3rd Inspection

Yesterday I opened up the hive to check the frames and administer the 3rd and final dusting of Tetra Bee. In the lower deep, 9 frames are fully drawn into comb. There is not as yet any activity in the upper deep. The ladies have been busy with propolis, however, as I needed to put new aluminum foil under the menthol crystals as the old tore apart when I removed it because it was so gummed up. The brood pattern looks good as several frames have larvae and capped brood. Several empty cells show were pupae have hatched. The end frames are full of eggs. I also observed numerous drone cells. Again, the girls were very gentle and I was not stung even though I dropped the inner cover. Do'h!

Inspection 2.5

I took a quick peek today and added some more medication. I fired up the smoker, pulled off the outer and inner covers and checked to see what the girls had done since Friday. Fully seven frames are drawn into comb and all the Tetra B was gone. The brood builder patties were about 1/3 eaten. I added two tablespoons of Tetra B (the 2nd of 3 doses) and placed another deep hive body with frames and foundation on top. It's time to give the girls some more room. I'll do a full inspection on Saturday the 28th, weather permitting. I may remove the entrance feeder since they're not using much as a good nectar flow is on.

2nd Inspection

Talk about your busy bees! The girls have drawn 61/2 frames into comb, numerous eggs and larvae are visible, and there are nice oval sections of capped brood on two sides of one frame. Some honey cells are capped as well. The bees have consumed four quarts of syrup to date. They have finished the medicated syrup, but I'm still feeding non-medicated syrup as I'm not sure if there is much of a nectar flow as yet. I didn't see a lot of pollen in the cells so I added two patties of brood builder to help. I also added these medications: 1. Two tablespoons of Tetra Bee Mix (oxytetracyline) to prevent American and European foul brood. 2. Two apistan strips to control varroa mites. 3. A package of menthol crystals to control tracheal mites. The bees have consumed all of the fumagallin-medicated syrup. I know from reading American Bee Journal that there is a movement toward "natural" beekeeping, but in my first season I want no nasty surprises and I am hoping to have a thriving and healthy colony.

1st Inspection

On June 13th (Friday, HA!) I opened up the hive for the first inspection. I wanted to check for three things: 1. Had the queen been released from her cage? 2. Was the queen laying eggs? 3. Were the workers drawing out comb onto the frames? I also got to fire up the smoker and put on my veil. Like hiving the bees, the 1st inspection is simple and straightforward. Light the smoker, blow smoke into the entrance and under the cover, and remove the covers. The bees were remarkably gentle and let me pull out all the frames and check them. The queen comes in a little cage that is plugged on one end with candy. Once the colony becomes used to her, workers eat away the candy plug and release here into the hive where she immediately begins laying eggs. My girls (virtually all the bees are female) released their queen and I noticed eggs in the drawn comb. One and a half frames were drawn into comb (the little hexagons) and there were also three large pieces of burr comb in the space the queen cage had been. I removed the burr comb, replaced the frame I removed to install the queen cage and closed everything up. So far so good.

Hiving the Package of Bees

Once I was home with the bees on June 7, hiving them was a fairly simple procedure. I removed five of the frames from the hive to create a space to shake the bees into, I removed the queen cage from the package and using two bent nails suspended it between two frames, and I shook the bees over the queen cage and into the space in the hive. I placed a quart of medicated (fumagillin) syrup (one part water/one part sugar/two tablespoons of Honey Bee Healthy) into the entrance feeder, replaced four of the five removed frames, replaced the inner and outer covers and the bees were in. Fumagillin, by the way, is necessary to prevent nosema in bees. Nosema is protozoan disease which causes bee dysentery. Nasty.

Last fall I started teaching Sue Monk Kidd's novel, The Secret Life of Bees, in my high school English classes. I bought a hive body to display in my classroom and had some of my students paint and decorate it. My students enjoyed the novel and the bee shrine that grew around the hive body displayed in class--I gave extra extra credit if students brought in bee-related items--and I particularly enjoyed Kidd's loving descriptions of apiculture. Curious, I bought Beekeeping for Dummies of all things and read it cover to cover. Suddenly, I found myself poring over the Dadant Company catalog and ordering all the equipment and supplies necessary to begin raising bees. In May, I ordered 3lbs. of packaged bees from the Draper apiaries and awaited their arrival at the post office. Apparently the post office wanted to be rid of them because I received two phone calls asking that I pick up the bees. The woman who brought them out held them at arms length with a horrified look--honestly, you'd think I'd ordered a werewolf--but I was finally ready to start my own apiary.