Peczuh TBH cleanup

I had moved the TBH from the Peczuh farm to my house to clean it up. If I can get another swarm, I'll put it back out there. I've seen several scouts checking it out in the last couple days in the back yard. I took 2 bars of empty comb (relatively straight) and placed it in my bait/swarm catching hive. I cleaned up the rest of the comb leaving 4 semi straight comb and removing the rest to be melted down. Some of the comb had starved bees in them that I didn't want to mess with removing. Those combs were chucked. Cell size on most cells was 5mm (5 cells to an inch). The bees were still soft and pliable. They hadn't dried out (do bees get rigormortis?) yet. This makes me think that they had only just starved. I might have been able to save them even a week or two ago if I had known they were out of stores. Dead mites on the bottom board. A bit of mold on the bottom board also but none anywhere else in the hive. I've left 4 frames of comb and divided the hive into 2 separate spaces (2 combs in each). Going to leave it in the yard and use it as a bait hive for now.

Hive3 Inspection

Worried about honey stores, I decided to check on Hive3 (langstroth) today and see if I should start feeding them. The weather was warm enough but slightly breezy. Several bees flying in and out of the hive. These girls have always been upside down. Using the top entrance exclusively. This hive wintered with 3 boxes. As soon as I cracked the lid, I was bombarded by about a dozen bees. I wasn't completely suited up (had my vail and gloves) so I decided not to dig further. Funny that both the girls from this hive and the girls from the Schampel TBH attacked the dark gray draw string on my white pants.

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.

Alive

Nervous about the fate of my Peczuh farm TBH I checked on my other TBH this afternoon.
50 degrees or so. Sunny. Very slight breeze. There were bees coming and going quite frequently. Many bringing in pollen also. (light grey color pollen). I'm not sure where they are getting it, but I was happy to see they had it. Couldn't slide the bottom board out without jarring the hive too much. I'll go back in the night and peak up through the bottom.

Starved

Stopped by the Peczuh farm last night to check on the hive. Had noticed before that the cows had knocked it a bit (The corners of the coruplast roof were bent and the legs were off of the bricks I had them sitting on). I figured a calm night might be a good night to move the have back into place.
As I moved it I did not notice the expected hum from within. I took a flashlight and removed the bottom board to look up through the screen (the board was covered with wax bits and also dead mites). The screened bottom was completely covered with dead bees. I could hear nothing. I opened the top and inspected the hive. It's all lost. They have starved. All the stores were gone. Only 3 weeks ago they were making their cleansing flights in the warm weather. There is nothing yet for them to harvest. I should have looked inside then to check the level of honey so I could start feeding. I'll need to go check the other hives to make sure they don't starve as well.

Bummed!

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!

Spring is here!

I was at the house (fairgrounds road rental) today at lunch and saw a honey bee flying around checking things out. There's absolutely nothing in bloom right now. In fact there's very little green anywhere still. It's about 40 degrees and with no wind, it must be a great day for flying. I'm not sure where the closest hives are. I haven't even seen any since moving here. Plenty of farm land though so a colony could be anywhere. It's exciting to see them out flying.

Schampell Park TBH is alive

Dropped in on the Walters at our rental house to check on the TBH in the back yard. Plenty of signs of cleansing flights. Actually got to see a few of the girls out and about around the hive. As if my spring fever wasn't bad enough already!

TBH at the Peczuh farm is alive

Dropped by the farm this morning while I was out and about to check on the hive. Haven't been out since December. It was too early and cold for any activity but there were plenty of dark poop spots around and on the hive so I know they've been taking their cleansing flights. A good sign!

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.