Hive inspection and box reversal

[Happy Chooks]

I'm now thinking my main hive is queenless. Everything is quiet on the split, a few orientation flights happening, but otherwise quiet. My main hive activity can only be described as intense, or frenzied. Just sitting there (with my veil on this time) warranted several inspections from the bees.

I'm a bit worried, since their stores were so low. Maybe I shouldn't have split, but I had it in my mind to do it, so I proceeded with it. Hopefully the blackberries will really kick in with nectar soon.

 

[Maggiesdad]

doan worry, bee happy.

The bees know what they are doing even when we don't! The queenless hive is going to be a bit testy for a while. Keep yer veil handy.

 

[Latestarter]

The Dr recommends a nice strong alcoholic beverage and a lounge chair. I'm sure everything will be just fine! In the case of a swarm, both groups of bees would be doing exactly what they are both doing right now! If you only have one honey super w/some honey in it, I hope you put sugar water in the other hive so they have food as well. Just go sneak a peek in about a week and make sure all is well Oh, and you might consider firing up the smoker, and dressing appropriately, for that and subsequent peeks until both hives are queen right.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Yes, the main hive has the super with honey in it. The split has sugar water.

Oh, and I fully intend to be appropriately dressed and firing up the smoker for the next several inspections.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Got suited up and went into the split today to check sugar syrup. They had already emptied it and activity is bustling. Probably a fair amount of drift from the main hive. Filled it back up quickly and closed the hive. It was amazing how many bees were trying to find their way in.

I might try to take a look for queen cells in the main hive on Thursday, we'll see how it goes. Lots of frenzied activity at the entrance for sure.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Today was hive inspection day, and I had some surprises.

First, I inspected the split, thinking I'd find eggs because I figured the queen was there since they were calm. Well, the queen is not there, and there are 6 queen cells in the hive! 5 are capped and one is working on being capped. So they are well onto their way of having a queen. Here is a not so good picture of the queen cells, if you can spot them with the bees all over them. (it's not easy to take a picture with 1 hand and seeing through a veil) They are storing nectar like crazy too, but haven't started drawing out the outer frames yet.

Next, it was time to visit the original hive. I had a heck of a time spotting the eggs because the hive was in the shade during inspection. But I did finally find the eggs and many uncapped larva, so that confirmed that the queen is indeed still in that hive. The population doesn't look that much lower than it was before, and the bees have been very busy. I gave them a super with 2 partial frames of honey that I stored in the hive over the winter - one side was capped and the other partially filled. When I split them, I was very concerned that their stores were too low. Well, not anymore. They moved all of that honey from the super down into the hive body. It's fine because they wouldn't have taken it if they didn't need it, but I sure hope they store some back in the super this summer. Now I have to keep an eye on them to make sure that they don't wall the queen in and making it honey bound with the blackberries in full bloom now.

So it looks like my first split is a success. I didn't screw it up after all. With good summer weather, I should hopefully have 2 strong hives going into winter.

 

[Maggiesdad]

Good stuff! They were calm, because if they have queen cells then in their mind they are queenright.

Wish you were closer - I'd buy a coupla cells off of you and start me two more top bars!

 

[Latestarter]

Awesome stuff Chooks! Grats! <thinking to himself; I KNEW she could do it!> The original hive should be back to where it was before the split in a couple of weeks. And by then the worst part of swarm season should be passed. Once one of those queen cells hatches, that hive will take off as well. You have strong stock there for sure!

Edited to say: I'm not sure, but I believe that I see Varroa mites on the backs of some of those bees in the picture. It's not clear enough for me to blow it up and be sure. Since that is a pic from the queenless split, that means the main hive bees will have mites as well. You may want to consider checking and verifying and if so, treatment may be warranted... If you need to treat, you'll want to do it before you put the super on to be filled.

 

[Happy Chooks]

I'm sure they probably do have mites. My first hive I lost the first winter to mites. I treat every fall (after the supers come off) with Apiguard. It works quite well. And with screened bottom boards with the plastic insert in, I can see just how many mites they had. (really surprised me the first year I treated)

I'm just thrilled that the split is doing well, and I have 2 hives now! I'm really hoping for a great honey harvest this year off of the main hive. The blackberries should do well with the good amount of rain we got this winter, and there are trees that I think are elms that are getting flower buds on them. Catalpa trees and tulip poplar have been in bloom for a while. We don't have many tulip poplars, but my MIL has a HUGE one, so I'm contemplating asking her to put in a bait hive next spring, as there is a lot of hives about 1/2 mile down the road in the mandarin orchards. If I can catch a swarm and keep the hive at her house, then I can take advantage of that poplar honey.

 

[babsbag]

@Happy Chooks I am surprised that there are hives in the Mandarin orchards. They usually want to grow those bee free so there are no seeds in the fruit.

Good job with the split, I have never done one. My poor bees get pretty much ignored. DH was supposed to take over this hobby for us but he never did. I have two hives at my house that I haven't looked at since the day I installed them into the boxes. They need deeps and supers...I need more time...