Cleanup of dead hives

I gathered all the boxes from the Haddock's place today so I could take them home and clean them up.
Hive1 had died at the end of last summer. The other (Hive2) died over the winter. They did not starve and they did not freeze. Mites? I know they had mites. There are still many dead mites on the bottom board of the hive.

As I got there, knowing that both hives were dead. I was surprised to see bees flying out of Hive 2. Lots of them. There were also about 50-60 bees flying around the entrance of Hive 3 (caught swarm). It took me a few minutes to figure out that the bees in Hive 3 had discovered the stores in Hive 2 and were robbing it.

I didn't have time to open Hive 3 to determine the level of their stores. Perhaps early next week I'll get a chance.

Also was able to order 2 packages of bees from Knight Family Honey that I'll be able to pick up on April 24th. Wahoo!

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.

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.

Hive Inspections

I was finally able to go out and inspect our three Langstroth hives for the first time this year. I've checked them from the outside and was happy with the activity there but this is the first time I was able to get inside them. The weather was warm but quite breezy. We smoked the bees but found them all rather calm. The wind, I think, made them hunker down in the frames rather than come out after us.

Not sure how to keep track of each hive so we'll call them Hive1 (north), Hive2(south) and Hive3 (caught from a swarm).

Hive2 was the first one we got into. We had let her overwinter with the brood box, a large super full of honey and another large super about half full of honey. We wrapped all our hives with black tar paper before it got to cold making sure to leave plenty of ventilation. We found the queen in the second box. She's been busy. lots of brood comb. Also several empty queen cells (some in the middle of the frame and some on the bottom). We damaged some of the drone brood cells that were between frames and we found voroa mites in them. We're gonna watch this one for swarms. Possibly get a screen on the bottom also. We did place a queen excluder on top of the second box.

Hive3 was the weakest of our colonies last fall so she wintered with the brood box, a full large super and 2 partially full supers (4 high). Also wrapped in Tar paper. This hive has preferred the top entrance since the day we caught them (last July - I know it was late in the year). We found the queen in the top box. There were several frames of brood. The bottom three boxes were full of crystalized honey. You could tell they had been eating it as a lot of it had been opened up and there were little white grains dropped all over the place. This hive was filthy inside. I was surprised to see all the junk that the bees had been dropping in there.There were dead bees, white grains of crystalized honey and feces all over the floor of the bottom box. The bees were stacked so high, the front bottom entrance was entirely blocked. We cleaned out all the dead and swept up best we could. We left a full box of the best looking frames of crystalized honey on top of the brood box (we put her back on the bottom). The others boxes of crystalized honey we'll clean up and reuse the frames. Didn't notice any mites in this hive but didn't break open any brood cells looking either.

Hive1 was the last box we got into. She's been the strongest all along. The top box had black mold on the north side, and on several of the frames. We removed and discarded the frames with mold on them. We'll have to improve ventilation in this hive. There were a lot of brood cells in this hive also. Again, we didn't see any mites, but we didn't break open any cells looking for them. We found the queen in the 2nd box (we left her there, but put a queen excluder on top of the second box).

We'll probably try to split the 2 strongest colonies in the next month (as soon as we can acquire some queens).

In all we were very pleased with the strength of all three colonies. We'll probably install mite screens on all three boxes. We're gonna watch for swarms also.