not to bother the girls a lot in the beginning while they are getting used to the new queen. If something goes wrong in the hive and makes the bees unhappy, they can blame the queen and kill her. That would be bad and not what you want with a new package! Some people suggest waiting a week before checking on the queen cage to prevent this from happening.
This is what the queen cage looked like when I took it out. Look at all that wax on the strip.
Look at the wax on the queen cage.
Last we checkedDandelion.Opening the outer cover revealed the bees were clustered on the frame of the candy board. They had started building burr comb between the queen cage and the top of the candy board.
Bees clustered on the candy board cover.
It took a little while to figure out if the queen was in that cluster of bees or in the cage or somewhere else. This is what the queen cage looked like.
The queen cage was covered in bees.
I had the hive opened longer than I wanted to looking for the queen. I needed to remove the candy board and cage if she was released so the bees would start building comb in the frames instead of on the candy board.
Looking for the queen. I had to leave the candy board on the hive while looking, in case the queen was inside that cluster of bees.
I looked and looked but could not find her. After determining she had been released from the cage and was probably not in the cluster, I shook the frame once hard and the bees fell into the hive. Instantly, they began sticking their butts in the air and fanning. I was relieved. This was a great sign the queen was inside the hive after all.
The bees with their butts in the air are fanning telling the other bees the queen is inside the hive.
I no longer had to worry that I may have missed her in that bee cluster. I removed the board with the burr comb and the queen cage, then closed the hive back up. This is what that bee cluster was building.
Burr comb on the candy board cover.
Worker bees were still inside the queen cage eating the candy, so I waited for them to leave. The queen cage smells like the queen and I needed to get it away from the hive so as not to confuse the workers.
Worker bees were inside the queen cage eating the candy.
After they left I got to inspect the pearly white burr comb again. Isn’t it just beautiful! I wish I could have left it for them to use.
Isn't the burr comb beautiful!
The bees had connected the queen cage to the top of the candy board with the burr comb they built. They also started storing nectar in the comb. The nectar has a yellow tinge in the picture.
The other side of the comb had nectar in it.
Now that the queens are out and the cages are removed in two hives, I’ll leave them alone for another week before I check to see how they are doing.
After installing packages in two rooftop hives,WillowandSquill,Brian and I installed the third package at an outyard location in a backyard nearby. Brian built a hive stand out of cedar for the bees. Isn’t it beautiful!
Cedar Hive Stand
I named this hive Dandelion after the flowers importance as a spring food source for bees. Dandelion pollen is orange, it’s very nutritious for bees and one of the most important pollens for brood rearing. Like the other hives, I’ve made apage on the websiteso you can track this hive’s progress. You can also get there by mousing overThe Apiarylink above and clicking onDandelion Hive.Dandelion was installed in a Langstroth 10 Frame hive using plastic pierco foundation.
For this install I placed the queen on the top bars and used a rim board to give the bees room to take care of her.
The Dandelion queen on the top bars. Her bees are still in the box.
The bees are now happy to be in a new home and out of that box.
Dandelion after the install.
To see more detailed pictures and descriptions of the package installation view the gallery below. Just click on a picture then scroll through the slideshow by clicking on the arrows. If you click on the picture the gallery will close. If you are viewing this in an email or reader you may have to read this post on the website for the gallery and descriptions to display properly. Enjoy!
Bee Package Installation In Brian’s Rooftop Hive Squill
After Iinstalled the bees into Willow, it was Brian’s turn to install his first package of honeybees. It was hard for me to stand back and let him do it, knowing the bees still make him nervous. One piece of advice given to me when I was a new beekeeper was “Go into the hive as much as you need to, to feel comfortable with the bees.” The first year of beekeeping is as much about you becoming a beekeeper as it is about the bees. It was only a year ago that I would get thatnervousness in the pit of my stomach whenever I opened the hive and wondered if it would ever go away. I can tell you with certainty yes – it has and if you are a new beekeeper who feels this way, you will get there too. Just follow my mentor Stan’s advice and “Go into the hive as much as you need to, to feel comfortable with the bees.”
Bees clustered on the Queen Cage.
All in all Brian did a pretty good job with the install. I walked him through it step by step and everything was going fine (or so I thought) until a bee got into his veil. I could see the panic on his face, butunlike last year, this time he was holding a box of bees and was on the roof – there was nowhere to run. I told him to calmly put the box down, walk down the ladder and take off the veil, which to my amazement he did. I think he didn’t want me to write any more funny posts about him running away from the bees. On a side note, I think Brian is getting a new veil from me as a present so this doesn’t keep happening!
Brian with the queen cage.
Many of the bees from Brian’s hive ended up in the air because Brian did not shake the package close enough to the hive or spray the bees with enough syrup and/or because he waited to put the queen in the hive until after he shook the bees. I’m sure this confused them even more and some went looking for her. A lot of the package bees flew over to the hive that I installed moments before and clustered on the front of that hive. I guess theconfused beesare part of Willow now.
Bees clustering on Willow
After we installed the two packages some of the package bees tried to get into Crocusand all out battle ensued. A poor black bee was getting bitten for having gone into the wrong hive.
Black bee from a package being attacked by a Crocus bee.
The air was a mass of buzzing bees. I’ve included a video to show you what it was like on our small rooftop.
After Brian’s hive was done we went to the out yard to install the last package. It was there as Brian watched me with the girls that he realized he forgot to take the cork out of the Queen cage. I was surprised by this because I walked him through the install and mentioned that part and he was looking at the cage and had the leatherman in his hand but somehow with the nervousness and the bee getting inside his veil he missed it. I should have double checked that part for him since it is so important – that’s what I get for trying to be hands off! So after we installed the package in the out yard, we had to go back into Brian’s hive to take the cork out of the Queen cage. By now the bees were all over her, but Brian brushed them off then took the cork out and put her back. Hopefully everything will be okay. I’m so glad he remembered to do it!
Brian named his hive Squill after thebeautiful blue pollenofthe Siberian Squill flower. It is available early in the spring for the bees, when not much else is available for them to eat. Like the other hives, I’ve made a page on the websiteso you can track this hive’s progress. You can also get there by mousing overThe Apiarylink above and clicking onSquill Hive. Squill was installed in a Langstroth 10 Frame hive using wired wax foundation.
To see more detailed pictures and descriptions of the package installation, including when Brian got a bee in his veil, view the gallery below. Just click on a picture then scroll through the slideshow by clicking on the arrows. If you click on the picture the gallery will close. If you are viewing this in a reader or by email you may have to read this post on the website for the gallery and descriptions to display properly. Enjoy!
