A Sad Day

A little less than two weeks ago, on 10/4/15, I removed the supers from my strong hive, and inspected both hives. The smaller, weaker hive was still plugging away, but didn't seem to have made much progress. In hindsight, I should have been feeding this hive more during the season to try to encourage them to build out the comb, and I also could have given them a boost with brood and frames from the stronger hive.

At the same time that I performed these inspections, I put feeders on both hives, to help them improve the stores of honey in the hive bodies.

On Monday after work, we noted that the bees were really upset about something. Flying like crazy, collecting in weird areas, such as on the hood of a car, and on the neighbor's swing. It was very strange, and there were a lot more dead bees in front of the hive than there had been the day before. This was concerning, but I couldn't say for sure if it was robbing. So I made sure the entrance reducers on each hive were in place, and called my Dad. He listened to all the "symptoms" and said that maybe they'd gotten into something that the colony didn't like. If bees come back to the hive smelling like a chemical that the colony really doesn't like, they will start to kill off the foragers. At this point, I didn't know what else to do except wait.

In the meantime, while I was waiting, I asked our nextdoor neighbors, and they explained that they used a plant food, but they had used it many times before and none of us have ever seen the bees react this way. I ruled this out, but I still believe the bees got into something, somewhere that caused a lot of problems.

On the afternoon of Sunday 10/11/15, after returning from a weekend road trip, I checked the bees to see if they needed syrup, and found the feeder being robbed by another colony of honeybees through the top entrance, and the lower, front entrance was being robbed by yellow jackets! When I investigated further, I found countless dead bees inside the hive, on the screened bottom, and determined there is not living colony left in the hive. All the activity in the hive was from robbers.

After another call to my Dad, and a couple days and nights of thinking about it, the reality still has not completely sunk in. My Dad suspects the colony was poisoned by something, and he said that many pesticides that homeowners treat with, such as Sevin, are notorious for situations like this. The bees live long enough to bring the chemicals back to the colony, and they all perish. I suspect this situation is more common in urban areas, and that the chances of this happening to me are much higher because of where I live.

I wish I could say for sure that I'll "get back on the horse" and order a package in the spring, but if there is a high likelihood that it could happen again, and I don't have any way to prevent it, I'm really not 100% sure.

I had no idea that I'd be so emotionally involved in a group of intelligent insects, but my heart is aching as though I've lost a pet.

It's Only Mid-June

And I haven't seen any signs that the ladies in Rose will slow down for much of a break!

When I started this season, in my storage room,  I had a total of four empty supers. I had one super that was between 25% and 50% drawn out, and the remaining supers were all empty foundation. In early April, before leaving town on a vacation, I put one super on (the one that was partially drawn) just in case some flowers opened while I was gone. And two weeks later, I wish I had put two on at the beginning. And so the season has gone.

Now I have learned a bit from those mistakes, because I'm checking more frequently, and making sure they aren't running out of space too fast. About 4 weeks ago, the first (partially drawn) super was full, and they were drawing out the second. So I put two more on.

The last couple of weekends when I've checked them, they've been a bit stagnant, but I wasn't worried, I'd take 2 full supers for the season and be ecstatic with those results.

I checked again yesterday, expecting to see more of the same. They have capped the first and are in the process of capping the second, and the third and fourth are more than 50% drawn. Below are a couple pictures of some of the capped frames:

Look at this beautiful honey:

This frame is almost completely capped:

This side of the frame is only partially capped:

My Dad sent me a package last week with 3 more supers worth of frames, hoping to buy me some more time before I'd need an extractor. Well am I glad he did, and yet, if the intermittent rain and sun keep up, I'll need one in 4 to 6 weeks anyway.

When I saw how much progress had been made in just one week, I sort of freaked out just a bit, and ran into the house to pull out 2 more supers of empty foundation that my Dad sent. We've officially moved into step ladder territory. I think I may need to start lifting weights, too :)

Below are some more pictures, just for those who like looking through the pictures, and since I haven't been posting much lately:

I guess I Was Wrong

About a month ago, I introduced my daughter to our new queen.

Then I hung the cage containing the new queen inside Lavender. I checked after two days, and she was still in the cage. A very good friend of mine put on my extra hat and veil to take some pictures and catch a peek inside.

A couple days later, I checked again, and the queen and all her attendants were dead inside the cage. That night, I called my Dad, and he looked back through my pics on the blog. He explained that the laying pattern I was seeing was just spotty because queens in the spring don't always lay consistently, and the pattern when they start out in the spring can sometimes just be off.

So I was apparently wrong, there had been a queen in the hive all along, and it just wasn't laying in a nice even pattern like I'd anticipated. 

Over the past four weeks, during weekly inspections, I've verified this by finding new brood throughout a couple frames. Finally, the laying pattern is what it should be, and is finally looking better. Now, with time, I expect the numbers in the hive will start to increase.

On a better note, Rose is excelling (may have excelled even more if it hadn't swarmed at least once, maybe more) and already has a lot of honey. I'll go into more detail about this in my next blog post.

But yes, you did read correctly, I'm fairly certain that Rose has spawned at least 1 or 2 swarms, because I didn't give them enough space fast enough. Upon inspection four weeks ago, I spotted empty queen cells hanging off the bottom of the frames in the top hive body, which is a tell tale sign of swarming. I'm definitely learning something new every day, and I'll apply what I've learned to next year.

For other beekeepers out there, I'd say the one thing to take away from this post is patience. If I had taken more of a wait and see philosophy with Lavender, and just been patient, I wouldn't have lost a perfectly good queen. I learn something new every week when I check on these beautiful ladies! 

The Little Hive That Could(n't)

Poor Lavender just hasn't gotten over this string of bad luck, at least not yet anyway. I've just placed an order for a new Italian queen for the smaller, weaker hive.

I wasn't 100% sure last week, when I thought they were too buzzy to be "normal", but I confirmed this evening, upon inspection, that Lavender is (again) queenless. If you're one of my 2 or 3 regular readers, you may remember that I purchased a queen for Lavender last August after trying, unsuccessfully to help them raise a queen by giving them a frame of fresh eggs.

At that time, giving them some eggs at least helped their population and straightened out a laying worker problem. So far, this time around, I don't believe I have a laying worker, at least not a very active one, because there isn't a lot of drone comb.

Tonight, it was too late in the day, and I was in a hurry, so I didn't take any pics, but there wasn't anything to photograph anyway. In fact, that is the problem, other than pollen and honey stores, there is nothing in the comb. At this point in the season, it is very, very bad to not have any new brood, and if I don't turn things around fast, it could mean the end of the colony. They're working so hard to collect nectar and store honey, and the lifespan of the honeybee is way too short this time of year.

Tonight, if I had more smoker fuel, I would have preferred to move a frame or two from Rose to Lavender, but luck was against me. In addition to ordering a queen, I also ordered some smoker fuel, because I am completely out.

I should receive the new queen on Tuesday, but won't have smoker fuel to install the new queen for a couple more days. Since I don't want to wait that long to install her, I guess I'm going to have to get creative about what to burn, that creates a smoke that's as cool and white as possible, and that I already have around the house. Any suggestions?

The Start of Year 2

Spring is definitely in full swing. Both  Rose and Lavender are active and doing all they're supposed to do. Dandelions are open, as well as a lot of other spring flowers, and everything is green and growing.  So far we have gotten a good mix of rain and sunshine to make conditions perfect for an early nectar flow.

I inspected both hives, and I'm very pleased with the laying pattern I found while inspecting Rose.

I'm not entirely sure what's wrong with Lavender, but I'm not happy with what I saw. The laying pattern isn't consistent, and there are occasional extremely large cells (seem too long to be drones, but do not hang vertically like a queen cell).

Any thoughts?

Flowering Trees

While observing the hives yesterday, I noticed a bee or two with pollen as they re-entered the hive. Here in southern/central Indiana, we must have some trees flowering.

Rose seems very strong, and has cleaned out a lot of dead bees since last week. Cleaning house is a good sign.

Rose is also taking a lot of syrup, because both pint jars were empty when I checked the feeder.

Lavender has only consumed about 1pint of syrup, but they were still moving pollen in, and while they don't seem to be as strong as Rose, they're still holding on.

Neither hive seems to be eating much of the pollen substitute I gave them last week, but I'm guessing that's because they have natural pollen to use for raising brood.

Hopefully either today or next weekend, I'll be doing some work on Lavender to get the colony moved out of the super. I'll try to get some pictures of that process when I do.

Spring?

We are so thrilled, and so very lucky, to announce that we seem to have a 100% survival rate! If they don't make it now, it will most likely be due to starvation. So today I fed each hive. In each feeder box, there is quart of one-to-one syrup and a large, homemade pollen patty, made from Bee Pro pollen substitute mixed with some extra one-to-one syrup.