February Inspection Part One

The weather has cleared up a bit after all the rain so I thought it would be a good time to see what the bees were up to.  I only have 2 colonies right now and I do not want them to swarm.  Best to see if they need anything now before it is too late.

The first thing I did was clean up the dead hive and burn out the bottom board and boxes.  There was a lot of capped honey in there I had given them a few months ago in hopes they would use it during the winter.  I had treated them with antibiotics a few times to try to stop the foulbrood, but they did not make it.  I know this honey was capped before I put the powdered antibiotics in the box so I set it aside to be extracted.  I could see they had lost their queen by the queen cells they had built.  They tried so hard to make it, poor things. 

Peter and I have been talking about moving the bees up onto the roof or onto his mother's deck, but I don't think that will happen this year.  Instead, I will start moving them bit by bit over to the sunnier back fence.  I really think it will help them to be in more sun.  They can start their day earlier and the hive does not have to work so hard to stay warm and dry in our damp foggy climate.  If you move them one foot per day they will acclimate to the new location of the hive.  Any further than that and they will lose their bearings. So today was the day to start the first foot out of about 15. 

The storage stack of boxes and frames is against the sunny fence right where we want to put the bees, so I lay down a big piece of plywood where I thought the stacks would be out of the way and got ready to move them.  There are wood chips in the garden that get stuck on the bottom of the boxes and that annoys me when I am in a hurry to close the boxes up.   I find the plywood platform to be helpful.  I sorted through each box and looked at all the frames to refresh my memory for what I have to work with and to make sure that nothing has been damaged by moths or mice or other critters over the winter.  Some frames had been put into the storage area with uncapped honey or nectar and they were absolutely consumed with the most spectacular array of colorful molds I have ever seen. 

I set those four aside to clean out later.  I probably could hose out the worst of it and let the bees do the rest.  I put together a few boxes of frames with nicely drawn out comb, a few others with capped honey.  I found the one annoying plastic frame I keep meaning to get rid of and threw it in the trash pile.  Good riddance.  I also found some warped frames and got rid of them too.  They cause such a problem when inspecting the hives.  They don't line up in the hive box right and the bees build burr comb in the extra space so when I try to pull the frame out to have a look it tears capped honey and brood and pisses the bees off.

I picked a few good spots on the back fence as a final destination for the hives, set up a new empty hive box in hopes we catch a swarm this year, then set out some cinder blocks one foot away from each hive so I could move them easily as I inspected.  With the empty hive boxes all organized and moved to their new storage spot and the rest of the plywood platforms and boxes full of capped honey and comb arrayed around me, I was ready to open up the hives. 

I got the smoker going and slowly waved my hand in front of the entrance to check the mood of the North hive.  None of the guard bees followed my hand and none flew out at me.  They were calm and busy.  Some of them were carrying a lot of yellow pollen.  This hive is less active and for winter  is made up of one super on top and one deep on the bottom.  I opened the top, remembering not to smoke the entrance since it drives them up into the hive.  If I am going to smoke them, I should wait till the box is open and smoke them down from the top.

They looked good, busy and calm.  They had two empty frames of drawn comb on one side and three on the opposite.  In between were five frames of nice looking pattern of capped brood, larvae, and I assume eggs.  I have not gotten good at seeing them yet.   I think the queen was in this section because they really started buzzing, but I did not see her. 

This image just amazes me.  Bees made this!  It is so beautiful and perfect. The texture is gorgeous.

The larger raised bullet shaped capped brood is drone brood.  This colony is gearing up fro spring and queen mating.   You can see a bee cleaning out a cell, probably its own.  That is the first thing they do when they hatch. 

 

 Here is a brand new bee chewing its way out of it's cell.  

I lifted the top super off and placed it gently onto the waiting plywood platform and covered it with a board so the bees would not get cold and so the queen would not accidentally fly out. 

I inspected the lower box and saw two frames of capped honey on one side and 3 frames of empty drawn comb opposite.  In between were 6 frames of capped brood, no larvae and probably no eggs.  The pattern was a little spottier than the upper box.  I noted a few swarm cells were being built or maybe were left from last year.  I did not see anything in them. 

This hive looked great so closed it up and moved it onto the new cinder blocks a foot away.

To be continued.....