Mel had a Q3 nuc with George offspring that made it well through the winter. Mel put the 5 frames in a full size hive this spring. George did not like that, began to fail and Mel saw a supercedure cell. I took that hive to the farm last Tuesday and started feeding it. I gave it a frame of honey, some syrup and a megabee patty. Today, I also added to frames of capped brood with bees. I saw that the supercedure cell was open. I did not see a virgin or brood, but the hive was active and even bringing in pollen. I exchanged the frames with plastic foundation for frames with comb because the hive’s population is too small to draw out combs right now. I will keep feeding this hive until they stop taking the food and in 4 weeks check for brood. Keeping my fingers crossed.

1.Allen’s nuc: died (I think this queen was not very suited for this area, there was never a good buildup of brood and the nectar collections was not robust)

2. Split from Mel, created before we started any of our queen rearing: doing well. Living in a deep.

3. Hive with Lisa, used for queen rearing round 3, wintered with Bill last year. Doing well. Feels heavy. 3 mediums.

4. Topbar hive, dark green: alive, but very light (swarm from Allen).

5. Topbar hive, light green: alive, but very light (swarm from Allen).

6. George hive, from split from uniontown. doing well, good stores. 3 mediums.

7. Q3 George: 2 deep 5 frame nuc boxes stacked. Very active, not a lot of stores.

8. Q3 George: 2 deep 5 frame nuc boxes stacked. Very active, not a lot of stores.

at the farm:

9 lost Q1 to a late season swarm

10. lost Q2 early december, was without any activity today.

11. Hive with Cleopathra, early spring split from Mel. Living in single deep. Active, but not a lot of honey stores.

It looks like none of us have any of the q1 or q2 queens left. Those must not have been reared well. Let’s hope for better for next year!

ps. Liz’ hive at the farm was very busy!.

Nuc with white dots: nice queen, one of the ones that Andrew grafted from George. Plenty of brood. I gave that hive a spare comb of honey from one of the deserted boxes.

Nuc with white square: nice orange queen, a Lisa. Lots of brood and bees. Some nectar.

Nuc with yellow triangle: big dark queen, George decendent. Lots of brood, bees, and nectar/pollen.

Amazingly, the nuc that started as the nurse hive and had most bees and brood when it received a queen, is now not the strongest hive. The most activity is at the Lisa hive.

About two days ago I started observing the hives more closely to see who was bringing in pollen. And that was these three. The nuc with the blue triangle was deserted long ago. The left compartment of the queen castle was also deserted early on. The other compartment still had a 100 bees, lots of honey but no brood or queen. And no pollen coming in. Quite telling thus.

I need some help catching and marking these queens if anyone has time. I am also in need of some deep boxes. Anyone has some that I can borrow?

I immediately closed off the entrances and removed the food.  I went ahead and did an inspection of both nucs. In the purple nuc, which had contained the first emerged descendent of George, I found no sign of the queen and a very small capped queen cell:

You can see that the queen cell is barely longer than the bee tending it.

In the orange nuc, more sad news.  This is the queen cell that I entirely removed the protector from.  I thought it looked like the bees were accepting the cell well.  So proof positive that bee behavior remains a mystery to me:

I apologize for the quality of the photography at this point.  The large dark area on the cell is the perfect circle the bees had chewed out to reveal the immature larva within.  The larva did not seem as developed as I would have expected.  I wonder if this was a cell that maybe didn’t receive enough royal jelly and was not going to fully develop after all.

Instead, the bees are working on this:

This appears as conjoined queen cells.  The one on the left is capped and (if you use your imagination) you can see the larva in the top of the one on the right.  (I could actually see the larva but the photography lacks!)

The plan at this point is to move the nucs (and queen castle) to the outyard.  This should relieve the pressure from the larger colonies next door and keep the bees from my prying eyes for a bit.  (I’m sure they’ll appreciate that!)

Lessons I’m learning here:

1.  I need to set up stronger nucs, particularly during nectar dearth, so they can be more resilient and able to fend for themselves.

2.  It may actually be a wise idea to double up on the queen cells in the mating nucs.  Just because the cell is capped, it does not necessarily follow that the larva will develop without incident.

Hive 6 only had a handful of bees with another handful of capped brood cells available. I opened the cage and I expect that she will be out by tomorrow.

[See image gallery at www.littleluceyfarm.com]

Hive 7 had more bees and lots of capped brood on both sides of one frame, but neither hive had any young brood to provide some work for the nurse bees. Perhaps this is why so many bees have fled. It did appear that hive 7 was starting to store some nectar in the frame of previously empty comb.

[See image gallery at www.littleluceyfarm.com]

I will have to keep a close eye on the number of bees and probably add some to hive 6 if not both. I have not yet started to feed so I will need to do that tomorrow.

Just emerged from the cell

Her first steps on to comb

She immediately checks to see if her abdomen will fit in the cells!

The next nuc is the orange one.  This is one that Andrew grafted from George. When I separated the frames a large portion of the wax holding the protector on came off on the frame.  I decided to just remove the protector entirely.  The bees seem to accept the cell well.

An aside on this hive, when I opened the hive there was a bee trying to remove the purple thread.  As soon as I took the inner cover off she began flying while holding the string.  She continued to go in frustratingly small circles until I offered her my arm.  She laid the thread across my arm and flew away.

I opened the cell protectors on the two nucs in the queen castle without incident.  I believe the queen on the left one will emerge within hours as I can already see a circle that has been chewed around the bottom of the cell.  I am a little concerned about this colony as there are probably no more than a half cup of bees.  Is there a way I can introduce more bees without upsetting the whole operation?