What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?

[Terri Yaki]

The larva looked a little on the larger side but I might be imagining things as there was nothing in there a week ago. My mentor is coming over on Monday to look at things and we'll see what he has to say. Hopefully, he'll say that I'm doing fine. I know that I can't know what they are seeing and thinking but I don't see any indications that the queen is faltering in any way.

Thanks for checking it out for me.

[Ben Framed]

Terri is this the hive you are feeding?

[Terri Yaki]

I was, I took the syrup off last Thursday.

[The15thMember]

I checked all my little colonies today.  None of them needed more space, which on the one hand was a little discouraging because I figured they'd have grown more by now, but on the other hand was convenient because I'm basically out of equipment.  I'm going to be driving down to the Blue Ridge Honey Co. sometime next week to get more boxes.  I also had one final colony I was waiting to see a newly mated queen in, and today I saw BIAS, so the entire apiary is now officially queenright.   

[Terri Yaki]

My mentor came over today and thankfully, I have nothing to be embarrassed about. My swarm hive is doing well with eggs, larvae, brood and stores. Brood patterns are good and they are a docile crew. They could build a little more comb though and Imma give them some syrup and see if it helps. We found the unmarked queen and gave her a green dot. I hope it sticks. The nuc hive is also doing well and they are working hard at building comb in the empty box that I have them on Thursday. While they are making a ton of queen cups, none of them have been charged so apparently, things are going well enough. Mite check yielded one in the swarm and none in my nuc. I didn't notice any SHB but I'm still more about looking at the big picture vs the smaller picture. I need to work on that.

[The15thMember]

That all sounds good.  If the big hive has made significant progress on the deep, there is probably no need to feed the swarm. 

[FatherMichael]

Set up a trail camera in the bee yard, aiming down the "main drag".

Gave a medium super to the new hive, a nuc that has already filled the deep brood chamber.  I've never seen so much Sumac in bloom.

Leveled the mean bees hive.  They did not try to kill me!

[The15thMember]

I inspected 3 hives today, but I didn't go deep into the brood nest in two of them.  The summer dearth is here, drawing is slow, and the bees are testy, so the basswoods mustn't be producing a lot of nectar, in spite of all the flowers.  I saw a hatched queen cell in the one hive, but didn't notice anything indicating swarming or a brood break, so if there was a supersedure, the transition from one queen to another was very smooth.  I did add a box to one hive just because there were so many bees in there.  I also put 5 honey frames over my escape board.     

[Terri Yaki]

What is an escape board? I've seen a slowing of activity in my two hives this week. The swarm hive in particular is real slow now. I call them my lazy hive because they get up late and quit early. Neither hive is bringing in pollen so I don't know what they are bringing in. They don't look like they're landing heavy. Anyhow, could they be slowing outdoor activity because they have brood to tend to? I'm just reaching three weeks so I figure that the brood is growing but nothing has hatched out yet. I'll look inside again on Monday, weather permitting.

[The15thMember]

What is an escape board?

A triangle escape board is used to clear a super of bees so you can harvest the honey.  The board has a hole in the center and sort of a little maze on the underside that is covered in hardware cloth.  This means the bees in the super can easily exit through the hole, but the bees in the box underneath can't easily get back up because they don't understand they have to run the maze to bypass the hardware cloth, through which they can smell the honey; it's kind of like how a robbing screen works, actually.  Here's a link to one so you can see what it looks like. https://www.betterbee.com/harvesting-equipment/triangular-escape-board.asp?mkwid=&pcrid=&pkw=&pmt=&pdv=c&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwgpCzBhBhEiwAOSQWQcNRkQ25Nwvx9AY10481rRY-gltZ3hhCifSNOXxs1Qzk5QTEA-DsAxoCRo0QAvD_BwE

I've seen a slowing of activity in my two hives this week. The swarm hive in particular is real slow now. I call them my lazy hive because they get up late and quit early. Neither hive is bringing in pollen so I don't know what they are bringing in. They don't look like they're landing heavy. Anyhow, could they be slowing outdoor activity because they have brood to tend to? I'm just reaching three weeks so I figure that the brood is growing but nothing has hatched out yet. I'll look inside again on Monday, weather permitting.

It is possible that the brood is the foragers' priority right now, in the absence of new young nurse bees. 

[Caashenb]

Put second brood box on the last two swarms I caught. Waxed 80 cleaned up frames and painted 10 new hive bodies. Tomorrow morning I have to take down and move what I think is my last swarm for the year. And I know I have several colonies at that yard the need additional supers. I still have Dutch clover, Persian clover, mimosa, dandelion, elderberry heavily blooming plus the soybeans are in bloom now. Anticipating another three weeks or so of this fantastic flow this year.

[Michael Bush]

Started my fourth batch of queen cells Friday.  Put my third batch in the mating nucs.  The bees are not very cooperative on rearing queens this year.  They are tearing down some of the cells in the finisher and the queens are not returning at a good rate.  It seems like a good year for honey.  Lots of honey coming in and a flow is usually good for queen rearing...

[Terri Yaki]

I went through the top sections of my hive this morning and found a capped queen cell in the medium brood box that I moved to super position above the QE. So far, I only have Part II up because that is where I found that cell. It's right at the beginning of this video and I need to know what to do with it. Turning it upside down was probably not a good idea.
https://rumble.com/v50qngq-june-10-2024-hive-inspection-part-ii.html

[Michael Bush]

Queen cells are not completely fragile.  As long as you are gentle you can turn them upside down.  Just don't ever shake them or drop them.

[Terri Yaki]

Queen cells are not completely fragile.  As long as you are gentle you can turn them upside down.  Just don't ever shake them or drop them.

OK, thanks. I think this one needs to be removed since the queen is alive and well down below the QE. I suspect that they made that cell thinking that they didn't have a queen any more. Is there any way I can put her to use?

[The15thMember]

There wasn't any eggs or young brood in the super, right?  Again, I don't have experience with QEs, but I'd assume it was a response to the bees being separated from the queen and preferring to not go through the excluder, thereby not exposing themselves to enough queen pheromone to realize they are queenright.  If I'm correct, then if I were you, I'd just remove it.  Once there is no longer brood in the super, it shouldn't be an issue anymore.  Are you sure that cell was capped?  The camera doesn't get a very good shot of it, but that looked quite small to me. 

By the way, bees with their heads down in cells are either feeding babies or adding nectar to a cell.   

[Michael Bush]

A nuc is a way to keep a queen around just in case.

[Terri Yaki]

It didn't show in the video as well as I thought it would but yes, it is capped. Those bees were so deep on the comb, I was wondering if they could get back out. And correct, no eggs or young brood so they are going through the process of hatching out and the frames are getting filled with honey. The medium brood box that I put on about 10 days ago looks like it's going well. But then, what do I know? I'm still a rookie. I didn't go into the bottom box but I am not seeing any pollen in the top two and I don't see them bringing a lot in. Is that something to be concerned about?

And here is Part I where I go through the top brood box. To me, they look healthy and the queen seems to be laying a lot of eggs and in a good pattern.

https://rumble.com/v50qwjc-june-10-2024-hive-inspection-part-i.html

[Terri Yaki]

A nuc is a way to keep a queen around just in case.

I do have a nuc box that I can assemble and this does sound like a good idea. Tell me more, tell me more.

[The15thMember]

Not as good of a radio day for me, I think I only knew one song.  Ah well, you can't win 'em all. 

It didn't show in the video as well as I thought it would but yes, it is capped.

Well sometimes they are quite tiny, especially when they are on the comb like that.  I've mistaken one or two for drone cells in the past. 

And correct, no eggs or young brood so they are going through the process of hatching out and the frames are getting filled with honey. The medium brood box that I put on about 10 days ago looks like it's going well. But then, what do I know? I'm still a rookie.

I agree, I think everything looks like it's running along smoothly in there.

I didn't go into the bottom box but I am not seeing any pollen in the top two and I don't see them bringing a lot in. Is that something to be concerned about?

No, not really.  In my experience, my bees put the overwhelming majority of their pollen in the bottom box if the space is available.  I'm pretty sure this is because the pollen foragers put away their own loads, as opposed to foragers carrying nectar, who hand off their cargo to a house bee to store.  Since the foragers are trying to get back out to get more supplies as quickly as possible, the pollen foragers will usually put the pollen in the first available cell, meaning pollen ends up concentrated near the door in the bottom brood box.  There is rarely, if ever, pollen in supers.  If your pollen flow is a little low, the bees will adjust the brood nest accordingly. 

A nuc is a way to keep a queen around just in case.

I do have a nuc box that I can assemble and this does sound like a good idea. Tell me more, tell me more.

I've never done this before, but basically what you'd do is make a little split off the big hive into the nuc.  Assuming it's a 5 frame nuc, my inclination would be to move the frame with the queen cell, a frame of pollen, a frame of honey, and 2 frames of capped brood into the nuc.  If you are expecting a dearth soon, maybe I'd go for 2 frames of honey and 1 of capped brood instead.  Once the queen is mated and laying, you'll need to keep pulling stores and bees out of the nuc to keep them small, but you can give those extras to your other hives to give them a boost.