A longer look at doing some hive manipulations. In this BubbaTube, we open up a hive with all intention of swapping brood supers, but get a surprise in the process. We also replace some hardware that has come to the end of its life.
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Today I’ll be swapping around supers at the Brooks and Woolsey beeyards. This is a swarming control technique that supposedly keeps the colony from feeling crowded. The idea is that bees constantly move up in the colony through the winter as they consumes their winter stores. By the spring, the bottom of the colony is basically empty. By swapping the top and the bottom supers, we open up another super of space above for the colony to move into.
I’ll also be putting honey supers on these hives. It takes a while for the bees to “get” that their hive has changed sizes and move up into the super. We’ve already got a light nectar flow going, which will quickly pick up in the next few weeks, so I want them up in there drawing comb ahead of the game.
My supers have top entrances too. I’m a big fan of top entrances for two reasons. They provide additional ventilation, but the air isn’t pulled up directly through the broodnest, and it gives the foragers a direct route to the honey stores – meaning they don’t have to walk all the way up the inside of the colony to get where they’re going.
It’s been a little over a month since it was last warm enough to pop in and see how the girls are doing. Today when it broke 52 degrees, I conducted a brief spring inspection at the Brooks yard.
Brooks 1 – Bit the dust. The pollin patty was about 90% intact, and there was still syrup in the feeder. The (now dead) cluster was down to the size of a fist so I can only imagine that they never warmed up enough to break cluster and get some grub. Pisser.
Brooks 2 – Looks really good. Patty was completely consumed and feeders were empty. Cluster spanned 5 frames and was the depth of the super (bees were active all the way to the bottom of the frame). Brood pattern was very good, with larve in all stages of development. Added 2nd deep using drawn comb from the now deceased Brooks 1. Put 2 patties between hive bodies and topped off feeders with 2:1 syrup.
Brooks 3 – In good shape. Patty was completely consumed. Both feeders were empty. Cluster was large – spanning 6 frames. Brood pattern looked good with brood in all stages of development.
Maintenence Needed: The top deep super is rotting out on the left side and needs to be replaced.
Brooks 4 – Still Dead.
Brooks 5 – Similar to Brooks 3. Patty was consumed and both feeders were empty. Topped off both feeders with 2:1 syrup. Cluster was large and busy spanning 6 frames. Lots of brood. Added another patty on top bars.
Maintenence Needed:Screened bottom board and bottom deep need to be replaced.
I’ve read over on Linda’s Beekeeping blog that the Red Maple is already blooming. We have some red maples and I can’t report that, but they look darn close. Time to get the honey supers ready – fingers crossed.
Cold as hell today, but it’s only going to get colder the rest of the week so it was either today or wait till next week to get pollen patties on the hives. I made a few yesterday from 2:1 syrup and megabee. Each of the hives got one except for the one in PTC. That one got two since it’s more of a drive for me, but also it’s still looking pretty strong as well. I also got the last two hives wrapped in 30# felt paper as well – so that’s all good.
All in all the hives looked pretty healthy. The cluster was a pretty good size and they seemed pretty defensive when I opened the top ( I guess I would be too!). But that’s a good sign. I didn’t want to linger with it being so cold out, but it looked like all the hives still had what looked like plenty of capped stores. It’s too early to say of course, but I’m hoping that I can come out in the spring without any losses. (fingers, toes, and elbows crossed!)
Honey Run Apiaries has some good reading on how to make pollen patties in case you’re curious.
till next time…
The first log of the year and it couldn’t bee (wink) better timing. Today is pollin patty day. It’s supposed to be be seriously cold over the next few days. I swapped out the bee-koozies for 30lb roofing paper and the hive temp seems to get higher during the sunny times of the day. Syrup consumption seems higher as well. Today I used the last of my megabee pollen substitute to make up some pollin patties which I’m going to get on the hives this afternoon. Megabee is far and away the best pollen substitute on the market in my opinion. I have some family coming over for dinner so I probably won’t be able to get over to the other hives this afternoon, but that’s on the list for tomorrow.
Vegetable Garden
Here’s a pic of the vetable garden starting to grow in. The Brooks beehives can be seen in the far background.
One of the perks of keeping bees is that your plants get heavily pollinated. Here’s a blackberry bush that sits about 100 feet from 7 hives in my back yard. It never had a chance. We’ve already picked pounds of berries off this plant, and it looks like it’s not giving up anytime soon.
I’m thinking blackberry jam! Yummy!
Synopsys
I continue to have numerous problems with hives going queenless causing me to have to pull brood frames from other healthy hives to allow them to raise a new one. This practice is not sustainable. I don’t know why all these queens are failing – hives look completely healthy otherwise. I’ve setup 2 Nucs at the Brooks yard – split from two of the better hives to suplement the queen rearing needs. PTC and Woolsey yards seem to be most affected by this phenominon – which is funny because they are in very rural locations and have abudant forage.
I’ll be running a bucket of sugar syrup & mega-bee out to PTC and Woolsey tomorrow to supplement the forage and hopefully encourage the queenless hives to do a better job replacing their queen.
PTC 1
Looks good. 4 Frames of bees – lots of brood. No SHB. Treated with powdered sugar.
PTC 2
Not so good. 2 Frames of bees. No Brood or eggs. More queen problems. Pulled a frame of brood from PTC 1.
PTC 3
Again – no brood. Pulled brood frame from #4 Not Cool.
PTC 4
Looks ok. Not going gangbusters, but there were brood and eggs.
PTC 5
Looks ok. Brood and eggs, but spotty pattern.
Fayetteville 1
Doing great. Lots of brood and eggs. Treated with powdered sugar. No SHB.
Fayetteville 2
Good eggs and brood. 3 frames of bees. No SHB. Treated with powdered sugar.
Fayetteville 3
Good eggs and brood.
Brooks 1
Most of the brood that was in the honey super has since hatched out. Looks like I lucked out and the queen was in the bottom deep when I put the excluder on last week. The bees are moving into the honey super and reusing the old brood cells for honey storage. So far 4 frames are drawn out, but none capped over yet.
Brooks 2
Ready for 2nd deep. Pulled 2 frames brood and honey and split off Nuc. Replaced frames with foundation.
Brooks 3
Looks good. Bees have moved up into the 2nd deep and have begun to draw out comb.
Brooks 4
No real change. Some activity in honey super, but no comb drawn out. Bottom deep is full of bees.
Brooks 5
This is probably the most enthusiastic queen I’ve ever seen. Pulled 2 frames and started Nuc. Replaced frames with foundation.
Brooks 6
New nuc colony for purposes of queen raising. Split from Brooks 2
Brooks 7
New nuc colony for purposes of queen raising. Split from Brooks 5.
Brooks Hive 1
Queen has gone nuts in the honey super. There was brood on two frames all the way to the top of the frames. Dammit. I tried to find her, but couldn’t. Put on a queen excluder and will see if there’s more eggs in the honey super in a few days (indicating that she’s still up there).
Brooks Hive 2
Looks good. 5 frames of bees with brood. SHB trap looks clean.
Brooks Hive 3
Packed with bees. Added deep and moved two brood frames up into the 2nd deep to get some activity going up there.
Brooks Hive 4
Finally some comb being drawn out in the honey super. Added queen excluder.
Brooks Hive 5
Full of Bees and already needs a 2nd deep. This queen is a tramp. SHB trap looks clean.
Notes:
I would have dusted with powdered sugar, but was fresh out. I’ll swing by the store before headng to the other yards tomorrow.
Woolsey Hive 1
Looks good. No need for changes. Population is building rapidly so I didn’t bother looking for brood. This one will also need a 2nd deep soon.
Woolsey Hive 2
The one is the worst of the bunch. Population had dwindled to only a few frames of bees. No queen and no brood. I pulled a frame of bees and brood from Woolsey 3 and crossed my fingers.
Woolsey Hive 3
Looks good. No changes needed. Found brood on first frame I pulled so no need to look further. Pulled one frame of eggs & brood to supplement Woolsey Hive 2 in the hopes that they will raise another queen.
PTC Hive 1
Strong hive – even a little defensive, requiring more smoke than the others. Will keep an eye on the temperment. This hive was started with a package from south GA, so its possible that there may be some African genes in the mix. Not likely, but somethig to keep an eye on. Good honey stores being put away. Pulled feeder.
PTC Hive 2
No queen but still some covered brood. Population was smaller than it should have been but not to the degree that it was alarming. I did find a few queen cells so I’m going to take a wait and see approach with this one. I’m thinking that they might have rejected the queen that came in the package.
PTC Hive 3, 4, 5
Good growth. Typical for what one would expect with a new package. All the queens were laying. However, PTC 4 had a spotty brood pattern. I hate gimpy queens. If she doesn’t start laying better within a few weeks, I’m going to requeen it. PTC 5 had heavy propolis on the lid. Nothing to worry about necessarily, but annoying.
Fayetteville Hive 1
Looks Good. Feeder down to 1/2. Saw queen a decent brood pattern. Saw one queen cell.
Fayetteville Hive 2
Egg city. Feeder down to 1/4. Didn’t bother looking for queen. She was obviously busy.
Fayetteville Hive 3
Huge Brood nest. Didn’t bother looking for Queen.
Brooks Hive 1
3 frames with some unfinished honey. High hopes for this one. Some brood in the honey super, but only a few cells.
Brooks Hive 2
Ready for 2nd deep. Treated with powdered sugar. SHB trap was clean.
Brooks Hive 3
This one needs the 2nd deep now. No question. Treated with powdered sugar.
Brooks Hive 4
Very little activity in honey super. Treated with powdered sugar.
Brooks Hive 5
Moved from Nuc to a single deep. This one was packed with bees. Pulled swarm cells and mixed up brood nest a little when I moved it. Hoping that will kill the swarm instinct.