Schampell TBH Inspection/harvest

Checked out the inside of the Schampell TBH today.
Last night I noticed that there was a small cluster on the outside of the hive. I wondered if they were out of room. I've been seeing drones also so I wanted to get a look.

The first bar on the south end was a partially drawn out comb with nectar in it (none capped).
The next 10 bars were packed. Mostly capped brood with some eggs and larvae scattered about.
The next bar was solid pollen both sides. This ended up breaking off because the comb guide had detached from the top bar. I tried unsuccessfully to reattach it with aluminum strips and I ended up just removing  (for now)
the next 10 bars were honey - mostly capped. The last 4 were cross combed pretty bad and the last 6 were attached to a mess of comb that had fallen last year and I had left in there.

 I removed the cross combed honey bars as well as another. I removed all the comb from the bottom and sides. This leaves them with 5 bars of honey (mix capped and uncapped). I left several empty bars on the north end, spacing them between full bars to encourage straight comb building. I did the same thing on the south end with the last 2 bars in the nest area.

I did notice many, many drones throughout the hive. I did not see the queen (though I did see eggs). I also did not see any queen cells. I did see a couple of very small cups on the edge of a couple of combs.

I took 2 stings. The first from a bee that crawled up my pant leg. She didn't sting me, however, until I removed my pants to try to free her. Upon loosening my waist, she was able to proceed up and into my shirt and ended up stinging me in my left armpit. Ouch! The other sting was through the shirt on my right bicep. The second one swelled much more than the first.

I did not smoke them (perhaps I should have knowing how invasive I was planning to be. I did spray them with water after they got worked up to try to calm them down. An hour after I closed up the hive, there were still a few that would dive bomb me by the back door.

Also, now 3 hours after the inspection there are quite a lot of bees hanging on the outside of the hive (above the entrance holes). Not sure what they are doing. Many of the bars had bur comb attaching the comb to the side of the hive. This was cut with a serrated knife before removing the comb. With so many bees in the hive, I'm afraid I squished several with the knife each time I cut the bur comb. I hope I didn't injure the queen.

This hive will be moving to the Patterson farm on Wednesday.

More drones.
I noticed drones at the Schampel  TBH Saturday (april 21).

Early for drones?

I was in the neighborhood of the Haddock hives and decided to drop by and check them out.
The one has died. I didn't have time to open it up at all to see if I could tell what happened.
The other (swarm caught?) is doing well. Lots of activity at the entrance. I even saw a few drones.
Interestingly, they are using the top entrance (which is very small) and ignoring the bottom entrance.

We talked of splitting this hive if we can find the time.

Swarm Traps

I recently purchased and read "Swarm Traps and Bait Hives" my McCartney Taylor.

A fairly good read. Very informative and entertaining.

I knocked together a few bait hives over the weekend. Two of them hold 7 deep frames each. The third holds 7 top bars. I plan to build a few more as I have quite a list of places I want to put them.

• Near the CEU campus (2 swarms that I know of near there in the last year).
• Near the Castle Dale Bee tree (if I can get permission.)
• Mom's back yard.
• Lone tree south of Ridge Road (caught a swarm there a few years ago).
• 2 near my bee tree above Springville.  I've had one there for 2 swarm seasons with no success but I plan to enlarge the entrance and reposition it.

Early Spring inspections

The weather was beautiful to day so I decided to check my hives.

The Oscar hive in the back yard is dead. They have starved. I should have paid closer attention. They were a struggling colony for a couple of seasons now. Time to replace them with a stronger colony. I'll likely place this hive at the bottom of uncle Brent's back pasture with a new package of bees in it in April.

The TBH in the back yard is amazingly strong. Still a lot of honey on both ends. Pollen coming in the entrance also. The comb is quite a mess in this hive. Once the nectar is flowing, I'll harvest all the remaining honey and remove all the cross comb.

The TBH at Rosier's is my favorite. Nice straight comb, gentle bees. They still have quite a  it of honey as well. Saw three different colors of pollen coming in today (brown, light gray/white and bright yellow.) Not sure what's blooming this time of year, but they've found it.

The TBH at the Peczuh farm is alive and well also with plenty of stores and pollen coming in also.

I took 4 stings today (all my fault.) I wore my vail, but no gloves. 1 sting to each palm. I've never been stung on the palm before. No noticeable swelling. One sting on the back of the left hand and another on the neck after I had taken off my vail and was observing the entrance of the Peczuh hive.

I knocked together some swarm traps/bait hives today. Two that accept 7 deep frames and 1 that accepts 7 top bars. I will place them soon. One in mom's back yard. One in Castle Dale next to the huge bee tree (if I can get permission.) and one out on ridge road in the lone tree where I caught my first swarm.
I'll make another to place up Hobble Creek near that bee tree. The swarm trap that is there has been unsuccessful for 2 seasons now. I think I need to place it (and another) closer to the creek.

I checked the Peczuh TBH today. The cows had been in the field where I moved the hive and I wanted to make sure they hadn't knocked it over again.
It was fine.
There were a couple bees outside, but when I wrapped on the outside of the hive I could not hear the buzzing that I was expecting. I decided to open it up and have a look.
There are a few combs still full of honey. There was also a small cluster of bees (softball size?) in the combs. As soon as I saw them, I shut it back up. I didn't go looking for the queen (though I wanted to). I'm pretty sure there's enough honey in there still to support that small cluster through spring.

Winter Flying

It's January 20. A beautiful mid 50s day with the sun out and no wind.
The girls decided to pop out for a flight. At least the girls in the hives at home. I didn't have time to go check the others (although I would have loved to).