Last look at the bees?

It's been two weeks since I last looked into the hive, and Sunday was warm and dry so I decided we'd have what may be the last look at the bees.  They are still extremely busy during the warmest part of the day and managing to bring in masses of pollen from somewhere. - There seems to be some scrub / fallow fields round about which have variety of plants still in flower though they are spread pretty widely - the bees obviously know where to look and don't seem to have any problems finding good sources.

It was also time to remove the 'apiguard' which should have done it's job by now.  We cleaned the varroa monitoring board and will leave that for a few days to measure the rate of mite drop - my suspicion is that it's still going to be higher than the 10 per day which is supposedly acceptable going into October, but we will see.

My helper for today was the boy - operating the smoker - a little too generously in some cases - too much smoke seems to make the bees cross rather than calming them down - it's a fine balance and clearly not easy for a 10 year old boy, the fascination of the smoker cum flame thrower can outweigh the 'minimum' of smoke necessary to have the desired effect....



Anyway - going into the hive, we removed the 'empty' super which was really just on there to let the vapour from the apiguard circulate, removed the apiguard tray and then had a look at some of the frames without distubing them too much. - It still wasn't hot outside so didn't want to cool them more than necessary.

The top super is almost totally filled with capped honey now - barring the sides nearest the outside of the hive.  It's a fair weight to lift that - the sort of weight you wouldn't want to be much heavier - that's a good thing as it's got to keep the bees going until next spring.  I believe they need at least 20-25Kg of stores to see them through and the weight of the super is around that at a guess.

Going into the brood box - The outside couple of frames at each side are honey, then going into the frames, there is more pollen - I think they are putting pollen into some of the area previously used for brood which would make sense if the queen is starting to slow down laying.  We didn't really look for brood, nor see the queen as the bees were getting a little touchy at this point. - There's little I can do this late in the year even if there were a problem with the queen, so better just let them get on and do their thing. - I'm pretty sure all is OK anyhow.

On this frame, you can see that it's got some capped honey round the edge and toward the left of the picutre, and then most of the rest of the frame is pollen. - You can see the different colours toward the right of the shot pretty well.



The bees hadn't really touched the last lot of syrup I'd put on there, but since it is still reasonably warm and dry, I left that on when we closed up the hive.  Checking back tonight, they've nearly emptied the feeder so maybe they'd just not found it before. - The crown board is now directly on top of the super, and the feeder directly on top of that, so it's much easier for them to find the feeder than it was when I had the empty super on top of the 'stores' super. - Either way, I think this will be the last of the liquid feed I will give them this year.  I might get some fondant feed to tide them over the winter if necessary - though how I know if they need it or not I'm not sure at this point.

Still a large number of bees around, though drones are increasingly rare when we stand watching them coming and going. - The poor drones get kicked out as they are unneeded mouths to feed over the winter.  I guess we'd expect the number of workers in the hive to reduce too from this point, and there just to remain a core of workers to overwinter with the queen.

Jobs remaining to do...

1. - Think about insulation - maybe have a look at options to insulate the roof cavity, and potentially the outside of the hive.
2. - Check varroa drop & assess possible options for treatment if it's still high.
3. - Get some fondant food in.

I will keep looking in on them from time to time if the weather is warm enough, but that's going to be increasingly rare from this point on.

Hive Examination. - 14/09/13

Cooler today and rain forecast this afternoon. - About 14 degrees, so just wanted a quick look at the bees to see what the situation is following the second does of apiguard applied last weekend.

Bees are very busy this morning brining in masses of pollen.  They have been taking over 1L of 'heavy' syrup each day containing 1Kg sugar, and they must have been doing something with it!

Opening the top of the hive, the bees are busy but not agressive. - There are a lot of them on all frames in the super.



Where previously there had been brood in the central frames of the super, they are now storing honey (syrup) in these frames, and apart from the outside sides, the frames are all drawn and filling with syrup / honey.  Hopefully this is a good sign that they will have enough stores for the winter.

Moving down into the brood box, we saw plenty of stores in there too, capped brood, grubs and eventually the queen. - Again, all frames are full of bees - it all looks very much busier even than last week I think.



The girl was helping today and operated the smoker as required.  Also held a frame stores from the brood box for the first time which she found very exciting.



There were few signs of queen cells - except those which were partially torn down from previously. - Having seen the queen, and seen signs of laying etc, then I think we conclude all is as well as can be hoped at this stage. - Feeling pretty happy after examination today!

I think we will continue feeding for a little while longer and I will seek advice on when to stop.  I'm assuming that the bees will stop taking the syrup when they feel they have had enough but unsure so need to check.

Fingers crossed - things might be more positive.

Weather is definitely turning cooler.  This morning's bike ride was distinctly cold, and we'd already had a couple of showers.  Temperature approx 13 degrees, but when the sun came out around midday it was pleasant enough to open the bees.

Today's plan was to follow up on the previous situation - see what had happened to the queen cells / supersedure cells and see if we could see evidence that a queen is laying and active.

Several points were I think tentatively good news.  Firstly, we saw the original queen (and didn't see any other queens).  Secondly, we saw grubs.  Since it's 6 days since we last opened the hive, it's highly significant that we've seen grubs. - When they fill the bottom of the cell prior to capping they have been there for about 8 days.  This means they must have been eggs around the time we last looked - indicating the queen was laying at that time. - I'm taking this as a very positive sign that the queen is OK and not permanently off colour.  In fact, there were a lot of grubs, and it seemed a lot of capped brood - and indeed, there seem to be more bees than previously though that might just be that it's not a particularly good flying day I guess.

The third point of interest was that ALL the supersedure / queen cells (of which previously about 5) were open. - We know that they were all sealed 6 days ago on 2nd September, so they have either hatched, or they have been torn down by the bees. - What has happened here I've no idea. - Either the virgin queen(s) hatched, and there is still a virgin somewhere in the hive along with her mother, or the existing queen killed the new queen(s), or the bees did either before or after hatching. - Comments welcome below.

Here you can see quite a few grubs / larvae just to the right of centre of the shot (shiny white things in the bottom of some of the cells.)



And here you can see one of the previous sealed queen cells is torn down - I guess it's being tidied away by the workers. - It's the bigger cell to the left of shot.  The one in the centre isn't so big and probably was never a proper queen cell.

An interesting thing I learned at the demo yesterday is that 'supersedure' queen cells tend to be built in the middle of the brood frames - perpendicular to the 'normal' direction of cells in the honeycomb. - This contrasts with 'swarm' queen cells which would tend to be built at the edges or the bottom of frames.  If this is true, the bees must have some reason for making the differently positioned cells - either something to do with temperature maybe, or the way the new queen's pheromone will affect the hive. - Clearly they know why they do it that way, but I don't.



So - in conclusion - we now have a hive which appears to have a laying queen, and the prior queen cells are not active.  On that basis, I added the second does of Apiguard varroa treatment which was supposed to be added 2 weeks after the first.  I 'hope' that if it were that which affected the queen previously they will now be more used to it, and it won't be so destructive this time.  There are as I said a 'lot' of bees, and there seems to be quite a lot of capped brood.  The 'super' is now heavy with 'honey' (probably mostly acutally syrup) with most frames filled and capped except where there's brood in the centre frames, so for now I'm quite a bit happier than I was the last couple of times I have examined the hive.

The only thing I saw this time which I've not seen before were just a couple of 'bald' brood.  Since there were only a few, I doubt this is anything to fret over.  You can see these partial cappings with the brood visible in the photo below.




I added the varroa floor again today and will count the mite drop at the next examination.

Far more relaxed this time round (me, not the bees).  I've sort of resigned myself that 'what will be will be', and that this is after all a learning experience.

OK - we will examine again in about a week or less and see what surprises they are trying to scare me with at that time!

Bristol Bee and Pollination Festival

We spent the afternoon at the Bristol Bee and Pollination Festival.  This was at the University of Bristol Botanic Garden - not somewhere I've been before, but a fascinating garden.  Lots of bright and exotic flowers, trees and shrubs and several glasshouses with interesting orchids, banana plants etc.

A large marquee housed honey displays, a live exhibition hive and stalls about bumble bees and other pollinators.

The live beekeeping demonstration was held just as the weather was turning cold, but the beekeeper (Garth Chatham) was engaging and entertaining and held the crowd enthralled looking through a small colony in a mesh tent.  Great to see the children so interested in all that was going on in the hive and during the demo.



Many honey bees and other insects in evidence on the flowers around the garden - at least before the rain came....



As to our own bees - they are still happy doing bee things.  I will inspect again shortly to see what's happening with the queen situation. - Watch this space.

Still wondering....

After examining the hive yesterday, and making a possible connection to the Apiguard, I did a little googling and asked an expert for an opinion.  The answer from both seems to be uncertain.  There is certainly the possibility that the Apiguard is the cause - maybe it stopped the queen laying, and I suspect that in itself could have triggered supersedure  proceedings from the bees.

The positive thing is that the queen is still here, and the bees appear to be behaving as normal - brining in plenty of pollen and taking syrup etc so I'm increasingly sure they are not leaving.  Supersedure might not be the best thing to happen at this time when there are limited drones to mate with, but it could be that the current queen will 'recover' in time to prevent it, or there may even be some sort of co-existence with the new queen until she is mated etc.

So - I think the way forward at the moment is to carry on as before. - Complete the varroa treatment, and see what happens.  The reality is that there's not much I can do to modify what the bees think is best for them, and if they want to supersede the queen, they will. - So, I might as well just relax a bit, enjoy them and see what happens - whatever it is will be a learning experience.  Maybe what I've already learned is 'ask before you act!'

Another warm sunny day, and the sedum is just coming out in the garden.  For the first time we saw our bees on it - it's been worked by the bumble bees for a while, but is now interesting the honey bees.

Situation analysis - More relaxed hive inspection.

So, it's two days since I last went into the hive.  At that time, I annoyed the bees by dusting with icing sugar. - I wasn't relaxed, and they certainly weren't.  Worryingly, I didn't see the queen, and I found several sealed queen cells.  - The queen cells, and the rowdy bees at that time meant I wasn't really concentrating on what I should have been, and didn't do a good job at evidence gathering. - So, my plan was leave them alone for a day or two and take a proper look at what was going on. - I left work at lunch time today as the weather was due to be warm, and intended to have a better look around.  Specifically, could I see eggs, and could I see the queen.  Then, I might have enough evidence to contact someone more knowledgeable.

In the 'super', we have a good frame here showing some capped brood, some pollen surrounding, and some honey around that.

Here we can see capped brood, pollen and around the centre of the picture, a couple of uncapped lavae.  From what I understand, at the stage they fill the bottom of the cell like this, they were probably eggs laid around 8 days ago. - So, we know the queen was laying at that time.

Here's a frame from the brood box - Not a bad shot showing the grubs at the left hand side of the frame - looking like children's teeth as I believe they should.

I still couldn't see eggs anywhere - the next two shots show some of the queen cells we found.  This one appears sealed.

There are two cells in this next shot, but one of them appears damaged - I don't think 'hatched' - maybe just not viable.

Finally as we were beginning to give up hope of finding the original queen, my daughter's eagle eyes spotted her.

So, in conclusion we've seen grubs, capped brood, we've seen the queen, though we have not seen eggs - which in any case are hard to see, and we've seen several capped queen cells.  I wonder if the apiguard has put the queen off laying properly, and this could have caused the bees to build queen cells?  Anyway, I think I've now got enough of an idea of what's in the hive to ask someone more expert which will be my next move.