5/24 Hive Inspection

We now have 2 hives in our back yard. Hive 1 (Queen Honeybutt's hive) was a purchased package of bees installed early in May. Our package was purchased form Apis (http://www.apishive.com/) and were Carniolan bees. The hive started with Queen Buzzina, but we believe she was tragically squished during a  beginner style hive inspection. The bees did a great job in spite of us and reared the current Queen Honeybutt. Queen Honeybutt is doing fantastic...now that we know what we're looking for.

Queen Honeybutt. She is the one with the pointy abdomen, and is darker than the bees around her.

 Jace and I went to the Denver Apiary visit conducted by Randy Oliver (www.scientificbeekeeping.com). A lot of his discussion went over my head as a new beek, but what I did learn a lot from was his hive inspection technique. Mr. Oliver runs a pro operation, although it is not large scale. His inspections are fast, efficient and something to aspire to. He spent some time showing us newbies what we are looking for on a frame:

1. Progression of brood. There should be a nice progression of eggs, larvae, and capped brood.
2. Brood surrounded by pollen, then nectar. Pollen is a protein for bees and necessary for their nutrition and brood rearing.
3. The brood, pollen, and nectar occur in bands. The brood in various stages at the center, a ring or band of pollen, then a ring or band of nectar.

The picture above was taken shortly after Queen Honeybutt's virgin flight (about 2 weeks ago). If you look closely, you can see eggs in the black bottom of the cells around her. They look like very tiny grains of rice. At this stage, there was a little pollen stored towards the edges of the frame, and some nectar in the corners.  We figured with her prolific egg laying that she was doing pretty good.

Queen Honeybutt's current hive.

This photo was taken today at the hive inspection, there is quite a difference in the way the frame looks! The center with the solid yellow appearance is capped brood, which will hatch adult bees soon. Toward the edges you can see some fat larvae (they look like maggots curled up in the cells) The yellow areas are pollen, and the clear areas around that are nectar. The frame directly facing this frame was entirely pollen and nectar (our girls are working hard!) There were several frames that looked just like this one, which made us happy to see!

(Jace:  There were also a lot of brood swimming nicely in Royal Jelly!)

Our second hive has a captured swarm. We are keeping an eye on it carefully. The bees are very quiet in this one and we are thinking the queen may not have been captured with the swarm (Jace: or was killed in the transfer/hiving of the swarm). Since there are no eggs for them to make a new queen out of, we will consider integrating them with Queen Honeybutt's hive on the next inspection if there are no eggs.  My gut tells me they are queenless, they just aren't "acting" right.

So far so good, in general. I recommend reading through Randy Oliver's site, a lot of what he says makes sense on a scientific level.

I also recommend setting up a lawn chair by your hives and watching the bees. Mr. Oliver pointed out that you want to see "fat bees" coming in. The fatter they are, the more nectar in their honey stomachs.You'll only see it by watching them!

 I meditate by our hives in the morning. I find the buzzing of our hard working girls to be a good back drop sound to concentrate on until I reach that meditative state. The girls will let you know if you are not in the right frame of mind sitting next to them. If I think of anything that makes me upset or angry, I suddenly have a lot of bees whirring around my face and bumping in to my head.

I have had a few interesting experiences meditating so far..the bees "told me" that the clover would be blooming by us in 2 weeks. Not Nostradamus or anything but we'll see if it pans out. I also saw a series of flowers so dark blue and purple they were almost black. Rather than being ugly or worrisome, they were very beautiful and my heart beat faster when I saw them.  Most days it's just meditating for a still mind, with the humming of bees carrying my thoughts along until I reach that center of peace.

Until next time!