A BEE thread....for those interested in beekeeping.

[Hatchery Hive]

last evening I came home and added a medium super to my hive with a queen separater. I figure I will relieve some crowding in the hive and give them a chance at an early start on drawing out the comb in the medium. They were pretty aggressive as expected for having their hives opened for the 1st time all winter...

I've also purchased all the parts for my split. Which will happen in April...

 

[3goodeggs]

Ours started to mass at the opening. I told my husband to get the nuc box out, and he said it is too early for a swarm and they have plenty of space.

At least he humored me and got the nuc box out.
It is full of bees now..
Time for another hive.

I hope this works. We have not successfully split a hive before.
My husband is certain that it does not have a queen.
But what would they follow into the nuc box?
The leftover scent of the queen from when she was in there last?

I do not want to go digging around in them. Bees have been doing this long before we have been. I figure they know what they are doing -even if my husband doesn't.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

I think my bees have swarmed I went to look at my hive yesterday, and didn't see any bees flying in or out of the entrance. So, I opened it up, no signs of life. I did find quite a few dead bees in there, though, but no queen. All of the comb was cleaned out (it still smelled amazing, of beeswax and honey ). I have seen bees flying around my porch, and a few flew over and checked me out while I was putting things back together after I cleaned up, which is what makes me think they swarmed instead of died, but I don't know. Makes me sad.

 

[3goodeggs]

I wonder if they moved into your porch? We had a swarm move into the wall of our house. There was a small hole where the wiring went in, and the bees moved in.

 

[rebrascora]

@howfunkyisurchicken

Really sorry to hear that your colony has failed.

When bees swarm the old queen leaves with roughly half of the adult flying bees. The remaining colony will consist of lots of both worker and drone brood which is mostly capped and several queen cells some of which will be capped, and lots of young adult bees of course too. If you are not seeing this then your hive most likely died out some time ago and the activity you have seen at the entrance has been bees from another colony cleaning out the honey..... the fact that you did not see pollen being taken into the hive tells you that there was no brood, as that is what they need to feed the developing larvae. Therefore your colony has not swarmed. For some reason it would appear your queen has failed between last summer and now and they have slowly dwindled away...or.... varroa has taken them down. If you turn the brood frames upside down and look at them, can you see small white deposits in what would be the top of them?..... this is varroa poop and is a tell tale sign of varroa infestation.

Hopefully those bees that have been visiting and cleaning the comb out will remember where your hive is when they are ready to swarm and with a bit of luck, move in of their own accord.

Regards

Barbara

 

[Happy Chooks]

last evening I came home and added a medium super to my hive with a queen separater. I figure I will relieve some crowding in the hive and give them a chance at an early start on drawing out the comb in the medium. They were pretty aggressive as expected for having their hives opened for the 1st time all winter...

I've also purchased all the parts for my split. Which will happen in April...

Have you done a split before? If so, what process do you use? I've been researching splits, but have not had to do one yet.

I think my bees have swarmed

I went to look at my hive yesterday, and didn't see any bees flying in or out of the entrance. So, I opened it up, no signs of life. I did find quite a few dead bees in there, though, but no queen. All of the comb was cleaned out (it still smelled amazing, of beeswax and honey

). I have seen bees flying around my porch, and a few flew over and checked me out while I was putting things back together after I cleaned up, which is what makes me think they swarmed instead of died, but I don't know. Makes me sad.

So sorry you lost them, but I agree, if they swarmed, you'd still have some bees in the hive.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

Everything was gone. No honey, capped brood or pollen. But, the inside of the hive was very clean. There were no white specks anywhere. The only thing off I found we 2 hive beetles (I guess that's what they are, little black beetles) in the bottom of the hive and they were dead too. We had a week of really warm weather about 2 weeks ago, and then another cold snap. I was thinking they could've swarmed during that time and the remaining bees couldn't keep warm enough. I had seen them flying in and out of the hive during the warm spell, so they were there not too long ago.
I don't know, it doesn't matter, they're gone. I'd be happy if another swarm moved into the hive, but I don't think I'm ready to purchase any more right now to try again.

 

[cutechick53]

I have a question. Would mason bees be able to be kept in the city? Or could honey bees?

 

[Honey Maid]

last evening I came home and added a medium super to my hive with a queen separater. I figure I will relieve some crowding in the hive and give them a chance at an early start on drawing out the comb in the medium. They were pretty aggressive as expected for having their hives opened for the 1st time all winter...

I've also purchased all the parts for my split. Which will happen in April...

Funny, I did the same thing you did! I added a super to each hive, last week I switched brood boxes, and noticed my Italians had almost eaten all their stores, so I gave them a gallon of syrup. I put a queen excluder on one of my hives, that queen likes to lay everywhere. I had put one on my italian hive, just to get them used to it, but found a dead bee stuck in it, maybe the italians are too big for a QE, so I took it off. Probably next inspection I'll take off thet one excluder also.

 

[mak1]

2 good ways of making splits. find a 2 good frames of brood larvae and eggs. shake the bees put it in a different box. 2 frames of food shake the bees.the box with the frames put on top of the hive below the box put a queen excluder. If you need it done quick blow 4 puffs of smoke through the entrance and they will rise to those frames. Or you can wait the next day for the bees to rise. Those frames are ready for making the nuc and you know there is no queen. Second method is put an excluder in between first and second box wait a few days open top box and see if there is fresh larvae if yes put the box aside and you know there is no queen in the bottom box or vise verse. take the frames in the box without the queen on it.