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

[iddee]

They can be provided shade. They can work the hives at dusk.

[The15thMember]

I edited/removed the previous two comments.  I understand many of us Americans are feeling particularly politically charged right now, but there is no political talk allowed in the bee sections.  Keep it in the Coffee House, please.     

[iddee]

Sorry, but I didn't see any politics in those posts.

[The15thMember]

You referenced a post of gww's from the Coffee House, and Terri mentioned democrats and their values directly.  Some of our members don't wish to engage in anything political, so this thread just isn't the place for it.       

[Terri Yaki]

Went out early for an inspection on hive #1, my big hive, and found no queen and no eggs. There is some uncapped larvae in there though. I found several uncapped supersedure cells and the hive seemed a little cranky. I sent a message to my mentor so we'll have to dig into it but not today, we're headed for 100F this afternoon.

He already got back to me and suggested that it's the dearth.

[Terri Yaki]

Last night was honey extracting lessons at beekeeping class. There wasn't much new to me so I pretty much sat back and stayed out of everyone else's way. They had two nearly identical extractors that they said were made in Italy. Both were nine frame, radial extractors but one was motorized and the other hand crank. I'm pretty lazy so I can see one of the motorized ones coming my way before next summer. During the course of the evening, we were discussing miscellaneous beek issues and I related how my main hive has no eggs that I could see. I am not alone so I feel better about that.

[The15thMember]

During the course of the evening, we were discussing miscellaneous beek issues and I related how my main hive has no eggs that I could see. I am not alone so I feel better about that.

I agree, it's good to have some confirmation that it's just dearth related. 

[beesnweeds]

Unless one of my hives swarms or supersedes the queen they always have eggs.  Especially from late winter till mid fall.  Small patches during the winter.  I believe that would be the case in PA as well.

[NigelP]

Often get queens taking laying breaks when little forage about, usually late summer here,before they start laying in their winter bees. Uncapped queen cells though means something totally different.

[Terri Yaki]

Often get queens taking laying breaks when little forage about, usually late summer here,before they start laying in their winter bees. Uncapped queen cells though means something totally different.

My hive #1 seem to be preppers, they always have some empty queen cells laying around. I wonder if they're dropping a hint, or what.

[The15thMember]

Just so we're all clear, does this hive have uncapped queen cells (with an egg or larva in it, but just not capped yet) or just queen cups (the empty beginnings of a queen cell, without an egg or larva)?  Queen cups are nothing to worry about.  Queen cells indicate the hive is in the process of superseding or swarming.   

[Terri Yaki]

Just cups, a little bigger than a pea.

We finally got some rain here the last few days. No all day rains but some good soaking thunderstorms came through and cumulatively, they gave us some water. This morning, all three hives are bringing in yellow pollen fairly heavily. Does what they're bringing in say anything about what's going on inside the hive? i e, does heavy pollen traffic indicate food stores for one particular stage in their lives? And is there any way to tell if they're toting water or nectar?

[The15thMember]

Just cups, a little bigger than a pea.

Okay, thanks.

Does what they're bringing in say anything about what's going on inside the hive? i e, does heavy pollen traffic indicate food stores for one particular stage in their lives?

Eh, kind of yes and no.  So pollen is predominantly used to feed brood, both directly and by nurse bees eating it to stimulate their hypopharyngeal glands to produce royal jelly.  A colony harvesting a lot of pollen, therefore, would logically be intent on rearing brood.  But bees will also store excess pollen so they will have some accessible to begin brood rearing in early spring before the first pollen flow.  So are they gathering pollen because they want to rear brood now?  Or because they want to have some for over the winter?  Or just because they are bees, and gathering whatever is available while it's available?  Probably all of the above.  The other factor here is that the amount of pollen and other stores coming in will basically tell the bees if they can afford to rear brood now.  That's why your girls aren't rearing brood during the dearth.  So the amount of stores coming in from the foragers determines whether brood rearing is feasible, but brood rearing also increases the demand for stores and therefore foraging activity.  Does that makes sense? 

And is there any way to tell if they're toting water or nectar?

Bees with very heavy crops will sometimes land heavily or even crash land under the extra weight.  But there is really no way to tell if that weight is honey or water on a bee by bee basis.  If your bees happen to drink at a watering hole on your property, that can be a good indicator of how much water they are bringing in.  And of course if the bees are filling honeycombs and especially if they are drawing wax, then you can be sure there is nectar coming in.   

[Terri Yaki]

Yep, that makes sense. They were drinking at a cracked pipe at the pool filter but that crack sealed itself up so they must be getting water elsewhere but I don't know where. I gave them a chicken waterer full of pool water but they didn't touch that.

I placed the honey extracting equipment out back last week and some of them filled up so much that they couldn't get off the ground. I don't know what they finally did but they did take off eventually but I'm not seeing what I would consider crashing on the porch. Though, I might not have the right idea of what constitutes crashing. Some of them do take a while to make their landing.

[The15thMember]

By "crash", I'm picturing a plane that has lost its landing gear, but is making a controlled landing, not a plane that has lost an engine and whose pilot has been murdered and is spiraling out of control and on fire.    Bees that aren't overburdened tend to land lightly and walk into the hive in one swift motion, like an experienced parachuter who breaks into a run as he hits the ground.  But bees who are really full will land heavily, because their trajectory is off.  It's kind of a broad generalization, and not every single bee will crash land when the flow is really on, but you just tend to see more bees having trouble landing gracefully than when the flow is light.       

[Terri Yaki]

OK, I was picturing more like a forced hard landing where they had to come in fast or drop out of the air. And I have seen the difference between those who gracefully stick the landing right in the entrance vs those how hover around and finally get it on the porch, not so gracefully.

I inspected my swarm hive. Top brood box went well, no smoke, no problems, found the queen, capped brood and some larvae but didn't spy any eggs. I'd say that things looked normal. But when I went to open the bottom box something didn't sit well with them and they went nuts and I baled into the garage, which is fortunately right there. I was thinking I'd have to abort my mission but after a short break, they calmed down for some reason. This is where they must be parking the syrup that they're guzzling right now but they're still not filling the frames out very well but most of them do have nectar in them. Last week I moved the queen up from the bottom box and that is where she seems to have stayed.

[The15thMember]

Bees during a dearth will be more testy.  There will be more foragers at home on guard duty because not a lot of recruiting is going on, and plus everyone is grumpy when there isn't an abundance of food.  Although if they are being fed, I'm kind of surprised they are reacting to the dearth at all.  You didn't by any chance bash into the box or smash a bunch of bees or anything like that, did you?  Was there any brood in the bottom box or just syrup?   

[Terri Yaki]

No, I was smooth moving at the time. There was one frame down there with brood in it and most of the other frames have comb built in an oval in the center and most of it is filled, probably with syrup. They took about a quart of syrup in one day. I had refilled it on Wednesday.

[The15thMember]

Hm, weird.  Not sure what would be upsetting them then.  I mean all the usual boxes are checked: they are queenright; they are being fed, so they think there is no dearth; and with most of the brood in the top box, it's not like you were deep in the brood nest or anything.  Maybe it was just a freak thing.   

[Terri Yaki]

Tell me about it! The top box was all cool, calm and collected, no smoking necessary but when I touched that first frame on the bottom box it was a whole 'nother ball of wax, as my history teacher used to say.