Second inspection of Hive A and Hive B, Saturday, 5/18/13:
This was day 14 for the hives, with the packages having been installed Saturday the 4th. I was able to get my videographer out into the apiary with me, but it required a shocking amount of cajoling and pleading. I have yet to edit and upload the video to YouTube. In brief, I think that the hives are doing well and that the inspection went well.
It was much warmer for this inspection than the first (77 degrees versus 55 degrees for the first inspection). I decided that I would be able to do a full inspection with no worries that I'd keep the hive open too long and chill brood.
I now seemed to have the hang of the smoker. You might recall that I'm using wood shavings (bedding for small animals) found at Pet Expo. There are no scents or chemicals added. It is just simple cypress shavings, I believe. I fill the smoker to the brim with this and seem to get at least 30 minutes of good smoke output. It lasts the duration of the inspections, at least.
We smoked the entrance to Hive A. I removed the log that weighs down the outer cover, and then removed that outer cover. The pails were still quite full. I hadn't yet put the labelled ones on the hives, and I lost track of which feeder pail was on which hive. But, neither seemed to have taken any significant amount of 1:1 sugar syrup from the pail. Each had at least 0.8 - 0.9 gallons left (out of a starting 1 gallon). I put the pail to the side. Again, with it having been one week, I wanted to replace the syrup with fresh.
I opened the inner cover. It was not yet stuck down with propolis, but perhaps it was a bit harder to get up than it was a week ago. We put a puff or two of smoke under the inner cover. With the inner cover removed, the hive seemed pretty busy. I don't recall how many frames had bees, but I did call out this information on the video so that I could record it on my inspection checklists.
Basically, the outer ~2 frames on each side were mostly untouched by the bees. I had brought a second hive body for each hive, but ended up not needing them. With luck and good weather and active bees, I will need them next week.
I proceeded to inspect each side of each frame. Again, more details can be seen and heard on the video. At some point, I may make my hive inspection checklists available on here if/when I can figure out how to upload PDF files. Each hive seemed to have several sides of frames full of brood. I think that I was able to tell the difference between capped honey (of which there was only a little) and brood. The brood pattern of each hive was solid. Any uncapped cells in the midst of the brood pattern had what appeared to be new larvae in them. So, perhaps the bee that started out in that cell didn't make it and the queen came back along and placed new eggs in the gaps?
I still did not see eggs. I assume that they were there somewhere. In the places that I saw young larvae, I looked for eggs toward the outer edge of the frames. But, I think that I am still worried about time and keeping my inspections brief. So, I may have given up on finding eggs too soon. In any event, the queens are seeming to be laying strong.
They hadn't eaten a lot more of the pollen patties. I have been seeing the bees bringing in pollen over the week before, so I decided to toss the pollen patties off the hive and into the grass. They are clearly getting pollen from other sources. They had pollen stored on many of the frames. I decided against adding new pollen patties.
Incidentally, when I was doing the inspections, I saw bees crawling across the frames with bright yellow pollen in their pollen baskets. The pollen patties are a dull brown, so those bees must have been getting pollen elsewhere. Likely dandelions as they are blooming all over lately.
I didn't see the queen of either hive. But, I think my ability to do so will increase with time.
In the end, I closed up the hives and the bees were happy again. Although, I would note that they seemed to be fine with the inspection, not overly upset. No stings. I'll end this post for now, and will update the blog when I have the next video uploaded to YouTube.
Showing posts with label smoker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label smoker. Show all posts
Monday, May 20, 2013
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Evidence that both queens are alive and well!
First inspection of Hive A and Hive B, Sunday, 5/12/13:
This was day 7 for the hives, with the packages having been installed Saturday the 4th. If you've read some previous posts, you might know that I was a bit worried about what we'd find (or fail to find) under the covers of the hives. I mixed up new syrup, bagged a new pollen patty, got the smoker full of fuel, and headed out to the hive. My videographer was in tow, grumbling only slightly and--thankfully--with minimal profanity.
It was 55 degrees and a bit windy. But, the hives have windbreaks to their north and west. So, by the hives, it was still and pleasant. It was a cloudless day, and we started the hive inspections at about 1500.
The smoker was going nicely. I filled it to the brim with animal bedding from Pet Expo. It put out ample smoke for a good 1/2 hour at least. One of my onlookers brought out extra bedding, but we ended up not needing it.
The video of the hive inspections can be found on YouTube by following this link.
We puffed smoke into the entrance, and the bees at the entrance retreated into the hive almost immediately. Some flew off. Opening the top, I could see that the queen cage that I left up top was empty of any bees. I took it and threw it to my onlookers and well-wishers. I was surprised at how full the feeder pail was yet on the hive. I wondered whether they took any syrup at all. When I opened and emptied the feeder pails back at the house, it looked as if each hive had taken only 1/4 gallon or less. After getting the pails back home, I realized that I should have marked the pails so that I knew which hive had which pail. This would let me know which hive ate more or less.
In any event, I took off the old pail. I opened the inner cover. It was not "glued" down at all on either hive. The pollen patty was clearly smaller and even eaten into two pieces. Where the patty had stretched across the gap between frames 5 and 6, it was eaten completely through. I removed them and inspected them. They looked good still, so I decided to use them again after I did the inspection (rather than put on the new ones that I had brought out).
Under the inner cover, I could see many bees. Perhaps 2 - 3 frames were pretty full of bees. This was somewhat of a relief; they hadn't absconded, at least. I started looking at frames. I didn't see eggs or any other signs of the queen in Hive A... Until I actually saw the queen! There was no mistaking her; she was much darker than the other bees with her abdomen visibly longer and extending well past her wings.
Once I saw her, I put the hive back together. There was some comb that they were building out past the edge of one of the frames, but I didn't want to push my luck by bothering with it during this trip. I closed Hive A with the pollen patty replaced, new syrup, and the queen healthy-appearing. I was much happier about the state of things for that hive.
Hive B's inspection was similar. The queen cage was empty; I passed it off to a spectator. Bucket was still pretty full, but I intended on replacing the syrup either way. I didn't want it to ferment. Pollen patty chewed up quite a bit. I began inspecting the frames. On the second frame I removed (if memory serves me), I saw young larvae. They were white, glistening, and wet-appearing. It was a small "C"-shaped maggot, basically, that was curled up at the bottom of the hexagonal cell. That was good enough for me. I closed it up and ended the inspections.
This was my first "real" inspection of the hives, removing frames, replacing feed, etc. It seemed to have gone very well, and I was pretty excited about things afterward.
Now, I will probably give them another week. When I saw how little syrup they used, I decided to fill each bucket only half full next time (1/2 gallon per 1 gallon pail). I've also labelled the pails. I'll have to refresh my mind with the egg/larva/pupa timetable, but I think that I might be able to find capped brood next weekend.
Along with new syrup in the half-filled feeder pails, I'll likely have to bring out new pollen patties. I plan on cutting one pollen patty in half and putting 1/2 on each hive. They had only eaten about 1/4 - 1/3 of the full patty in one week, so a 1/2 patty should last them a week. Also, as flowers appear, they can start to get their own pollen from natural sources.
This was day 7 for the hives, with the packages having been installed Saturday the 4th. If you've read some previous posts, you might know that I was a bit worried about what we'd find (or fail to find) under the covers of the hives. I mixed up new syrup, bagged a new pollen patty, got the smoker full of fuel, and headed out to the hive. My videographer was in tow, grumbling only slightly and--thankfully--with minimal profanity.
It was 55 degrees and a bit windy. But, the hives have windbreaks to their north and west. So, by the hives, it was still and pleasant. It was a cloudless day, and we started the hive inspections at about 1500.
The smoker was going nicely. I filled it to the brim with animal bedding from Pet Expo. It put out ample smoke for a good 1/2 hour at least. One of my onlookers brought out extra bedding, but we ended up not needing it.
The video of the hive inspections can be found on YouTube by following this link.
We puffed smoke into the entrance, and the bees at the entrance retreated into the hive almost immediately. Some flew off. Opening the top, I could see that the queen cage that I left up top was empty of any bees. I took it and threw it to my onlookers and well-wishers. I was surprised at how full the feeder pail was yet on the hive. I wondered whether they took any syrup at all. When I opened and emptied the feeder pails back at the house, it looked as if each hive had taken only 1/4 gallon or less. After getting the pails back home, I realized that I should have marked the pails so that I knew which hive had which pail. This would let me know which hive ate more or less.
In any event, I took off the old pail. I opened the inner cover. It was not "glued" down at all on either hive. The pollen patty was clearly smaller and even eaten into two pieces. Where the patty had stretched across the gap between frames 5 and 6, it was eaten completely through. I removed them and inspected them. They looked good still, so I decided to use them again after I did the inspection (rather than put on the new ones that I had brought out).
Under the inner cover, I could see many bees. Perhaps 2 - 3 frames were pretty full of bees. This was somewhat of a relief; they hadn't absconded, at least. I started looking at frames. I didn't see eggs or any other signs of the queen in Hive A... Until I actually saw the queen! There was no mistaking her; she was much darker than the other bees with her abdomen visibly longer and extending well past her wings.
Once I saw her, I put the hive back together. There was some comb that they were building out past the edge of one of the frames, but I didn't want to push my luck by bothering with it during this trip. I closed Hive A with the pollen patty replaced, new syrup, and the queen healthy-appearing. I was much happier about the state of things for that hive.
Hive B's inspection was similar. The queen cage was empty; I passed it off to a spectator. Bucket was still pretty full, but I intended on replacing the syrup either way. I didn't want it to ferment. Pollen patty chewed up quite a bit. I began inspecting the frames. On the second frame I removed (if memory serves me), I saw young larvae. They were white, glistening, and wet-appearing. It was a small "C"-shaped maggot, basically, that was curled up at the bottom of the hexagonal cell. That was good enough for me. I closed it up and ended the inspections.
This was my first "real" inspection of the hives, removing frames, replacing feed, etc. It seemed to have gone very well, and I was pretty excited about things afterward.
Now, I will probably give them another week. When I saw how little syrup they used, I decided to fill each bucket only half full next time (1/2 gallon per 1 gallon pail). I've also labelled the pails. I'll have to refresh my mind with the egg/larva/pupa timetable, but I think that I might be able to find capped brood next weekend.
Along with new syrup in the half-filled feeder pails, I'll likely have to bring out new pollen patties. I plan on cutting one pollen patty in half and putting 1/2 on each hive. They had only eaten about 1/4 - 1/3 of the full patty in one week, so a 1/2 patty should last them a week. Also, as flowers appear, they can start to get their own pollen from natural sources.
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