Midnight bees TBH inspection (brief)

Time: 7:30 ish

Weather: 80s slightly breezy

Drove out to the farm (Peczuh's) on my way home to check the bees. Lots of bees coming and going. They were noticeably irritated even before taking off the lid. Tylor got a sting to the side through her shirt.

Because of their current foul mood I only looked a bit in the north end. The 2 partial combs that have been drawn out on the north of the aluminum comb guide are perfectly straight. Happy to see that it's working.

The comb that had collapsed last time was now fused to the side/bottom. Didn't want to stick my hand in there today to get it out so it'll stay right where it is for now.

Peaked underneath to see if i could see anything. There appears to be some scratching in the screen bottom. Almost like something with claws was trying to get in. This might explain their moodiness. I Saw no scratching marks near the entrance at all. I'll have to watch this to see if it gets worse. If so, I might just close the bottom board.

Update Schampel TBH

Time: 7:00 pm

Weather: perfect

Checked in on the hive this evening. The staples holding the plastic roof to the frame were coming out. Reattached it with 2 screws in each corner and by retapping the staples in place. The wind has been rather nasty lately (lost shingles off the garage too).

This hive is full!!! Also heavily propolised. She was glued together good. Even the follower boards were propolised in place.

On my last visit I had added 3 bars to the north end. This was the end that had the straightest comb so I thought I'd let them build out this way to encourage further straight comb. Wrong. On the 3 new bars they have drawn out comb at almost 90 degrees from the bars (and the rest of the comb). Decided not to break it all up at this point. I will have to address it later in the fall when it cools down or maybe in the spring so I can see how much they needed for winter and take the rest. I think it's all honey but I'm not sure as I wasn't able to get into it really.

The curved comb at the south end was very thick and full. I didn't measure it but I'm guessing it was at least 2 inches at the top. Mostly capped too. I added 5 bars on the south end to give them room to grow. Since its all going to be honey and will be removed in the spring, I'm not overly concerned with the curve of it. When I take the honey out in the spring, I'll replace the bars with some that have better guides for comb building.

Very docile bees. I love this hive. It's my favorite to work. Jaden was right there with me with bees flying in and out (before I opened it up. Tylor and John (renter) got right in the thick of it with me (no protection whatsover). We all got a good finger full of fresh honey that was exposed when I separated the bars on the south end.

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.

TBH comb guide

Time: 5:00
Temp: 90ish - breezy

Midnight bees (Peczuh farm)
The girls have started out slightly cross combing. 7 combs so far. Each starting in the center of one bar and finishing in the center of the next. I had bent the southern most comb in and smashed the follower board up against it on my last visit. They have allready started cleaning up the comb - removing parts of it to give themselves their required "bee space" at the end. The last bar on the north side is only about half drawn out. I have 3 empty bars on this end of the hive for them to build on (all with wooden waxed guides). I inserted a "divider" between the last partial comb and the blank bars to encourage straight comb. The "divider" is a sheet of aluminum cut to the size of the top bar and hanging about 4 inches into the hive. Hopefully this forces them to build on the next bar straight (even if it causes them to not completely draw out comb 7). I had read about an idea like this on biobees.com forum but I can't find the thread just now.

We'll see how it goes.

midnight bees TBH inspection

Time: 5:30
Temperature: 90 ish slightly breezy.

Very calm bees. Have built 7 combs now (in just a week and a half). All combs gently cross from the center of one bar to the center of the next. Straightened out one of the end bars (flush with follower board). Removed all empty bars on the south end. Added bars with guides to the north end. Found the queen (actually tylor did). Lots of larva and eggs, all 7 combs had pollen and nectar. Left 3 empty bars (with guides) on the north end.

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