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.

PTC Hive
This hive is in awesome shape. It had been a month since I last visited this hive and the bees had hardly touched the Megabee patty or the sugar syrup. This is good because it tells me that they have a viable food source. Indeed they were storing honey on both sides of the brood nest. The only thing blooming right now is Red Maple, so I’m assuming that there is ample forage available.
The brood nest was good sized spanning 6 frames with brood in all stages of development. Brood pattern was pretty solid as well. Forager traffic was high considering the temperature (low 50s).
I removed one of the division board feeders and changed the syrup in the other one. I also added another megabee patty.

Woolsey Hive
This hive is also in great shape. Both feeders were empty, and the megabee patty was completely consumed. Broodnest was a good size (spanning 5 frames to the depth of the super) with numerous eggs and larve in solid patterns across both sides of three frames. There were also new honey stores over the brood nest, indicating that this hive had also found early forage.
I removed one of the feeders and added another megabee patty.
Spotted 8 small hive beetles in this one. I’ll be adding a beetle trap on the next visit.

Note: Many beekeepers would question the approach of adding pollen and syrup while the bees have available forage, but it is not unusual (especially during the spring build up) for a hive to completely consume its stores over a few days of bad weather trying to feed the expanding brood nest. We still have nights in the 20s so I look at taking these steps as insurance. If they don’t need it, they’ll just leave it alone in favor of available forage. But if they do need it and it’s not there, the hive could suffer.

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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…

This hive was the strongest in this yard, but now has no brood.  Could not find the queen.  This has really not been my year for queens – although I’ve heard that package queens are frequently superceded.  I’m hoping things will settle down and the girls can get to work.  Pulled a frame of eggs and brood from Woolsey Hive 3 in the hopes that they will raise another queen.  Oi.

Woolsey Hive 2

Not many bees – only 3 or 4 frames, but it seems that they’ve raised a new queen since the last inspection and she is laying like crazy.  With a little luck this one will recover quickly.

Woolsey Hive 3

This hive is doing as well as can be expected considering I pull brood frames out nearly every time I open it.  The queen looks good and what brood frames were left housed copious amounts of brood and eggs. 

Synopsys

These three hives have been pretty high maintenance, leaving me to almost wonder if there is some other factor at play – pesticides, etc.  No way to really know for sure.  The new homebrew hive beetle traps seem to be working extremely well.  Each one had a few beetles, but none were spotted in the hives.

These girls made the ultimate sacrifice

I snapped this picture while inspecting one of the Woolsey hives.

Whenever someone brings up the out-dated argument that women should not be in the military, I think of the bees.  These girls gave their lives fiercely defending their home from this invading carpenter bee.   The dedication and sacrifice of a soldier transcends gender.  We truely have much yet to learn from these amazing insects.

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.

Only pulled one frame and it looks good.  Solid brood nest and the population is increasing rapidly.  Changing inspection schedule as noted below

Hive 2

The queen has finally started laying in this one and the brood nest is packed with eggs and yound larve.   Pulled feeder.  Changing inspection schedule as noted below.

Hive 3

Same as 2 – looks like the queen has come into her own and has started laying.  Changing inspection schedule as noted below. 

Hive 4

This one was split last week to prevent a swarm.  Surprisingly, I didn’t find any eggs or brood.  Investigating further – I couldn’t find the queen and queen cells have been built along the bottom of the frames (supercedure / replacement cells).  Crap.  I was very careful not to get the queen in the nuc that I split off last week, but it’s possible that I managed to anyway – or worse kill or damage her while I was manipulating the frames.  This is not good.  This hive was by far the most active and had the best chance for a good spring harvest.  This is bad timing of high calibur.

The lid is badly warped on ths colony and needs to be replaced.  Add it to the list.  I may replace it with a passive solar ventilator hood I’ve been designing  to see how it works.

Nuc 1

Doing well.  Pulled the feeder and replaced with a frame of foundation.  This one will be ready for a full deep soon.

Nuc 2 – Woolsey Outyard

Noticed this one bearding up on the front, but it wasn’t hot enough at the time (about 74 degrees).  Suspected overcrowding and popped the top to find the box packed with bees.  Good giggly.  On Monday, I moved this one into a full size deep, but didn’t mess with it otherwise.   It seemed very active and given the disruption of moving the colony to new hive body, I didn’t want to disturb it any more than I had to. 

Overview

Changing inspection schedule on hives 1, 2, and 3 to weekly observation and opening the tops for a check every three to four weeks (except honey supers which will be visually checked every week.)

With the spring nectar flow going strong, all the hives now have feeders removed.  I’m concerned that the now presumably queenless hives will become honey bound with a strong nectar flow and empty cells in the broodnest.  I’ve got some drawn comb standing by in case.  

I’m almost ready for the packages that are scheduled to arrive on the 5th.  All that remains is to put the second coat on the rest of the tops and one more hive body.   Then I’ll seal around the edges of the roof flashing with silicone.  The woodenware I got from Orr Bee Supply was good quality and and I’ll post a follow up review in the coming days.

Saw a few small hive beetles and took great joy in crunching their little bodies.  Beetle traps looked relatively clean.

Hive 1

Finally saw queen and brood in this one.   Once I saw brood, I didn’t need to find the queen she just happened to be on the first frame I pulled.  I was beginning to get concerned, but all seems well.  There were a solid 8 or so frames of bees with plenty of pollin and honey (mostly syrup) stores.  I pulled the feeder to make ready for the honey flow.  There was moderate activity in the honey super.  Some workers were drawing out comb, but not much yet.  

Hive 2

Feeder was still half full of syrup.  This one is not looking as good as it could – especially going into the honey flow.  The queen is present, but no brood.  Only 5 or so frames of bees.  I pulled a brood frame from Nuc 1 to bolster the population.  Gimpy queen maybe?  They don’t seem to be rejecting her, she just doesn’t seem to be motivated.  I pulled some of the old comb in the brood nest (since it wasn’t being used yet anyway and replaced it with foundation – thinking perhaps that she doesn’t find the comb suitable for laying.  I would have liked to just replace it with newer drawn comb, but didn’t have any on hand.  This is one to keep an eye on.  If I don’t see any brood soon, I’m going to re-queen it.

Hive 3

This one is looking crappy too.  No brood.  No queen.  I did find a single queen cell.  Only 4 frames of bees.  Pulled a frame of brood from #4 to bolster population and give them an opportunity to raise another queen.  

Hive #4

The one caught me off guard.  I popped the top and it was bubbling over with bees.  The honey super was getting some traffic too.  10 full frames of bees – and this was on a nice afternoon so that doesn’t account for the forragers out in the field.  This hive was in full swarm preparation gear.  Numerous swarm cells around the brood nest.   Yikes.  I split this one into another Nuc.  Which will be Nuc 2 going forward.

Nuc #1

This one looks good and will probably need to be moved to a full sized hive body in the next couple weeks.  Chuck full of bees.  I pulled a frame of brood for hive 2 and replaced it with foundation.  Brood pattern is solid.  Looks good.

Nuc #2

This is a swarm-prevention split from hive # 4.  Moved to Woolsey outyard this evening.