More good - more bad

Checked on the Schampel TBH this evening. Very gentle bees. went through the whole thing. Found the queen. This is the first time I've been in this hive since her mating flight. She's laying like crazy! Eggs and larva everywhere. Very strong colony. Lots of stores pollen and capped honey above the brood. Also 2 bars (out of 10 fully drawn) were full and partially capped honey. I added 5 bars. 2 on the north (between straight bars) and 3 on the south.

Look in the cells at the bottom center of the picture.

Checked my other half of this split again. Found the queen again. Found many cells with multiple eggs in them. Not sure if she's just not laying or what. I decided to feed. Put a feeder on the other side of the follower board. Gonna check to see if I can find another queen. Not sure what to do with the laying worker. I've heard (or read rather) that they are hard to get rid of.

Also checked on the Perone style Langs tonight. The one on the Haddock farm is very active. Also very calm tonight. They are starting to build comb in the 3rd box but they are not using the top bars. They are building swirls up from the bottom. Not quite sure how to handle this.

The Perone land at the Prazen apiary is doing good also. Activity at the entrance has been slower than past weeks but it could be the weather. They've drawn out 6 bars now. Most of the way across the bars and about half way into the bottom box. Huge combs. Lots of nectar in the last 2. Couldn't pull out the rest as they were burred to the sides. With such new comb, I didn't want to risk separating the comb from  the sides to have a better look. Very gentle this evening. Didn't even wear gloves.

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.

Bee drinking water

Surviving the heat (so far)

The last few days have been rather hot (mid 90s). This colony from a huge swarm has only been in the hive for 2 weeks now. I knew they were building large combs. I also knew they were filling them up as they were very heavy when I checked a few days ago. I was nervous that the heat might cause the heavy and very new combs collapse. The bees have been hanging out on the outside of the hive quite a bit during the heat of the day.

Hanging in the shade.

Early on they had (for whatever reason) decided to seal of 1 of they 3 entrance holes with propolis (far left hole - hard to see in picture). It was comical to sit and watch them during the day. The foragers would return with pollen or nectar and since the left hole had no bees around it, they would invariably try that entrance first. After finding it blocked on the inside, they would then crawl over to the middle hole to enter the hive. Last evening I poked a hole through the propolis with a stick and today they have cleaned it all up. They now have 3 fully open entrances. I don't have any other entrances to this hive. I am also worried about proper ventilation. My plan is to build a screened bottom board to replace the solid one that is in place now. I do not want to use a bottom entrance because of a theory I have about mites hitching rides back up into the brood nest after they drop. Hopefully I can get this built in the next couple of weeks. It's supposed to cool down again this weekend.

I peaked into the hive tonight to make sure none of the new comb had collapsed. It hadn't. whew! I had many aggressive bees come after me. Probably due to the time of night (dark) and the fact that all bees were home. There's no gentle way to open this hive up. I've poked my head in my KTBH at night and they barely seem to notice me.

They were not happy with me tonight. I find that I don't like the way this hive closes up. Seems I squish a few every time I put the lid on. I guess once I put the other supers on (like a true perone) I won't be in it as much (if at all) and it won't be an issue. I'm still amazed at the size if this comb. 

Crazy builders!

I knew the swarm I caught last week was big. I also knew they were busy just by observing the entrance. Interestingly they've propolized one of the entrance holes shut. I've got 3 3/4" holes on the front of the bottom box (no bottom entrance). I was amazed at how much comb they have built. 5 bars so far. About 80 percent of the length of the bar and down to the middle of the bottom box. Way cool. Never seen such huge combs. I was nervous about breaking the new comb as it was very heavy with nectar and pollen. I didn't take the time to look for the queen or even for eggs. The first 2 bars are a bit bur combed together. Also bur combed to the side. The next three are perfectly straight and not attached to the sides at all.
I had just visually spaced the 1" bars leaving a bee space between them. The ends of the hive a re a bit warped and the bars are only just long enough to reach. I wish they were 1/4" longer. It's possible they could slide 1 direction or the other and fall into the box. I guess once they propolize them in place, it won't be an issue. Happy bees. Happy beekeeper!

Castledale Bee Tree

Had a chance to find the bee tree I'd heard about in Castledale (30 mins South of me) over the weekend. We were in the area and took a small detour to look for it. It wasn't hard to find. I had heard that the bees were very aggressive and that anyone walking near the tree was attacked. I didn't find this to be the case at all. I did see evidence though that someone (damn kids) had been throwing rocks at the entrance. And they wonder why the bees get ornery?! I should have asked the neighbors how long the bees had been living in the tree. Aside from the fact that there are bees living in the tree, it's quite an impressive plant all by itself. Huge burls all around. I'd love to get a few chunks off that tree when she finally comes down.

It's official

I am now a Utah State licensed beekeeper. The license came in the mail today. Wahoo. I had concerns about being registered. It cost me $10. After meeting the state bee inspector and getting a better understanding of her job, most of my concerns disappeared. I also decided that the benefits of being registered were worth it. Any one spraying in the area (pesticides on fields, mosquito abatement...) must, by law, notify me before they do. Also with more registered beekeepers in the area, we are entitled to more help from the state level.

Long live the queen!

I inspected the Schampel TBH today. It's been a week since I put the new queen in and I wanted to see if they've released her. More importantly I wanted to see if they've accepted her.

I removed every comb looking for her but did not see her. The cage was empty so I know she was released. I saw no eggs and no larva. There were still quite a few capped brood cells. All other queen cells had been opened up from the side. I took this as a good sign that the queen had been accepted and had removed all rival queens. After going through all 7 combs and not seeing her, I decided to have another go as I put them all back into place. Found her on the 4th bar. Busy crawling around.  I'm assuming she hasn't taken her mating flight yet. She is only 1 week old. I'll check back in another week and I expect to see eggs.