Note- oxalic acid treatment #1 June 30, four days ahead of this hive check.
Hive check after Russian split.
Queen hive, langstroth B
- hive population light, nectar light pollen,
- bottom box has brood and larvae but didn’t look at a lot of frames.
- found good frame with lava cap and nurse piece. Did alcohol wash for mite check. Used scant half cup, probably 250 bees, with the result of zero mites. WOW!
- found queen she looks in good shape.
Top bar
- lots of bees, still honey and light pollen
- checked about 12 frames, saw brood either hatching out or sporadic laying patter.
- did not see queen, but large evident
- used larvae frame with nurse bees (inspected carefully for Queen)
- alcohol wash WITH 1/2 cup
Bees resulting in 1 mite WOW
Wednesday, July 4, 2018
Friday, March 24, 2017
Hive Check March 23, 2017
Warm spring here in Colorado March 2017. Over 70F for the 3rd day and about to turn cooler for a week. So, did a hive check.
Eve of my spring break- smoker lit and hive ready
Lid off, and a smaller amount of bees on top. Used little smoke. Started by removing frames closest to the camera and stored on frame/bench.
Silly girls- drawing comb sideways between frames. Kinda pretty thought! PS- love my J-Hook bar in the background.
Good to see brood, larvae, and nectar. 1st frame with brood, but both sides of the next 3-4 frames have various amounts of brood. Those of you with good eyes can see the queen on this frame. I missed it in real life- just saw her in pictures!
Like this- you can zoom in and examine larvae and see the worker bee topping off the soon to be pupa in the brood.
An example of a full brood frame. I think the unusual laying (nectar/pollen cells) is just because it is spring time. Note the empty drone cells upper right.
Finally found the queen. The Same picture-left is what it looks like, right zoomed in.
Like this picture of her too. She is crawling to hide. Looks really good. So very glad to win her in a raffle at the Silt CO bee conference last June!
I put what was the top deep on the bottom. The (now top) empty deep is full of drawn comb with little or no pollen, nectar. The Top Bar BOOT shaped frame from last summer was still in here, but completely empty. I replaced it with a full drawn frame from the basement.
Seems like last fall I discovered a few frames with damage like this. At that time I think I squished any moths/larvae that were eating this...curious what it might have been.
By the way, I did one Formic acid treatment 2 weeks ago. Will try to post. Seems like I'd better watch for signs of a swarm and should consider a split in about 3-4 weeks. Also, do a mite count and determine if I'll do a 3-week formic acid treatment.
Enough for now
Eve of my spring break- smoker lit and hive ready
Lid off, and a smaller amount of bees on top. Used little smoke. Started by removing frames closest to the camera and stored on frame/bench.
Silly girls- drawing comb sideways between frames. Kinda pretty thought! PS- love my J-Hook bar in the background.
Good to see brood, larvae, and nectar. 1st frame with brood, but both sides of the next 3-4 frames have various amounts of brood. Those of you with good eyes can see the queen on this frame. I missed it in real life- just saw her in pictures!
Like this- you can zoom in and examine larvae and see the worker bee topping off the soon to be pupa in the brood.
An example of a full brood frame. I think the unusual laying (nectar/pollen cells) is just because it is spring time. Note the empty drone cells upper right.
Finally found the queen. The Same picture-left is what it looks like, right zoomed in.
Like this picture of her too. She is crawling to hide. Looks really good. So very glad to win her in a raffle at the Silt CO bee conference last June!
I put what was the top deep on the bottom. The (now top) empty deep is full of drawn comb with little or no pollen, nectar. The Top Bar BOOT shaped frame from last summer was still in here, but completely empty. I replaced it with a full drawn frame from the basement.
Seems like last fall I discovered a few frames with damage like this. At that time I think I squished any moths/larvae that were eating this...curious what it might have been.
By the way, I did one Formic acid treatment 2 weeks ago. Will try to post. Seems like I'd better watch for signs of a swarm and should consider a split in about 3-4 weeks. Also, do a mite count and determine if I'll do a 3-week formic acid treatment.
Enough for now
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Swarm 5.3.16
Visited Beckie and her hive from the split we did with her. It was so sad- no queen, very few workers. The hive is done and not sure what happened to the queen. Bummer. I returned to enjoy my new topbar hive. They are really something. Black and beautiful. The sun was just going down, but it was still almost 70 degrees. Amazing after our snowy weekend!
I turned around and the Langstroth hive girls were beautiful in the sunlight too!
I was about to go inside to do homework and discover my Langstroth girls had left the hive and had swarmed on our evergreen tree. 
It was amazing- probably 15"-17" inches around at the top, and 25" long/deep. It didn't really know what to do, but since I had taken those classes I knew exactly what to do. I scrambled and got some plywood as a base and then put my new deep box ready to catch them. I put a quart of sugarwater in along with a couple deep frames, I borrowed the inner lid from the Langstroth and put my new mesh/feeder with hardware cloth over for air. 
In the swarm class I took with Beth Conrey she told us that the bees put their abdomen's in the air and fan their wings trying to spread the pheromones of their queen. This kinda points them headfirst towards where the queen is. This worked great and I'll bet within 10 minutes they had called almost all the bees in (folks are right about time...you don't have any idea how much time is passing...should have set my alarm timer). I used my bee brush and all but about 20 in. I called a bee friend as to what to do next. We thought it probably wouldn't be possible to return them to their old home- just swarm again. I think I'll set them up next to existing Langstroth and see if my old Lang can produce a laying queen. If they both survive and I end up with too many hives...I'll just share with Beckie!For now- all is good and they are probably ok for a few days...until it gets HOT on Friday! For now, ALLES GUT!
I turned around and the Langstroth hive girls were beautiful in the sunlight too!
I was about to go inside to do homework and discover my Langstroth girls had left the hive and had swarmed on our evergreen tree. 
It was amazing- probably 15"-17" inches around at the top, and 25" long/deep. It didn't really know what to do, but since I had taken those classes I knew exactly what to do. I scrambled and got some plywood as a base and then put my new deep box ready to catch them. I put a quart of sugarwater in along with a couple deep frames, I borrowed the inner lid from the Langstroth and put my new mesh/feeder with hardware cloth over for air. 
Monday, May 2, 2016
Top Bar Package install 4.30.16
Snowy day (of course) but we were ready to pick up our package of Carniolan Bees for the top bar.
I was a bit worried about my top bar design that I built last year. So, I moved the door towards the end and designed a retractable reducer with landing board. (Probably too close to the end of the hive for cleaning and jamming)
We put some of the comb from the weak hive that we froze from last year thinking it might give the new bees something to clean up and start with. I also designed a top syrup feeder that would fit under the lid with hardware cloth. We thought we could put the whole thing in the garage stopped up until the weather warmed up in several days.
We installed outside in the rain/sleet and it was pretty cold for the bees, so they were balled up pretty good. Fed them 1:1 syrup for a few days in the garage. My mom even came to inspect and the 3rd day we took them outside and released the queen.
So far so good. The were even bringing in pollen and the mortician bees were hauling out some things. We'll see in a few days if that queen whips them in shape and starts laying! Good luck new hive- they sure are dark colored bees compared to the other hive!
I was a bit worried about my top bar design that I built last year. So, I moved the door towards the end and designed a retractable reducer with landing board. (Probably too close to the end of the hive for cleaning and jamming)
We put some of the comb from the weak hive that we froze from last year thinking it might give the new bees something to clean up and start with. I also designed a top syrup feeder that would fit under the lid with hardware cloth. We thought we could put the whole thing in the garage stopped up until the weather warmed up in several days.
We installed outside in the rain/sleet and it was pretty cold for the bees, so they were balled up pretty good. Fed them 1:1 syrup for a few days in the garage. My mom even came to inspect and the 3rd day we took them outside and released the queen.
So far so good. The were even bringing in pollen and the mortician bees were hauling out some things. We'll see in a few days if that queen whips them in shape and starts laying! Good luck new hive- they sure are dark colored bees compared to the other hive!
Another Split! 4.24.16
A friend of Beckie's wanted to split Beckie's surviving healthy hive. The plan was to find the queen, isolate her and then pick some frames for a nuc (much like Beckie did).
It worked perfectly. We patiently found the queen-
See her? I think it is hard...so it is a good thing we pointed her out with the hive tool huh!
Good day...we got the hive split and I learned some more. Thanks ladies!
crazy bee-
It worked perfectly. We patiently found the queen-
See her? I think it is hard...so it is a good thing we pointed her out with the hive tool huh!
Good day...we got the hive split and I learned some more. Thanks ladies!
crazy bee-
Hive inspection 4.23.16
Two weeks after the split I did another inspection just to look at the overall health of the hive. We found some good stashes of pollen,brood, larvae (which it turns out I can never spell!) In addition to lots of workers, we found a capped queen cell (that I kinda ripped)
Turns out I didn't know where to look for them. I guess they are often at the top of a frame like this one. Not sure why my girls were making a queen, but I'm thinking about making more room (perhaps adding a medium in the next few days)
Did a bit more peeking around and found the QUEEN! Wow- we haven't seen her since we installed her a year ago! Pretty cool!
Interesting- I was hooting and hollering I can tell you what!
So excited was I that I dropped my favorite hive tool into the hive. Oh well, I get it in a few days after I build the medium + frames to keep them from thinking they should leave!
Turns out I didn't know where to look for them. I guess they are often at the top of a frame like this one. Not sure why my girls were making a queen, but I'm thinking about making more room (perhaps adding a medium in the next few days)
Did a bit more peeking around and found the QUEEN! Wow- we haven't seen her since we installed her a year ago! Pretty cool!
Interesting- I was hooting and hollering I can tell you what!
So excited was I that I dropped my favorite hive tool into the hive. Oh well, I get it in a few days after I build the medium + frames to keep them from thinking they should leave!
"About a week" after the split
April 13, 2016
Yup, just like Don Studinski said in his honeybee split class, we waited about a week.
We found evidence of fresh larvae (queen had to have laid it after the split) so we are happy to announce we still have a queen. That meant Beckie needs to see queen cells and evidence that her group is producing a queen.
She saw multiple cells so she is on the way to creating a queen. Next week (ABOUT A WEEK) she will toast a glass of wine (and not go in the hive) in hopes that her queen will be on it's nuptial flight, returning as a fertilized queen ready to lay!
We think we have avoided a swarm for our hive...keeping fingers crossed until the end of May.
Yup, just like Don Studinski said in his honeybee split class, we waited about a week.
We found evidence of fresh larvae (queen had to have laid it after the split) so we are happy to announce we still have a queen. That meant Beckie needs to see queen cells and evidence that her group is producing a queen.
She saw multiple cells so she is on the way to creating a queen. Next week (ABOUT A WEEK) she will toast a glass of wine (and not go in the hive) in hopes that her queen will be on it's nuptial flight, returning as a fertilized queen ready to lay!
We think we have avoided a swarm for our hive...keeping fingers crossed until the end of May.
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