Good news and Bad news!

I got a chance at lunch today to peak in the hives at home (2 of them anyway).

The first was the TBH that was from a package at the end of April. Very strong colony. 9 bars drawn out and starting on the 10th. I added 3 more for them to work on (between some of the others to encourage straight comb). Didn't see the queen but did see eggs. Only looked at the first few bars. Took a sting to the arm  but for the most part they were very gentle.

Took a loot at the other TBH. Not so good. This is the colony that was split from the Schampel TBH a few weeks ago. I did see the queen and I did see eggs and larva and capped brood. Even saw bees that looked fresh from their cells. Not a whole lot of activity here. Saw a few dead larva. Didn't notice any foul smell. Not much by way of stores. Wondering if I didn't bring enough stores when I did the split. Might start feeding this one.

I've noticed that the activity at the entrance of my Perone style Lang has gone way down. Could be this crappy weather we've had. This colony has a large number of bees. Only had my veil on (shorts and tshirt) so I didn't want to open this one. They seem to take notice more than my TBH colonies.

Might suit up and peak in tonight if the weather holds out.

Schampel TBH

Took a peak in the Schampel TBH today. I was worried about honey stores as the Peczuh TBH had starved. There were plenty of bees coming and going. Again the gray polen. The honey combs on the south end of the hive were gone. There were still 3+  bars full of honey (cross combed) on the North end.
The brood nest is very cross combed and I didn't really want to get into it anyway. I did pull out one bar (see photo) and noticed some white junk in several of the cells. Looked like cottage cheese almost. Not sure what that is. Disease? The bees were rather ornery (I think it was the breeze) so I closed her up (but not without taking a sting to the back of the right hand). I pulled the bottom board and found a bit of mold and also many dead mites. The mold isn't too bad and I didn't see any mold in the hive itself.
Left happy that they wouldn't starve.

Signs of life

Checked out the langstroth hives at the Haddock's place today. There were actually 2 girls out flying around Hive3 and plenty of brown marks on the hive and in the snow. The temperature is in the 40's.
The other hives (Hive1 and Hive2) showed no activity whatsoever. Hive died last year after some really bad nosema and several attempts at growing a new queen. Hive2 must have gone over the winter. I opened up the top and there were bees everywhere - just dead. Didn't pull out any frames to inspect.

Varroa Mite

I got a closer look at the mite I found on one of the girls yesterday. These photos and video were taken with a hand held iPhone looking through a 40x magnifier at work (The video is a bit shaky).

These little buggers have one monster of a grip. When I first scraped it off of the bee with the end of my razor knife, It would not let go of the blade. I could not shake it off or knock it off by hitting the blade on the desk. I ended up scraping it off with another blade to get it on the desk for observation. The dead be was on the desk about 1/2 inch away from the mite. The mite crawled over and climbed back on the bee (though at that point it was just a bee head (half a bee?))

Underside

Top side (hairy)

Mite on Bee Head

You can see it crawling around on the "hair" towards the end of the clip.

Underside. I didn't get it on video but I watched it flip itself upright with those short stubby legs.

Lang updates again

Time: 10:00 am

Weather: 80ish degrees

Hive1 - no activity at all outside the hive. Opened it up and found plenty of bees inside (including a few drones). The girls were clustered up over the middle 5 frames. No sign of excrement all over like before.

There were 3 capped queen cells on the brood frame that was placed in here on July 16. Though I did not see attendant bees all over them like I've read I should. The inside feeder had lots of dead bees floating on top. Dumped it all out. Didn't put it back in. Added a frame of mostly capped brood from Hive3 (wild lang). Added all worker bees as well (after thorough inspection to make sure the queen wasn't on that fram). Observed for a few minutes - did not see any fighting amongst the bees. We'll wait another week and take another look. Noticed 1 worker bee with a mite on her back. Caught her and put her in a jar for later observation. I'd like to get the might under magnification.

Hive2 - plenty of activity outside the hive. Peaked inside to see if they've started drawing out wax in the empty super yet. They had not. I suspect that since there are 2 completely empty frames in the brood box (where I've taken out brood) that they are busy drawing those out and filling those. Though I did not open it up to look.

Hive 3 - these girls are HOT. Took a sting on the inside right elbow. Through my shirt. Very little work going on in the top box. Barely a hint of wax being drawn out. Took a frame of brood for Hive1. Replaced it with an empty frame from the top box leaving an empty space in the top box.

Lang updates

Time: 12:30

Weather: Mid 80's - no breeze

Hive 1

Checked on the queen less? hive today. Not seeing feces all over like before. Still some sugar water (1:1) in the internal feeder. Added 5 cups more. Lots of newly emerged bees. They've built up 2 small queen cells (see pic1). Added another frame of brood (mostly capped) from hive 2 to help build up numbers. We'll see how it goes.

Small queen cell right in the center

Hive 2

Removed another frame of brood for hive 1. Moved the full super to the top (4th spot) and put the empty super down (3rd spot). No evidence of comb building in the empty super yet. Replaced the taken brood frames with empty frames (including the foundation-less frame from last week). See in the below picture how much they've drawn out in just 6 days. They'll likely draw out these 2 empty frames before moving up into the empty super. These 2 small combs were pretty full of nectar also. I only removed them because the wooden ware had come from the "sick?" hive (hive2) and I didn't want it in there. I do realize that it's been in there for almost a week now and taking it out now might be pointless.

Wild hive (hive 3)

Still preferring the top entrance. No sign of wax being drawn out in top (3rd) box yet. Not sure how to rearrange these girls so they produce. Might eliminate the top entrance all-together.

Wax drawn out in only 6 days (and full of nectar)

Bad pictures - only had cell phone camera

Queen-less hive assistance?!

TIme: 10:00
Temp: mid 80's

Checked on the Langs again today. Jared has added a new box with new frames to the top of Hive 2.

He's also removed the top box from Hive 1 and medicated the bottom two boxes. Not sure what he did with the top box and I'm not sure what he used to treat them (he's off camping all week).

All the bees in Hive 1 were in the top box (middle box last week). Still no sign of a queen. Removed 2 frames from the middle box. Removed the bottom box completely. Added a new clean floor board. Put in the feeder from the bottom box and filled it with sugar water (1:1 - 6 cups). Also added a frame of brood/larva/eggs from Hive 2.

I'll check back next week to see if they are growing a queen. Might add more brood at that point.

Lang inspections

Time: 11:00 am
Temperature: 80 ish

Started with hive 1 - 3 deep langs. Hive activity at the entrance is very very low. This was our strongest hive 2 months ago. Suspect that the bees absconded (midnight swarm). Excrement all over landing board and front of hive. Also around the top entrance. Almost no bees whatsoever in the top super. Very little honey. Most bees were in the 2nd super. Lots of drones. Lots of excrement all over the frames, the bees and even the floor. Very few and scattered larva. Very few and scattered capped brood (and many of those are drones). No eggs that I saw. Very foul smell in the hive. Busted open some drone cells and found mights.

Hive 3 (wild lang) - 2 deep langs. Bees still prefer top entrance. Lots of activity. Top box full of honey with some brood. Bottom box mostly filled up with brood. Found the queen. Lots of bees. Added an empty super. Still a chalk brood here and there on the bottom.

Hive 2 - 3 deep langs. Lots of activity. Top box packed full of honey (above queen excluder) 2nd box full of honey and brood with some queen cells (supercedure cells - one of them capped). Lots of brood in the bottom box. Did find mites. Need to add a super but do not have one.

Pictures to follow.

http://theotherdwayne.smugmug.com/gallery/8835104_PLDtZ/1/585450367_TBsZK

Lang watch

Time: 3:00 pm

Weather: 80ish - very little breeze

I had a chance to watch our 3 lang hives for a few minutes today. In the 2 oldest hives (Hive1 and Hive2 - both 3 supers deep) there were bees hanging out all over the landing boards. There were also many drones coming and going.

In the newest lang (Hive3 - 2 supers) there were several chalk brood larva on the landing board. I saw no drones coming and going from this hive.