Hive Setup / Configuration - (June 21)

Here is a picture that shows the hives and how they are setup.  The markings on the hive are so the bees know which hive to return to.

Hive 1

·         Chris’s original hive from a 2011 spring Nuc. 

·         Currently 2011 Buckfast Queen that was purchased in 2011 (soon to be re-queened with her naturally raised offspring queen that is temporarily in a Nuc).

·         9 frames per honey super.

·         2012 - Harvested 89 pounds of honey from 23 frames.

Hive 2

·         Christin’s original hive from a 2011 spring Nuc. 

·         Currently 2012 Minnesota Hygienic Queen (purchased).

·         2012 - Had swarming issues in the spring from the 2011 queen (pinched her). 

·         Captured the swarm to make Hive 3 (self-raised queen).

·         2012 - Had a drone laying queen from a naturally developed queen (pinched her). 

Hive 3

·         2012 - Created from a Hive 2 swarm in March 2012.

·         2012 Minnesota Hygienic Queen (Naturally raised.  Her offspring will be ½ Minnesota Hygienic crossed with several different species of Drone bees).

Hive 4

·         2012 Created from Hive 1 split in May 2012. 

·         2012 Buckfast Queen (Naturally raised.  Her offspring will be ½ Buckfast crossed with several different species of Drone bees).

5 Frame Nuc

·         Using this to raise a queen to re-queen Hive 1.  This Queen was an offspring of the 2011 Buckfast Queen in Hive 1.

Hive 4 Queen is Laying / Marking the Queen - (June 18)

Today I checked on Hive #4.  This is the hive I created from a split from hive #1.  The new queen has a large abdomen and is actively laying.  I saw a nice pattern of freshly laid eggs.  I spotted the queen laying many eggs in the short time I was inspecting.  She would first stick her head in a cell to check it out, then put her abdomen in and lay one egg, then move to the next cell and repeat.

I decided to go ahead and mark this queen even though I’m not sure if the eggs she is laying are fertilized.  Since these eggs are only 1 day old, it will take a total of 9 days to cap a worker bee and 10 days to cap if it’s a drone.  So I plan to check on this hive again on June 27 for capped larvae.

Here is a picture of the queen cage I used to trap the queen and mark her with a yellow dot on her back.  The queen is circled in red under the cage.  I also filled up the bucket feeder with 1:1 sugar water to give them food for the new larvae.

The Marked Queen.  Yellow = 2012.

 

I also checked on the Nuc I am creating to re-queen hive #1.  This queen also has a large abdomen but has laid no eggs at this point.  She should start laying in the next day or so.  I added more 1:1 sugar water to the entrance feeder.

Hive Inspection (New Queen / Feeding) - (June 13)

I checked the #4 hive (newly created from a split of #1) and found the queen on the #1 frame.  Her abdomen looked larger than the last time I saw her a few days ago and was very active.  She was almost running around the frame.  There were no signs of eggs.  It’s still a little early as she may have just mated this week so I’m not worried just yet.  I will wait another 7 – 10 days until I check again.  By then I will know if she is laying or not.

I also checked the super in #2.   They have eaten all stored food except for the 2 frames on each side of the super.  Since I’m not feeding this hive, this looks to be a sign we are in a dearth.

I checked the #1 hive since this hive had a few Queen cells last time I checked.  I checked the top brood box and found plenty of eggs and larvae in a good pattern.  One frame had a high number of drone brood.  I spotted 2 more cells they have started to build into queen cups.  I went ahead and removed those as I will be re-queening from the Nuc soon.
The 4 honey supers I have on this hive are also being eaten on.  Once again confirming the nectar flow has drastically slowed.

The #3 hive was empty of food so I added more 1:1 sugar/water in the bucket feeder.  I checked a few frames and found plenty of brood.  All looks good.

I did not open the Nuc as the queen just hatched a few days ago.  I put an entrance feeder on to make it easier them to get food and to hopefully have a stronger queen.

Queen Hatched in Nuc - (June 10)

I checked on the 5 frame Nuc today and found a hatched queen.  She had already ripped through 2 other queen cells killing the queen that was inside.  I found one more queen cell on the #1 frame that will soon be destroyed by the newly hatched queen.

This Nuc is going to be combined with hive #1 as soon as she is laying well so I am not too concerned that the Nuc is really small in population numbers at this point.  It looks like most bees went back to their original hive when I made this Nuc.  I put 2 frames of capped honey / pollen in this nuc and the other 3 frames have capped brood, so should do well for another 2 weeks.
The main goal is to get her laying and then combine her back to the larger #1 hive.

I also checked on hive #3.  They have a honey super on and I’m still feeding.  The honey super is almost filled so this will be their food for the winter.

Queen Hatched Hive #4 / Creating New Queen in the Nuc to requeen Hive #1 - (June 7)

I checked on Hive #4 today to see if a queen had hatched.  I found the queen cell on frame #3 had hatched.  I also found another frame with a queen cell that had a hole chewed in it.  On frame #6, I found two more queen cells that were still capped.  This means the newly hatched queen has not killed the other queen cells.

Since I need to re-queen hive #1, I decided to make 5 frame Nuc hive with the frame that still has queen cells on it with bees from the #1 hive.  Once I opened the #1 hive I also found queen cells.  This means one of two things. 

1 - Either the hive is too crowded and they plan to swarm.

OR

2 - The original queen is now failing and they are trying to replace her. 

I don’t want them to swarm but do plan to re-queen as soon as I can get the bees to develop a queen and she is well mated.  To prepare for this I took the frames from hive #1 with the queen cells and put it in the nuc as well.

I am feeding the Nuc with a front entrance feeder.

I will check on the hives maybe on Saturday June 9th to see if the Nuc queen has hatched.  If so I will leave them alone until they are laying eggs in a good pattern.