Hive Combination Part 2: Hive #4 + Christin's Hive (April 29)

Sunny 78 degrees.

Today I wanted to check on the newspaper method of combining Hive #4 with Christin's hive.  Without proper ventilation, the hive body above the newspaper could overheat and die.  Since this is holding the good queen I needed to do some maneuvering of frames and hive bodies.

The bees had already chewed a nice sized hole in the middle, with smaller holes on the perimeter and had introduced themselves.  I noticed no dead bees on the outside of the hive which means no fighting took place.  I located the good queen and actually saw her laying so the bees from Christin's hive have accepted her so far.

The goal for today is to;

-Reduce the hive back down to 2 hive bodies from 3.

-Place the 10 frames from the hive body the queen is in to the hive body on the very bottom.

-Completely remove 10 frames that have the most drone larvae and bring those back home.

-Put the honey super back on top of Christin’s hive.

All of this went well and here is the final configuration now. 

Drone Laying Queen - Christin's Hive (April 28)

Cloudy, 65 degrees.

Today I wanted to check on Hive 2 (Christin’s hive) as I noticed the queen was not laying many eggs on the last inspection on April 19. 

We have problems again.  This queen is laying only unfertilized eggs, resulting in only drone bees hatching.

 

To understand why having a queen that is a drone layer is such a problem and how queens become drone layers, one needs to know something about the lives of bees.  Shortly after a queen hatches, she needs to fly out of the hive and mate with several drones.  This provides her with enough fertilized eggs for the rest of her laying life, which can be up to 5 years!

Throughout her life, she can lay either fertilized or unfertilized eggs.  The fertilized eggs become worker bees while the unfertilized eggs become drones.  Worker bees collect pollen and nectar, make honey, and raise the brood or baby bees.  Without them the colony dies.  Drones hang out waiting to find virgin queens to mate with and do no work for the hive.  You can see which type of bee I would prefer to have.

If the weather is cold when the queen is supposed to be taking her mating flight, she may stay in the hive and miss the breeding window. That means she will not be able to lay fertilized eggs for the rest of her life- she can produce only drones and no worker bees.  A colony without worker bees will not last for very long.

So what does one do with a drone-laying queen?  One kills it and replaces it with a new queen who has successfully completed a mating flight and is laying worker bees.    

Since I have a 4^th hive that is just getting started with a well mated queen that is laying fine (purchased queen Minnesota Hygienic), I decided to combine Christin’s hive with the new 4^th hive.

I first found the bad queen in Christin's hive and removed her.  I put a piece of newspaper on the top of Christin’s hive and placed the hive body from the good hive on top of that. 

The idea is that the bees will chew through the newspaper slowly introducing the two hives preventing any fighting and loss of bees.

Christin’s hive now has 3 hive bodies.

I will check on them in 24 hours to see how the combination of hives is going.

Here is what all of the frames looked like from the Queen - laying only drones.  Notice the pattern is not tight with open cells in the middle of closed cells.  Plus the cells are raised above the wax foundation (drone cells).  Those are 2 signs the queen is no good.

This is what the hives look like now after the initial combination.  Christin's hive is on the far left.  Her original hive on the bottom.  The new hive with the good queen on the top.

Queen Marking Color Chart

Here is the chart to follow when marking a queen.  The color represents the year the queen was born.  It also helps to easily identify if your marked queen has been replaced by the hive.  If you find an unmarked queen in your hive, you know the marked queen has either swarmed or died.

Queen Marking Color Code
Color:	For Year Ending In:
White (or gray)	1 or 6
Yellow	2 or 7
Red	3 or 8
Green	4 or 9
Blue	5 or 0



Bee Calendar - From Egg to Bee

Here is a chart showing how long it takes from egg to bee, depending on the caste (Queen, Worker, Drone).

Caste	Egg Hatches	Larvae Capped	Bee Emerges
Queen	3½ days	8 days +/-1	16 days +/-1	Laying in 28 days +/-5
Worker	3½ days	9 days +/-1	20 days +/-1	Foraging in 42 days +/-7
Drone	3½ days	10 days +/-1	24 days +/-1	Flying to DCA 38 days +/-5

Bee Yard - Hive Update (April 19)

Overcast 70 degrees

3^rd Hive:
I added the 2nd hive box with 10 empty frames to the 3rd hive today.  This is the swarm hive (The swarm I captured from Christin's hive).
Taking a quick look, the queen is laying nicely.  Adding an additional hive on top will give more room for the queen to lay eggs.  I am still feeding this hive sugar water to build up their population. 

Christin’s hive:
I opened Christin's hive and found the queen in the bottom box with eggs on 2 frames near the edge of the hive.  I did not look in the top box for eggs.  In the last inspection of this hive on April 4, there were very few eggs as she was just newly mated.  This looks better but still not as many eggs as I would expect with all of the room she has.  I will keep a close watch on her to see if she was not mated well.

Honey Supers: 
We are now seeing more normal spring like temps after a few weeks in the 80's.  It looks like the nectar flow has slowed with the chilly / rainy weather over the past 2 weeks because there is not a lot of progress in the honey supers.

Queen Released In Nuc / 4th Hive (April 10)

Sunny - windy - 70 degrees.
I quickly checked and the newly purchased queen was released from her cage into the Nuc.  I did not go looking for her as I do not want to disturb the hive.  I will let them do their thing and check when the temperature warms up a little more.

In the meantime I am feeding this small hive 1:1 mixture of sugar water to ensure they get off to a good start.  Here you can see they are lined up having a feast.!

Purchased Queen Introduced - Nuc / 4th Hive (April 8)

I placed the new queen (she is in her queen cage) in the Nuc this morning.  It will take 1-3 days for the worker bees to eat the soft candy away from the entrance and release her.  In the meantime her pheromones will become familiar to the hive so the bees will not kill her thinking she is a foreign bee.  This will eventually become our 4th hive.

Queen Purchased for Christin's Hive (April 7)

Sunny - light wind - Temp 65

I found a laying mated queen in the 3rd hive I am starting that came from the swarm from Christin's original hive.  I also spotted a queen in Christin's hive as well.  That queen has not started laying in numbers as we would like to see.  We'll will give it another week or so and see if her egg laying picks up.

All 3 hives look healthy.  I added another honey super to the 2 original hives.  I'm still feeding the 3rd hive (swarm hive) to build up their numbers.

I purchased a 2012 mated Minnesota Hygienic queen today for $18 for Christin's hive.  When I checked her hive on April 4, I did not spot any eggs or a queen.  Today, I spotted her (after I bought the new queen).   Since I have 4 queens now, I decided make a 4th hive.
To do this, I removed 3 frames of brood in all stages from my hive (along with the bees on those frames).  I also added 2 full frames of honey/pollen in a 5 frame nuc.  I brought this nuc back to Charlotte.  I closed off the entrance to the Nuc not allowing the bees to fly.  I want them to be confined for 24 hours so they quickly find out they no longer have a queen.  I will introduce the newly purchased queen to this "queenless" hive on Sunday.  By waiting 24 hours before introducing the new queen, the probability the bees will accept her increases.

It should take 1-3 days for the bees to eat away the soft candy from the cage entrance and release the queen.