One-Week Inspection

[Moonshae]

All is well! Found the queen in both hives, saw quite a good number of eggs in both. Nothing capped as yet, but seeing as they were just hived last Friday, I think they're doing well. Tons of different colored pollens. Looks like most of the work was concentrated in the middle 5 frames.

I did find some mold growing on the few bees that somehow made it into the top feeders, so I removed them for cleaning. I saw quite a few cells with what appeared to be sugar water in the frames, so I'm going to leave the feeders off for now and add them again when I put on the second deep (if I don't see honey stores by then).

Most of my pictures turned out to be too blurry to see (camera kept shutting off, and I couldn't redo the macro setting with a frame in one hand...), but this shot from Hive 2 of pollen with Her Majesty turned out nicely.

[tillie]

Looks great and she's lovely - are you planning to mark her? 

(I know I couldn't, but I heard a lecture this weekend where the speaker said we should mark our queens so that we know when we have had a supercedure, etc. - that said, I don't think I could pick her up much less paint on her back without killing her)  I do think they sell something called a queen muff (?) that makes it easier to pick her up????

LT in Atlanta

[Moonshae]

Well, I'm considering requeening every year or other year, and ordering marked queens from then on. I'm more worried about injuring her trying to mark her than a supercedure at this point.

[Michael Bush]

The queen muff keeps her from flying off.  A marking tube will hold her nicely to mark her.  A hair clip queen catcher will simplify catching her.  A marking pen will make marking her much easier than trying to use paint and a brush.

[Moonshae]

Michael, your experience and your website totally intimidate me. I've read a lot, and I wish I had read it before ordering my hives, or I'd have started off with small cell. I'd also like to have an observation hive in the house, but your description of what you needed to do to make them function is beyond my capacity. I am essentially unhandy.

I'm willing to put off marking my queen for a year (hoping my Italians don't swarm in the spring) in order to get a marked queen. Finding and killing the current one isn't my problem, I'm more worried about being able to keep her and her hive alive.

[Michael Bush]

Buy next year's color (in this case that would be Red) and practice catching and marking drones.  Once you're confident doing that, queens are no different.  Then you can mark her with this year's color (Yellow).

You can practice doing it with your bare fingers.  It's the same difference.  The drones can't sting and neither can the queen.

If you point your finger at the drone (later the queen) and then just put your finger in the middle of their back.  You now have them pinned.  Now gently put your thumb on one side and slip your finger slightly to the side and pin the thorax between your thumb and finger.  If you put the queen on your left hand's finger the drone (and later the queen) will try to grasp it and you can grab all three legs with your thumb.  Now his (her) back is exposed so you can mark.  Then put it back on the comb and release.

It's not much risk to practice on drones.

[Michael Bush]

>your experience and your website totally intimidate me

http://www.bushfarms.com/beeslearning.htm

[Moonshae]

>your experience and your website totally intimidate me

http://www.bushfarms.com/beeslearning.htm

Lol, that was one of the first things I read, and I totally agree. Reading a lot and applying it are quite different, and I'm getting there. Happily, I'd add. Recognizing eggs at my first inspection was totally exciting. I went into my hives today, trusting my girls, in just a t shirt, shorts, and veil. Took the smoker, and used it when they were peeking up at me, and had no issues.