The little colony that could

I inspected the Schampel Oscar hive today. This is a hive I didn't expect to survive the winter. They were so light going into it. These girls are the remnants of a small swarm caught late last year that were added to the stragglers from a large swarm who absconded. They didn't have much time to build up for winter. I had decided to let them give it a shot. If they make it, they make it! If not, oh well.

I have been watching them bringing in pollen. Have also noticed a bit of dysentery (brown spots all over the front of the hive). Yesterday while watching the hive entrance, I noticed a large red and yellow wasp land on the front and walk right in one of the entrance holes. I tried to squish her with by shoe but was not fast enough.

Today at lunch the weather was nice enough (at first) that I decided to open it up and have a look.
There are still 3 frames in the top box about 1/3 full of capped honey. Bottom 2 boxes are large combs hanging from top bars (measured one of them at 14 inches long). I pulled them all out for a look see.

The first thing I noticed upon removing the only 2 bars without comb on them was a large red and yellow wasp dead on the hive floor. Yes! The hive bottom needed some serious cleaning. The entrances are about half way up on the bottom box (no bottom entrance). There was about 1/4 inch of chewed up newspaper bits (from when I combined the two colonies) on the bottom. Mixed into this were dead bees, bits of chewed wax cappings and of course a large DEAD wasp.

 I Found the queen on the first brood bar. Small queen (perhaps not mated?). Also noticed what appears to be the remains of a supercedure sell. Opened up on the side. Not sure what that means. I found a small cluster of capped brood with some uncapped brood. Did not notice any drones or eggs. the total brood area was only about the size of a softball.
I cleaned up a bit of cross combing that had happened. Rather easy to do at this point as those 2 combs were empty.

I'm happy that the girls survived the winter. I'm a bit concerned with the dysentery and also the small size of the colony. I guess We'll see what the do now the the flowers have their bloom on.

Death to the wasp!

Queen

Large Comb

Spring check

Checked the 2 hives at Haddock's yesterday. Didn't open them up but saw bees flying in and out of both. Pollen (pale yellow) coming into both hives also. The one (oscar style) currently has 4 boxes. I'm not sure when Jared put on the 4th box. The other (from a late swarm last year) is still just one box. I was surprised to see they made it through the winter. Saw some plants near by with tons of purple flowers on them - not sure what the plant is. I also saw some dandelions in bloom yesterday. Spring is here!

Spring pollen

Had a very beautiful day today. Got a lot of yard work done. Attempted my first apple tree grafts. Spent some time with the bees. All three of my colonies had girls out today. They are bringing in some light yellow pollen. Lots of light yellow pollen (see pics). I'm not sure what it is. The willows are barely beginning to bud. I've seen a crocus here and there but the dandelions aren't even up. Whatever it is, I'm glad they have it.

The TBH at Rosier's was especially busy (and quite friendly).

Early Spring / Late Winter inspection.

I have seen bees at all my hives flying around on the warmer days lately. Some of the days have been up in the 50s. We still have some very cold nights.

I opened up three of my hives to check on honey stores. I was wondering if I needed to start feeding.

Schampel Oscar
I was really worried about this one. This colony was from an August swarm and was very light when I moved it in October. I really din't expect it to last the winter. It did. It's currently 3 deeps tall. The bottom 2 contain the nest (no frames, natural comb from the top bars on top of box 2) the top box is frames with foundation. 3 are drawn out and still half full of honey - mostly capped - some uncapped. I don't know how much honey is in the nest. I am very excited to find honey in here at all. I'll watch this one closer than the others to make sure they have enough food to get to spring. Only a month more (give or take) before they should be able to forage.

Schampel TBH
This hive is doing very well. This colony was half of a split last spring. They queen was out of one of Paul's hives (carny mix of some sort). Very productive colony last summer.  They have several bars of honey on either end of the nest. I saw bees on both ends so I know they know it's there. Won't need to feed this one.

Rosier TBH
This colony is huge. They have many bars of honey on both sides as well. Very pleased with this one.

Empty TBH
This hive contained the other half of the split from last spring. This hive had the original queen. She never laid right after my attempt at splitting. Died off before fall. I poked around in the hive after moving it home in October and I suspect foul brood. The signs are there. The sunken caps on brood cells, some with holes in them. I did the string test but was not sure. I need to have someone else come look at it with me. I'd like to put a swarm or another split in it this spring if it's safe. Can't bare the thought of burning it up if it really is foul brood. Guess we'll see. Can't bare the thought of the foul brood spreading to my other colonies either.

Moved

I've moved again and moved hives too. I guess I should update things.
The Schampel TBH is still where it's always been.
The Prazen Oscar is now moved with  me and will become the Prazen Oscar.
The Prazen TBH has moved to my friends back yard and will become the Rosier TBH.

Hive Oscar is still at Jared's farm as well as a small box containing a swarm we caught late last summer (2 hives).

Late swarm

Got a call yesterday from an fellow beekeepers wife. They had a swarm on their fence and they didn't want it. He's been threatening for years to "get out of the business". I grabbed an empty box and went to get them on my lunch break. They were on a low weed. The old beekeeper gave me his old swarm catching box to use. It was a lightweight box with 1 frame in it and screened windows on all 4 sides. I was able to cut the weed at the base and put it right in the box. I placed the lid on leaving it cracked open on the one side. The rest of the bees were on the ground and in the short weeds. They quickly started marching up the side of the box. I thought that by the time I got off work, they would all be inside the box. They weren't. Most were but there were many that were still clustered on the outside of the box on one of the screened windows. I dumped them all out of and off of the swarm catching box directly into my langstroth. Came back in a couple hours and they were all neatly inside.

I took them home to combine them with another weaker hive. The huge swarm I had caught a few months ago absconded after a few weeks and left a small number of bees (and some Ginormous combs). I placed the box containing the swarm on top of the other hive with some newspapers between.

I think I also figured out why the other colony absconded. I went out to check on these bees last night after dark. There were ants all over the hive. Huge ants. They were gone this morning when I looked. They must just come out at night. I'll have to remedy that and soon. It's curious that they were not on my other two hives (top bars) just a few feet away.

I got some pics and video of the swarm that I should be able to post later.

Also - I took 2 stings for this one.

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.