The Wally-Gee Bee Journey 🐝

[WallyG74]

The very small swarm that I had last year made it without feeding until I made the huge mistake of letting water pond on the bottom board, resulting in a huge amount of brood dying. This swarm is much larger than that one.

 

[5Australorpasaures]

View attachment 3790480View attachment 3790481View attachment 3790482View attachment 3790483These are not the best pics. When you’re a novice and doing it alone, the pics are quite secondary. It’s a really good sized colony, as I’ve said before. I did not take a lot of time to look for the queen. I was breezy and 68F. I wanted to get them in their new home quickly. Field bees were coming back with pollen baskets full as bees on the new box were fanning their little butts off! It went smoothly and I am happy to have my new colony. I saw a couple drones as I quickly looked around for the queen. I’m not sure what that tells me at this point, after the swarm. Maybe some experienced beekeepers can fill me

See anything funny about this pic?
View attachment 3792526

Not knowing time of day, your location or temp the only thing I see is very little activity at the entrance. If time frame is say 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM I would say, from a still picture, possible absconding. Are the few bees scouts as I see the Q Tip which I place inside the hive back corner or on top of frames. As far as no feeder. If you have drawn comb, pollen and nectar the bees will be foraging, prefer it over sugar syrup and will ignore your offering, which I like to get off ASAP.

 

[WallyG74]

Not knowing time of day, your location or temp the only thing I see is very little activity at the entrance. If time frame is say 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM I would say, from a still picture, possible absconding. Are the few bees scouts as I see the Q Tip which I place inside the hive back corner or on top of frames. As far as no feeder. If you have drawn comb, pollen and nectar the bees will be foraging, prefer it over sugar syrup and will ignore your offering, which I like to get off ASAP.

It was 4:30pm.

 

[Sally PB]

Well. We were going to "peek" at the bees. Oh. My. The hive was bursting.

I will say up front: We don't know what we're doing. We may now have two hives (we split it), or they may all die from varroa mite issues.

We treated with Apivar (both old and new).

All positive thoughts/wishes/prayers accepted.

 

[WallyG74]

Well. We were going to "peek" at the bees. Oh. My. The hive was bursting.

I will say up front: We don't know what we're doing. We may now have two hives (we split it), or they may all die from varroa mite issues.

We treated with Apivar (both old and new).

All positive thoughts/wishes/prayers accepted.

So, did you have Queen cups?

 

[Sally PB]

We had a lot of brood between the two deep boxes. We weren't sure what we had because the cells got ripped apart.

What say ye more knowledgeable?

 

[Apis mellifera]

We had a lot of brood between the two deep boxes. We weren't sure what we had because the cells got ripped apart.

Thats drone brood. You can just scrap it off and save the wax for rendering. Bees will always raise drone brood between boxes, more so with all medium boxes. Its early yet and you treated so you should be in good shape with mites, but I HIGHLY recommend learning how to do mite washes before and after treatments. It can save you money and bees. The most important thing is that both hives have eggs so that the queenless box and can make a queen.

 

[Sally PB]

I HIGHLY recommend learning how to do mite washes before and after treatments

In my Mann Lake order, I got a varroa check washing cup.

When we peeked inside, we set the top box on an upside down lid on the ground. When we put it back, we saw plenty of mites. That's what had fallen off the bees. I counted 8.

I'm really that we have treated in time to save them. We put in 2 Apivar strips in each hive.

 

[Sally PB]

We went out to look at the hives. The old one is very active. The new one... not. I did see a couple of bees come out, and I did hear buzzing when I put my ear down by the entrance.

 

[5Australorpasaures]

Well. We were going to "peek" at the bees. Oh. My. The hive was bursting.

I will say up front: We don't know what we're doing. We may now have two hives (we split it), or they may all die from varroa mite issues.

We had a lot of brood between the two deep boxes. We weren't sure what we had because the cells got ripped apart.

What say ye more knowledgeable?
View attachment 3794073

We treated with Apivar (both old and new).

All positive thoughts/wishes/prayers accep

If you have a good pair of eyes check that drone brood that was broke open. Those little red devils (varroa) like to be on drone brood

Well. We were going to "peek" at the bees. Oh. My. The hive was bursting.

I will say up front: We don't know what we're doing. We may now have two hives (we split it), or they may all die from varroa mite issues.

We treated with Apivar (both old and new).

All positive thoughts/wishes/prayers accepted.

In my Mann Lake order, I got a varroa check washing cup.

When we peeked inside, we set the top box on an upside down lid on the ground. When we put it back, we saw plenty of mites. That's what had fallen off the bees. I counted 8.

I'm really that we have treated in time to save them. We put in 2 Apivar strips in each hive.

WOW! I don't know, 8 mites on just broken drone comb? An alcohol wash will give you a higher count. The good news is that it is spring and your treating. Loads of 5-5.5% can and have been saved this time of year. Apivar being a 42 to 56 day treatment period with the 2 week "air out" may render your honey not for human consumption, depending on your "nectar flow". I like FORMIC PRO for a spring treatment as it is food safe, so "they" say, but I get it on as not to interfere with flow.