Inspection noVideo

Today was the last day before the rains were to start up again. I have wanted to get in since seeing the dead larva outside the hive. I haven't noticed anything else to be concerned about from the outside view, but it has been several weeks since I have made an inspection and I was curious how they were really doing.

As always, my inspection didn't start until late in the evening. I suited up while the cameraman setup his station and got the smoker puffing. The bees were very calm. My boys were walking around me in their bare feet the whole time, making me think I was overdressed. Sometimes they even stood directly in front of the entrance. They have no fear. Neither of them have they been stung before.

I really wanted to upload the boring video, but it was too large.

Inspection Report:

8:00 pm - 8:20 pm

mostly cloudless sky

Bar #0 - new full comb, most empty, uncap honey at top

Bar  #1 - front full cap brood, back sparse cap brood

Bar  #2 - front 2/3 cap brood, back 1/2 cap brood, some uncap larva, festooning

Bar  #3 - 1/3 cap brood

Bar  #4 - drone comb, uncap honey at top, many empty cells

Bar  #5 - 3/4 cap brood

Bar  #6 - 1/3 cap scattered brood, larva

Bar  #7 - 1/3 cap scattered brood

Bar  #8 - empty, few cap brood on bottom

Bar  #9 - heavy, 1/2 cap misc, some cap drone, some uncap honey

Bar #10 - eggs, few cap drone, 1/3 uncap honey at top 

Bar #11 - new comb, 1/3 uncap honey, rest empty

Bar #12 - 1/2 new comb, uncap honey at top, rest empty, festooning

Bar #13 - tiny new comb, empty, festooning

Bar #14 - no comb, festooning

Bar #15 - no comb, few bees

Notes: quarter patty 1/2 consumed, replaced pint feeder syrup, no queen found

Finding Drones & Larva

This afternoon we went out to see the bees and found this hollow larva lying below the hive. I wonder if more experience would tell me what the dead larva signs mean or if it will always be a mystery. 

I told the boys that drones can't sting.

So when we found a half-a-dozen crawling under the hive, we coaxed them into our hands and enjoyed them close up. The boys got a kick out of being able to handle the bees.

Really Busy Bees

It's 1:30 pm.

The afternoon peak of activity. 

Rains Return

 The rains are back. They come for a few days and then give us a break and return again.

Lots of bees chilling out on the entrance when the rains subside. 

Here's our hive orientation...the front faces East.

Weather

Perhaps I should keep a forecast of the weather. The rains are back and I haven't prepared enough syrup. It's rained the last three days. I made some syrup today. Just my luck, it will be sunny the rest of the week and I'll have missed the window again again. Sorry, no pics today. From the entrance it looks like comb #0 is completely built.That was fast!

Mid-day Activity

First Full Inspection

3rd Inspection (almost four weeks from installation): 8:30 pm, sun setting,

Clear skies, weather still warm from hot temperature day.

We went out to examine the comb we missed last week and to see how many bars had comb. The sugar syrup was almost empty and we replaced it with a new jar of 1:1 and three tiny holes in the lid. The bees took 10 days to go through the last jar - which may have been too long for the same syrup to sit in the hive. The substitute pollen patty was still untouched. I don't know whether it is better to take it out or leave it in - I left it in. The smoker only went out once this time around, despite working with the bees for 30 minutes.

This time around we used a crowbar to shift all the bars back about half an inch, so that I would have some room to set the bars back in without loosing lives. Although I started with bar #5 and moved back to bar #9 and then decided to see the bars from last week too, I went ahead and put the photos here in the order they are in the hive.

Bar #1 (front/back): 

Bars #2-#3 (last week/this week) 

Bar #4 (front/back) 

Bar #5 (last week/this week) 

Bar #6 (front/back) 

Bar #7 (front/back) 

Bar #8 (front/back) 

Bar #9 (just beginning) 

We could see that many of the capped brood comb had been open, but the drone comb was still capped. We could also see more darker bees than before. As I closed up the hive I needed my handyman husband to help shove the comb tightly together. He stepped in to help, again, unprotected, and received his second and third stings. This time he accidentally squeezed the venom into his skin while trying to remove the stinger and ended up causing himself quite a bit of pain, enough that he doesn't want it to happen again.

We still have yet to find that elusive queen. We'll spend some time examining our photos, but it's not to critical as it appears she is doing a good job.

On Second Thought

We were worried last night after reviewing our photos from the inspection. We tried so hard to figure out what is next in our line of events, but last night threw us a curve ball. We saw what we thought was too much scattered capped drone comb and most of the combs were much darker than the beautiful new combs we pulled out a week before. Then, this morning when we pooled our knowledge together to try and decode our bees' comb and a couple of ideas came to our minds...

Capped brood comb is bullet shaped. Flat capped comb is not always honey. Dark capped comb is likely brood and to check, we can just open one up.... Why didn't we think about this while we were in the hive??

Bar #5 is a good example that shows two separate combs were made on either end of the bar and later joined once they filled out (as we have seen from the webcam). We can see "C" shaped larva and it appears in a good pattern: just around the capped brood comb. Which would indicate that we still have a queen. Looking at the photos a little closer and comparing them with last week's, maybe all those empty cells are not necessarily scattered brood cells, but may actually be opened brood cells from new workers.

We didn't see any queen cells from the four bars we check yesterday (and the fifth bar we checked last week). So our workers must have some guidance to their design, right? We still haven't located the queen, but we still have plenty of bees. We are not in 'panic' mode so much as we were last night. Our common-sense has taken over and we can probably wait until Saturday for a fuller inspection.

Second Inspection

(Almost three weeks from installation)

We were gone all day long and did not return until 5:30 pm. Unfortunately, the storm clouds had moved in and it was just beginning to sprinkle. But I needed to get into the hive today - tomorrow is our day of rest - I did not want to wait until Monday. By the time the rain had paused it was 6:30 pm and 70 degrees.

I opened the hive and found the syrup only half empty. I pulled it out to scrape up the bottom of the hive. Most of the sugar syrup mess I found just three days ago had dried out once the entrance was opened all the way. I took a picture from the inside of the back of the hive before I began my inspection of the bars. It looks great to us beginners. 

Front of bar #2 (below) 

Back of bar #2 (below) 

Front of bar #3 (below)

Front of bar #5 (below)

Bar #5 is where I pulled the queen cage out from the front of the comb. It looks pretty straight in this photo. There are a few miss shaped cells in the area, but no cross combing.

Looking over the comb we concluded that we were seeing too much capped drone. I looked for the queen on the first bars, but then forgot on the others. Some of the comb (like #5) look like a good pattern, but I had this awful feeling that we have laying workers. My handsome husband was so brave this time around: he got up close to take pictures and videos, and smoked the bees as needed while I worked them; and surprisingly neither of us got stung. When comparing this last comb to the inside photo, it appears the bees have built comb through to bar #8.

Activity

Entrance

After seeing what could have been chalkbrood yesterday, we decided it best to open the entrance. This gives the bees more airflow, a larger landing pad. The entrance is about one-inch tall. Hopefully they like it and it doesn't cause robbing from the wasp nest in the hot tub across the yard.

I've read that bees will need a larger entrance once nighttime temperatures reach the high 40s.

First Inspection

Almost two weeks after installation. 5:30 pm. Sunny with medium overcast and dark clouds moving in. Past peak of activity. I forgot to make a to-do list before I opened the hive.

My impatient side kick went ahead and opened the hive cover and removed a bar (without lighting the smoker or wearing any protective equipment). A bee chased him off, leaving the hive open while I suited up. Then he went and started the smoker. I smoked the bees at the entrance and at the back, where it was opened.

First, I removed the empty syrup that we put in on Wednesday. We were surprised there was not a pool of syrup on the hive bottom. I set the new jar back further because the comb building was getting close. The smoker went out; my handyman husband refueled it for me and then hooked up his laptop while I tried to focus the camera. Dark clouds had moved over us and I debated whether to check the comb. I decided to go ahead and look at a few bars. If the bees were going to get mad, they would have done it already. The smoker went out again, just before pulling the first bar.

I took a few pictures of the inside work with my camera while I waited for the smoker.

[north side] 

[south side] 

I carefully pulled bar #1 up (from the small saved comb). The front was completely covered in bees. The backside was darkest in the middle, but looked to us like uncapped honey. I slowly set the bar back in, loosing no lives.

Bar #2 (from largest saved comb) had what we originally thought was capped honey, but later with Wikipedia.com we learned was capped brood. I wish I had a better picture of this frame, but a particular bee was not happy with me. My hh was taking pictures of the comb when he was buzzed (lucky for him, the camera still works after being dropped). I continued smoking the bees, borrowing his chair to get the smoker near enough to the entrance and near the bars I was pulling out. 

Bar #3 was uncapped. We thought all three looked very nice. Not sure what the real story is though. Our smoker went out a third time and we decided it best to call it a day. The hive was open for about 15 minutes already. I lost a few lives when replacing the last two bars (hopefully the queen wasn't one of them). There were too many bees for me to worry over finding the queen. 

So, we put it all back together and crossed our fingers. 

[webcam photo] (webcam converted hivecam)