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

[ChksontheRun]

Queen issues are so frustrating. We have had one hive swarm twice in the last 2 years and it didn't raise a new queen either time. Thank goodness we knew both times of a place we could buy one, but that is not always the case.

In 2 years, we sure have made our share of mistakes with the bees. I wonder when it gets easier......

Seems like we make a mistake, and then find our that what we did was wrong just in time to have to fix the results. Amazing we still have 4 hives.

 

[cheraboo]

So my son and I decided to start beekeeping. We're hoping to get some of our 4H kids involved.

We have two hives - one in our backyard and one at a friend's farm. We figured we could do a comparison of the hives and their survival. We installed nucs 5/16. The hive at our house is always busy outside - lots of bees flying around. We took a look at some of the frames in the bottom hive body to see what was going on. No sign of the queen. We pretty much didn't figure we'd find her anyway, being newbees and all. Couldn't see any eggs or larva. We did see swarm cells on the bottom of one of the frames. Now we only have two bodies on the hive and the bees haven't even touched the top one. I know they're going up there because we put a ziploc bag with sugar water in it up there. They're just not drawing out comb. We moved a frame of honey up to the top body to see if that would help things along. Today, two days later, there were a LOT more bees in the top body. It looks like they've started drawing out comb in a couple frames. Woohoo! Still no sign of a queen or eggs/larva. A couple more swarm cells have appeared and what looked like queen cups off the front of the frame. I would call them queen cells but they were open on the end.

The farm hive seems to be doing well. Of course we couldn't spot the queen but Jacob did see larva so we were pretty excited about that. No swarm cells or queen cells that we could see. The bees in this have have decided to build comb off the bottom of the frame bars though. What the heck are they doing? There is also some burr comb on the top of some of the frames.

 

[Beekissed]

I finally got my BEES!!!!!!

I tried to have one of my boys take pics as I was putting them in the hive but everyone forgot to take pics in all the excitement.

They are beautiful bees from Draper's Apiary, all arrived very healthy with only a few bees DOA. There was even one clinging to the outside of the box!(We named her Carlita

) The queen was beautiful and very active with a few attendant bees already in the cage with her...is this common?

The transfer went okay and I was pretty nervous. When I checked them right after dusk, the humming in the hive was very soft and steady....I'm supposing this is a good thing? I certainly hope so!

P.S. The post office was so very glad when I picked up my delivery this morning.....

 

[Reinbeau]

Attendant bees in the queen cage is very common, Bee. That soft hum is also a good thing. Did you release the queen? We never do it right away, four days after the install we check for her release, if she isn't out by then, we peel back the screen and let her out.

 

[YakLady]

We got our bees a couple of weeks ago-I love them! It's so cool to just watch them fly in and out with their little legs all loaded up with pollen. It's funny-I bought all the gadgets that they say you have to have (suit with veil, gloves, smoker). The day that the bees arrived was cool, cloudy and rainy. We decided to wait until the next day to get out all the gear and install them. That evening, the weather cleared up and the moon was bright. We had gone out to dinner and had a couple of cocktails. When we got back home, we looked at each other and said, "Let's just do it." Who needs all that gear, anyways? Protected only by our liquid bravery, we got it done in just a few minutes. My DH got one sting, but that was the only casualty. The next morning it hit us. What, were we crazy?!

I waited a few days and then checked to see if the queen was out of her cage. She was, and it looked like work had already begun. Here's a picture of what it looked like then (just a couple of weeks ago): I didn't have liquid libations to give me bravery that day, so I wore my suit. I couldn't see well enough to suit my needs, so I took pictures and checked things out on my laptop.

One week later (which was last weekend) one of the frames looked like this:

Since I'm new to this, I really don't know what I'm looking at. I know I need to look for supercedure cells, or whatever the heck they're called. I know I'm supposed to be looking for larva and eggs, but it's really hard for me to see. On the last picture above, I think I'm seeing larva. Would you guys please let me know if things look ok? I'll be checking them again this weekend to see if I need to add the other deep yet. When we checked last week, there were still four frames that were mostly or all empty. We re-arranged the frames so that the full frames were in the middle and the empty ones were on the outsides. How long does it usually take with a new package of bees before you need to add the second deep?

 

[bibliophile birds]

YakLady, this is a pic from one of my hives several weeks ago. it was a new hive and is now about 7 months old. hopefully it will help you get an idea.

the dark caps on the right are honey. the lighter brown caps on the left are brood. the white things are uncapped brood.

your frame looks just fine. i do think that you are seeing larva, but it's hard to tell on my screen. colonies progress at their own speed, so it's hard to say how long before you need another super. just observe their rate of development and you'll know when the time is right. with brand new colonies, i usually wait until there are only 2 frames left to be filled and then i put on the next super. after that, you can usually put a new one on with 4 frames left and be fine.

good luck!

 

[YakLady]

Thanks so much! That does help. One question... why is the color of the wax different on your frame than on mine? Does the wax just get darker as time goes on?

 

[bibliophile birds]

just like honey, wax is affected by the vegetation that the bees have access to. wax color will vary from nice light yellow (like yours) to almost black (like min) with many shades of brown/tan/khaki in between! it will also look a lot dark when it's filled with honey!

you can see color variation in this picture. from light up in the corners to really dark around the honey cells. (this is from another 7 month old colony)

 

[YakLady]

Wow, bees are so cool! It's amazing what I'm learning from having them. Hey, I just read your blog. I love what you had to say about 'processed' meats. That's a recent subject that has really chapped my hide, too. I have not yet chosen to process any of our meat, just because it's so darn good the way it is and it's new for us still. I'm sure as time goes on, though, we'll get experimental and make sausage or deli meats. It would be absolutely ludicrous for anyone to say that our processed meat would be bad for us. It's an exceptional product to start with, and any seasonings, etc added to it wouldn't change that fact. I also loved your picture of the sheep pig-how adorable!

 

[bibliophile birds]

aww thanks. i enjoy writing it even when i think no one is reading.