4th box added - whether it needs it or not

So of course, as I observed the hive, I thought swarm cells were forming. Swarm cells form when a queen is planning to depart or the queen is failing - since these are young queens, I feared the former.

Mark lifted 3 boxes at once (WOW) and I put the 4th box underneath. I do not see comb in the 3rd box, so how could they really be preparing to swarm? Unless the "false floor effect" does exist - which is where the top bars of the lowest box is a "fake out" and they think it's a floor and that they are running out of room.

Needless to say, they have plenty of room now - though I've read that you can't prevent swarming (some think it's healthy hive reproduction) unless you destroy the swarm cells - guess who is NOT going to try that...unless the next post is from the ED with IV epinephrine running - for my anaphylaxis.

So here's a video and I think there are too many drones going in and out - but I usually am not down there mid-day (despite Cassie's belief that I never work, turns out, I do) so maybe this is normal activity. I sent the video to Nature's Nectar (Stillwater very experienced beekeepers) but when I looked at it on a computer screen (versus my iPhone) it's kind of fuzzy so they may not be able to tell me anything.

well there it is, my hive June 27, 2014

and here's an even worse video (it is a martin flying off of my martin house - who, by the way, came back the next day - Monday - and we haven't seen him since). One of these days, the martins WILL set up camp here (the birds singing in the background is my martin CD "dawn song" trying to attract a colony):

Stopped supplemental feeding

Tonight I decided to take the sugar syrup feeders off the top of the hive - it was dusk. I went to the hives with a brush and a hive tool with intention to take the feeders off and to remove the feeder boxes.

So I put on my veil/jacket, GLOVES (after the sting on the finger debacle), and headed over there.
I opened the top, took off the jar feeders and prepared to remove the screen/frame which separates the feeder jars from the top of the bars.

Then I realized that the bees were ready to defend their honey so I decided to run up and get the smoker.
Run is a misnomer...more like hobbled to the garage.  (yes hobbled - see xray below) - this occurred the day after the bee sting - can you believe it?

I limped back (the rubber boots squish my toe) and smoked the top and pulled off the screen. Lo and behold, the fabric flap doesn't fit anymore because the bees have eaten some of the fabric, so I couldn't just replace the flap. I had to go back to the garage to get the original cloth which covers the top bars (and is solid without a flap cut in it). Again limped and hopped to the garage and back. Now it's getting dark, by the way.

Smoked the hives and pulled the old cloth off and replaced with the intact top-bar cover cloth. Then replaced the quilt box and the roof. There were bees attached to the screens and the hive cloth so I had to brush them to the entrance board to get them to go "home."

This is what the feeders look like - when the jars get removed, there is a screen under the jar lid and the bees cannot get through the screen but they can lick the syrup through the screen as it drips from the holes in the lids.




This is the view from below - the way the bees would see the feeders :)

A couple of bees stuck to my veil all the way up to the house then they flew back to the hive. All went well, let's hope the upcoming nectar flow is enough for them. I have 4 more boxes on the way to expand my hives.

In case you don't have the concept, here is an exploded view of the Warre hive (I currently have only 3 hive boxes on):



So that's the 8 1/2 week update. I'm also concerned that there may be swarm cells forming (i.e. queen cells being developed so the queen can swarm with half of the hive, if they are getting overcrowded). But I'm not sure. That's why I've ordered more boxes to give them more room to expand. Hopefully, I will enlarge the hive in time!

8th week

Tomorrow is week 8 of my colonies. The top boxes are full, the second boxes are nearly full - I can see 6 combs for sure.
They are starting in the 3rd boxes so I ordered 4 more boxes with windows from BeeThinking.com
Here is a picture of my stung finger:

Isn't that beautiful?
The sting occurred on May 27 (I was in a hurry to get to Bloomington to pick up my grand niece and nephew to go to the Science Museum so I didn't smoke the hive when I opened the top!!)
Haste makes waste!

Here's a picture of a Daring Jumping Spider (Phidippus audax) which was on the hive yesterday:

Isn't she cool?
So all is well with the hives, they're still drawing comb so I've left the syrup feeders on as well as the pollen packs. The white clover is blooming, the wild geraniums are just finishing.

June 10, 2014 refilling the feeders - Week 7

So I put ~1 cup of sugar syrup in each of the 4 jars on Saturday, and they are nearly empty so although one isn't supposed to visit the hive in the evening (since it is the time of day when they are all coming back to the colony - thus the most bees are there), I went there tonight to put on more pollen packs and to feed the bees.

Hive #2, the southeast one, had no pollen and just a little syrup left so I replenished them
Hive #1, the northwest one, had a little pollen and the syrup was nearly empty.

I smoked the hives, put pollen on, and filled the feeders. Lots of bees and it looks like they are drawing comb in the bottom boxes.

All went well - no stings! I wore gloves because I got a sting on my right ring finger May 27 and my hand got super swollen as well as deeply bruised (weird). The bruise mark is still there and it's been 2 weeks!

May 24, 2014

Joe and I went to the hives, smoked them, took the feeder boxes off the top and added them with their top bars to the bottom of the hives.

Looked at one frame - to show Joe what it looks like - and all is well!
Here are some pictures:

 this is the top cloth on the top box after the 2 jar feeder was removed - these bees are covering their honey which was exposed when we pulled off the feeder - they were building comb onto the screen. they grab their honey and take it back to the comb inside the hive but we did get to taste some YUM!!!

 now I've pulled off the cloth you just saw in the first picture - the bees are on the top of the bars as well as on the combs.

 isn't their comb pretty and perfect? I am pulling up one top bar with its attached comb and bees

 there are pollen patties (pieces of them) still on top of the bar - 2 of the bees are seen eating the pollen patty

 the top cells hold honey

 the puffy looking capped cells are drone cells - after the 5th instar of a larva, the bees cap the cell so it can pupate. the "flat" caps are worker bee cells and the ones that are depressed are pollen

 a lovely little wood tick on the outside of the hive

we put zip lock bags with sugar syrup on top of the bars of the 3rd box (the one we just placed). I am going to ask my dad to build me 2 feeder boxes

Week 4 of the new hives

So I obviously am moving the camera too fast - a repeat issue with me!
So....pause it frequently to look at the images. It is 72 degrees out and sunny, so a great day to check things.
The pollen is still adequate as are the sugar feeders.
No new updates but the frames and combs are looking full and healthy. Honey being stored, larvae seen, capped brood - lots of it.
We went to the U of MN Bee Yard last Thursday and our combs are MUCH further along than the ones we saw up there - and they were dividing their hives because they felt they were strong enough to do that!
They also started their bees a week BEFORE us, so I'm really happy with our progress this spring.

top cells have honey, capped brood - workers and drones

 the larvae are whitish looking worms/larvae!

the dead bees at the base of the hive - normal!

May 10, 2014 - I opened the hive!!

Ok I know the point of a Warre hive is to keep it closed and not let the heat out but I'm a beginner and I wanted to see if there are larvae developing - i.e. are my queens healthy and productive?

And yes! They are!! It was so cool to look at the different stages of larvae development. My photos were blurry so this is what they looked like:

Tomorrow is day 21 - so new bees will start to emerge next week. 21 days from egg to bee :)

I pulled up the quilts and pulled a frame/comb from each box to look at them, it was SO neat - the bees just climb all over and don't do anything to me. I checked how much pollen was left in the patties and they were nearly gone. So I put new pollen packs on top of the bars of the bottom box, that way I don't have to open the hive to replenish the pollen next time. I can just slide off the top box and put new pollen on. The quilts have some mold on them - probably from the moisture from the pollen packs and the sugar syrup.

The feeders were ok so I did not fill them yet - I just filled them on May 6th.

Here's the second video: