The Queen Has Arrived!

We spotted the queen within 3 minutes of opening the hive. It was a quick game of Where's Waldo! The queen is the bee with the black shiny thorax and wings folded over her abdomen.

 I am excited to say we have a queen! We spotted our lady within a few minutes of opening the hive on the third frame we looked at. She looks healthy and she had lots of attentive workers. I am not sure if she has mated yet as we did not see any brood. We looked for new eggs and only found pollen and nectar. The hive was very clean and I think they are ready for her to start laying. Once we get some full frames of brood, we are still going to do a hive split.

We entered the hive on Wednesday, June 11, 2014 at 11:15 am. The weather was about 70 degrees and sunny.

We will inspect the hive for eggs on Saturday (weather permitting) and every 3 days or so until we find it. They we will mark and clip the queen so we can easily find her in future inspections.

This one cell full of bright orange pollen was such a beautiful sight.

There were still lots of bees in the hive despite having a look with all of the foragers out.

The comb is clean with no brood at all, but there are cells of pollen and nectar scattered throughout.

Hive Inspection Leads to Startling News

Inspecting the hive today!

    

Today we did a hive inspection to just make sure everything was ok. I have noticed a decreased amount of activity in the hive this week and wondered what was going on. The weather has been rainy and chilly and very gusty this week. I thought part of the reason they were not very active could have been weather related. But I was surprised by what I found, or rather, what I did not find in the hive when we opened it up.

My partner and I all suited up ready to handle some bees.

When we too the top off the hive the first thing we noticed was an undertaker bee doing it's best to haul out a dead carcass. I have seen this plenty of times before, but I have never captured it on camera!

Undertaker bee carrying a dead bee out of the hive.

Undertaker bee climbing out of the hive with a dead bee.

Undertaker bee disposing of the body of a dead bee.

After we observed the undertaker bees for a while, we pulled out the first bar full of comb. It was pristine white and there was nothing in it. No brood and no honey. I would have liked to see this partly full of honey, but it looks like the hive is not concentrating on food production and storage as much as building up the colony and creating was comb.

Pristine but empty bar of comb.

 We continued pulling comb out and noticed the population had about doubled in size. The frames were mostly full of empty brood cells surrounded by capped and uncapped brood. We did not find any capped honey but there were cells filled with uncapped honey. We did have the fortune to see a new bee being born! She was pushing her way through the cap and sticking her little face out! It was so cool!

Pulling out bars of comb full of capped brood.

Capped brood next to empty brood cells. The bees were busy cleaning out the unused cells and tending to the bees pushing their way out of the was caps.

Here you can see the face of a bee popping through the wax cap. The new bees that just hatch will go on to bee nurse bees, taking care of the larvae for the first few days of it's life. 

 We noticed quite a few cells surrounding the old brood cells that were full of larvae. This was a good sign but we did not notice any new eggs nor did we spot the queen.

We found quite a few cells filled with larvae.

The central brood cells were very empty. We could see the population of the hive had doubled and there were still capped and uncapped brood surrounding these open cells.

Some capped brood next to some empty cells.

Here are a couple bees chaining or measuring as we pulled the comb out of the hive.

 As we pulled the fourth piece of comb out we noticed a few of the bees full of pollen were doing the infamous bee dance while the others watched. This is how they communicate to the other foragers where the food source is and how long it takes to get there. It is kind of like bee GPS!

The blurry bee near the top center of the photo was the one doing the bee dance. She was in the middle of a serious waggle when I took the photo.

 I need to take a break here and show you my bees foraging on my borage and clover. My yard is filled with flowers for them and my neighborhood is a wonderful place for them to get lots of nectar.

Honey bee from my hive gathering some nectar from the clover flower in my yard.

One of the honey bees from my hive enjoying the borage I planted for them!

 Here is where it gets interesting. The second to last frame we pull out of the hive has a queen cell that has hatched! It looks like something happened to our queen within the past 10 days or so and they made a new one. We did not spot a queen bee at all, so we are not sure if it was successful or not. The new queen could be out on her mating flight, but we are just not sure. We are going to go back into the hive in 2 days and see if we can spot the queen or at least evidence that she is there. I had a feeling something wasn't quite right with the hive this past week and my suspicions were correct. The hive looks otherwise healthy and growing. I would like to see more comb built, more eggs and brood in the empty cells and of course to spot the queen! If we do not see the queen when we next inspect, I will have to requeen the hive.

This bar of comb has empty cells, capped cells with brood and the long wax cone coming down on the right side of the photo is a hatched queen cell.

Queen cell on a frame.

 Observations:
We entered the hive around 1pm this afternoon. It was 68 degrees, sunny with clouds in the sky and slightly gusty.

I was concerned for the health of the hive since I noticed a decline in activity this past week. Every frame but the first contained empty brood cells in the center, surrounded by capped brood (no drone cells) and out from that uncapped larvae and honey. The newest white comb did not contain anything in it.

It looked like the hive doubled in size from the last inspection.

We did not find the queen anywhere. But we did find a queen cell that had recently hatched. It looks like the old queen died and they made a new one.

We will check on the hive and specifically look for the queen in 2 days. If no queen is found, we will requeen the hive as soon as possible. 

The bees are continually expanding their comb.

Hive Inspection 6/7/13....

Andrew and I going into our hive.

I wanted to do a hive inspection at 2 weeks from the last time. I am very curious about what is going on in there, but I don't want to bother the bees too much. So we got all of our gear on in 85 degree, full sun weather and inspected the hive around 2pm.

Hive inspection June 7, 2013.

I have been noticing more and more dead bees in the bottom board of the box. I would say it is about 200 or so. The undertakers have a lot of work on their hands and have been flying the dead bees out as much as they can. I believe my hive is smaller than what it was when I got them and they have not started building any new comb. 

Frame full of uncapped honey/nectar with lots of bees.

 We went frame by frame and I took some photos while Andrew lifted each one out. We saw a frame full of uncapped honey or possibly nectar and several frames of brood. Most of the brood is uncapped with little curled up grubs in it. I was not able to find the queen but from the laying pattern, I am confident she is in there.

Some bees and brood but lots of empty cells.

I have some a few concerns about the look of some of the brood and comb. I did notice A LOT of empty cells throughout the hive and no new comb being built on any of the top bars. On the first frame we pulled out there were only a few bees on it and the cells looked a bit strange to me. I am not sure what is going on and I feel like it will be necessary for me to go back into the hive tomorrow, to thoroughly look at this.

These are the cells I am questioning.

I did notice quite a few newly hatched bees, and a ton of grubs. I am hoping this hive just needs time to repopulate and grow stronger.

Bees caring for the grubs.

Some of my observations:
-Did not see the queen
-Lots of empty cells
-Questionable cells
-Many new bees
-No new comb
-No capped honey
-Quite a few dead bees on the bottom board and surrounding the hive
-Lots of grubs

Watching my bees forage in my yard...

I purposefully have not mowed my lawn in the past couple weeks so my bees can forage the clover and dandelions that grow with the grass. I am happy to see them so interested in it, and there are at least 20 bees in there at all times.

Good plants to have for bees...

I am going to be doing a bit of research on the diet of bees. I know they like nectar and help pollinate, but I want to try and figure out exactly what they like to eat, and what is the healthiest for them. Currently I have a GIANT vegetable garden that has recently been planted. Nothing is flowering out of that yet, but other plants in my yard have already started flowering.

I have the following plants, trees bushes in my yard:
2 cherry trees (Ranier and Black)
4 apple trees (Jonathan, Golden Delicious and some kind of red)
2 fig trees (Green and Black)
Oregano
Marjoram
Parsley
Borage
Chives
Lovage
Hissop
Lemon Balm
Comfrey *
Lavender *
Rosemary *
Strawberries
24 rose bushes
Centaurea Montana
Full butterfly garden bushes
Tulips
Irises
Lilac Bush
Dandy Lions
White Little Daisy Plant?
Grass
In my vegetable garden I will have peas, beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, artichokes, asparagus, lettuce, spinach, potatoes, carrots, basil, squash, zucchini, sunflowers and more...

Here they mention bees like Borage http://www.rosybee.com/?p=165

Herb plants for bees http://www.buzzaboutbees.net/herb-planting-for-bees.html
"Lemon Balm In the past, beekeepers would rub a handful of lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) inside the hive after hiving a new swarm, in order to help the swarm settle and to encourage them not to leave the hive. Rubbing hands with the leaves is also claimed to help prevent bee stings!"

"Buying Flower Bulbs For Bees
These days, pesticides may be used in the cultivation of bulbs and plants by the horticulture industry. Neonicotinoids are systemic pesticides, and are a subject of much controversy – read more about this on the page honey bee deaths and pesticides. These pesticides persist in soil, and are not easily degraded.

In order to make doubly sure I avoid any possibility or risk that I will unwittingly poison the bees or pollute my garden soil with any pesticide contaminating my flower bulbs, (or indeed other plants), I take the following precautions:
I either -

1. Buy organic, or
2. Swap with friends and relatives with similar views, or
3. Buy them from a local farmers' market, where we are fortunate to have a plant stall owned by a hobby gardener I trust, or
4. Purchase from a local nursery I trust." 

 

 

 

 * Excellent for Bees!


I just planted a Rosemary plant this morning. It looks like I need to boost my lavender and rosemary garden...