I've been lame. I'll be lame again.

So it's been almost a year since I posted anything. But things did happen.
In order:

• Small Hive Beetles (SHB) were getting thicker and I started seeing signs of Deformed Wing Virus (DWV). I was using AJ's Beetle Eaters on both hives and they had been pretty successful. Levels of SHB weren't too high and I wasn't seeing any mites (Varroa destructor), the likely vector for DWV.
  
• Finally got my first inspection. Two weeks before I had opened the hives and the SHB were in both but not quite pervasive. When we opened them for the inspection there must have been two dozen on just the inner cover of one hive. Both were thick with the beetles and we found many mites. He recommended that I immediately treat the hives or I'd lose them. We began treatment with that inspection.
• We have honey! At the time of the inspection, one of the hives had a honey super almost full. I pulled the super and froze the frames. They're still in the freezer as I type this, but I hope to Crush & Strain them this weekend.
• Pulling treatment off. After the prescribed time, I pulled the treatments out of the hives. In the hive that had the most beetles before treatment I didn't find one beetle or mite. In the other I found one beetle and no mites. Since that time I've found no more than two beetles at a time in either hive.
• Stings: Both 5 & 6 were from crushing bees between my fingers while moving frames around. On the last one, the pain was gone before I finished working the bees and I forgot about it. About 3 days later my finger started to itch right where the sting had been. Itched for a couple days.

I've got some photos during my "down time" and I'll post them soon.

Back From Vacation

Just got back from 2 weeks in Ireland. Some work, some play.

It was cloudy and rainy the first few days home and today was the first day I had to check the bees.

Hive 2008-B has really slowed down. I still can't imagine the 2-4 mites I see each time I open the hive being the problem. I had put a honey super on before I left in anticipation of them needing the room but they haven't drawn any comb out on the new foundation and it looks like what little space was left in the deep box to draw out hasn't bee touched either. Didn't see the queen, but saw lots of larva in many stages. Placed a beetle trap, the kind that hangs between two frames, in this hive.

Hive 2008-A is doing a little better. The second deep body is almost all the way drawn out and there is lots of activity throughout the three bodies. Some of the honey in the honey super is capped, but it's looking more like I won't get a crop this year. Didn't see this queen either, but plenty of other signs she's been there recently.




To the right you can see a couple girls coming into the world. Look carefully, just below the center.

As I was taking off the honey super the queen excluder fell on the ground--sending a bunch of the girls a buzzin'. I had to back away for a couple of minutes after a few of them were hitting my veil pretty hard.

I also took this time to remove the Hood beetle trap from the bottom deep body. Replaced it with a new frame. There were Zero beetles in the trap. Hmm. Still mostly drone comb on that frame so I broke it off and froze it.

Sting Counter: 4
left pinky finger just below the nail.
This one was interesting. I was checking a frame and it felt like a bee was crawling on my finger. I let her go and kept working and after a little while I began to wonder why she was just sitting there. I looked down at my hand and there was just a barb. The only pain came when I scratched it out and even that subsided within seconds. Least painful so far!

Quick Check...Ouch.

Made a quick check on 2008-B to see if it's time for a new super. Nope. Everything looks good, but I don't know why they've slowed down. Still a little comb to draw out...

Quick check on 2008-A to see if the middle body is being drawn out...it is, but not quite complete. Also, there is a small amount of brood in the honey super that hasn't hatched. LOTS of nectar in the honey super and a fair amount of capped honey. I don't know if I'll get a crop this year...I think it'll be close.

I decided since this was a quick peek I wouldn't use smoke. Bad idea. They are definitely more aggressive without the smoke and just as I was finishing with A I got stung.

Sting Counter: 3
Outside, base of my left thumb.

Worst initial pain and then nothing within a couple of minutes.

A couple hours later I went and helped Mark & Julie lift the tin to the top of their river house. Pretty good work out. By the time I left there the sting site was very itchy. I took an anti-itch pill when I got home. (I'll try to remember to find the name of these over-the-counter pills. My allergist recommended them and they work fabulously.)

Woke up this morning (6/18) and had a small blister similar to an ant bite blister. Still very itchy, though I haven't taken any medication today.

All's well...we hope

Weather has been cloudy every opportunity I've had to open the hives. I'm not too worried about 2008-A as we paid close attention to it a couple weeks ago. 2008-B we only touched on then but it wasn't ready for a new body. My only worry is that they are crowded in there. From the outside, everything looks normal!

Adding second deep body to 2008-A

Last week when we cracked this hive open the honey super was pretty well drawn out and we found plenty of nectar, honey, larvae and capped brood. I knew they would soon outgrow this super so today we put a deep body between the honey super and the existing deep body. We also placed a queen excluder on top of the new hive body. (new hive body is one I built)

"We" this week was Rick F. and me. Rick's first time opening hives. He's thinking about putting a hive at his place in town. He also did the photography for today.



The above was probably the least filled frame of the honey super. But you can see how wonderfully drawn out the comb is!


In this photo we've finished with 2008-A, on left, and I'm smoking 2008-B. B's top body is just cover for a syrup feeder. Today, I filled the feeder with some syrup I had left over from A and just made sure they're not getting too cramped.

Hive-A Queen search continues...

I'm not fretting too much as I have seen larvae in the last couple of openings, but I'd like to find a queen since I have seen a swarm cell and they were quite crowded for a couple of days.



This time I've enlisted another pair of eyes in my friend Gregg.





He also gets to play photographer so you can see me in my snazzy new beekeeper coveralls. Speaking of which, for under $35 I got them personalized with my name and the farm name. They are zip-up to about mid-chest where there are two buttons that are mostly under my veil. They have great utility pockets for hive tools and a bee brush. I highly recommend getting a pair from www.automotiveworkwear.com (For the first time I had a bee, actually two, get under my veil. I'm not sure how, but I think a bit of Velcro between those buttons might do the trick.)

Hive-A had a shallow super of new foundation placed on it about two weeks ago. All the frames were drawn out and many were full of nectar. The frame pictured was the least drawn out of the ten. Incredible work.
After sifting through those 10 frames with no queen or larvae it's time to open the large body.

I wanted to start with the frame that has the SHB trap as it was looking like mostly drone comb and if I'm going to put any frame on the ground while I sort through the others I want it to be this one. I really think a frame support on the side of the hive is the way to go.




Looking at the frame you can see some of the cells are slightly bigger than the average cell and you can even see capped drone larvae, indicated by the protruding cappings.







This is a great shot, a girl poking out of her capping... just about to emerge. My smoker had already burned itself out and the hive had been open for so long already that we didn't mess with waiting around.




I was more confident about the hive being queen right as I was seeing more and more larvae that looked a ways from being capped, but I still wanted to find out if I had the original queen. We found her on frame 19B. Finally.

All's well with 2008-A. On Wednesday I'll check 2008-B and see if all the activity last week was pre-swarm or them just being pissy about the lawnmower.

(you can see where the Velcro will go!)

Lawn Mower and hives

Of course I've read all the stories about having to mow around the apiary with full gear since the bees don't much care for the mower....but I mowed without wearing any.

I was probably 20 feet from the hive and thought it wouldn't bother them. First pass I peeked over and all looked fine. Second time around Hive-B had a bunch of bees flying around the outside and crawling out the bottom.

I don't know if it was because of the mower or if they're running out of space or what. Weather isn't good the next couple of days to check them.