Defensive Bees

Checked the Buckfast hive on the 15. Holy crap were they defensive! I shot smoke into the entrance, and then I gave them a whiff under the outer cover. As soon as I pulled off the honey supers and started looking at the brood chamber, however, dozens of bees came boiling out of the hive entrance and started bumping into my veil. They made that angry, hissing buzz as well. I shot more smoke onto the frames and started looking to see if the new queen was laying. I pulled two frames, saw capped brood, and discovered bees inside of my veil because I didn't fasten it properly. A sting on the right ear, the left eyelid, one through the glove on my right index finger, and stings on both ankles encouraged me to hurriedly close up the hive. They were still flying and defensive until dark. We couldn't even sit on our patio a good 100 feet from the hive. The hot weather and nectar dearth certainly has these bees in a foul mood.

Today I checked the pitiful Italian hive. They were a bit defensive, bumping my veil, but I checked and saw no more new comb from last time. A few cells of capped brood but no larvae. My poor eyes couldn't tell if there were eggs or not. I'll check again in a week and maybe think of requeening if I don't see larvae. I don't know if this hive will have enough winter stores.

Regicide

Supersedure seems complete in the Italian hive. The old queen was unceremoniously dumped in front of the hive by a mortuary bee. I've also noticed quite a few randy drones flying about so I imagine the new queen will take her nuptial flight fairly soon. Perhaps the old queen was deposed because this hive has had an agonizingly slow buildup, and they're running out of summer to secure adequate winter stores. I'll leave them alone for a couple of weeks and check for new larvae toward the end of August.

Supersedure 2.0

Checked both hives today. The Buckfast hive is full of tightly capped brood, developing larvae and eggs. Guess the new queen is performing well. Two supers are full of capped honey. No comb drawn in the two empty supers yet, though.

The new hive has capped supersedure cells. Must be close to hatching. The second hive body has two full frames of capped honey, and comb is being drawn on the others. The brood chamber has some spotty capped brood and developing larvae and eggs.

The picture shows the frame containing the supersedure cells. One is circled.

More bee activity video

Supersedure

Popped open the new hive yesterday (July 14) and saw 5 supersedure cells. Couldn't find the queen, but there is a lot of capped brood, pollen, nectar and capped honey in the brood box. All but half a frame are fully drawn into comb, and they're starting to draw comb in the upper hive body. The supersedure cells each had an uncapped larva in place so it will be a bit before their royal highnesses hatch and fight to the death.

The old have still had a couple of queen cells but they were empty. My eyes are too poor to see eggs in the cells, but I think it would be too soon for the replacement queen to be laying now anyway.

My smoker went out when I had the hive apart. OK. That never works out well. Got the hive back together with only one sting so all is well again. Two supers full of capped honey, but no comb being drawn in the top two supers.

Swarm in a tree

So...here are half of my Buckfast bees and their runaway queen in a box elder tree. Bon voyage.

Indpendence Day Swarm

Walked out to the garage at 10:30 this morning and the air was full of bees. I looked at my Buckfast hive and saw bees just boiling out of the entrance, running up the hive bodies, and taking to the air. About half hour later they settled into the high branches of a box elder tree. By noon they were gone, and I didn't have a chance to capture and rehive them. I checked the hive and saw queen cells (see photo) so I'm hoping they'll recover and continue to be as productive as they had been. I took the opportunity to remove the entrance reducer as the hive is still packed with bees and capped brood. Obviously, they can defend a wider opening.

The slow buildup of the Italian hive continues. They have 7 frames fully drawn, lots of capped brood, pollen and nectar, so I added a second hive body and removed the feeder.

Honey Flow

The basswood trees are blooming, and the Buckfast hive is ready to take advantage. They've filled one super with capped honey. The second super is fully drawn into comb where last winter's damage was cut out, and several frames are full of uncapped honey. I added two new supers and they now reside in a high rise.

The Italian hive is coming along slowly. Five plus frames fully drawn. Three frames full of capped brood. No sign of mites or other nasties in either hive.

Slowly Building Up

Checked the Italians today. Saw the queen scurrying about, and four full frames of comb have been drawn. Lots of capped brood and uncapped brood as well. They're still taking sugar syrup so I'll keep the feeder on. I don't know if they'll recover from their rough start and bee losses to make any surplus honey, but I hope they'll be strong enough to gather winter stores. The Buckfast hive is still going great--lots of bees, lots of capped brood, and they're already storing surplus honey. The picture shows my Italian queen.

All is well in Beeville

On Friday, May 28, I pulled the empty queen cage from the Italian hive and was impressed that the ladies had drawn two whole frames of bright white comb. It was easy to see that the Italian queen was busily laying eggs. Today, June 7, I checked both hives. The Italians had drawn more comb, were storing nectar and pollen in one side of a frame, and the other side was full of capped brood and developing larvae. I also saw the blue marked queen as she ran across the comb. I hope they build up quickly as I lost quite a few in the transport issue (hole in the cage), the fact that many of them managed to drown themselves in the feeder, and my carelessness in squashing some of them by not noticing the big piece of comb that filled the missing frame space where the queen cage was.

The Buckfast hive is amazing. Lots of newly hatched bees, comb fully drawn where I cut out the old moldy comb, and the upper hive body chock full of capped honey. I put on the honey supers and queen excluder and have high hopes that they will take full advantage of the basswood honey flow in late June.

Good Girl!

The Buckfast girls are going great guns, (how's that for alliteration?) and Her Majesty is laying in a nice tight brood pattern. Lots and lots of pollen in the cells and a nice mixture of eggs, larvae, and capped brood.

Italian Hiving Hysteria

Monday morning, ugh. Responsible for presenting to a group of visiting teachers at work. Uptight. All went well, but during my presentation I felt my phone vibrate. After I saw the visitors out I checked my voice mail and discovered to my consternation that although my Italian bees had arrived, "the package is open." Not only that, the good people at the South Milwaukee Post Office wanted them off of the loading dock. When I arrived, I saw a few dozen bees flying about the dock. The workers (postal, not bee) had placed the package in a rolling hamper and covered it with a plastic sheet. I pulled off the sheet and another dozen or so bees flew out, but I saw a still rather large cluster in the cage so I put the whole works in a cardboard box, taped it shut, and drove home.

Since I didn't want to lose any more bees, I hosed them down with sugar water, hived them, and went back to work. Since then they seem to be making themselves at home so I'm hoping for the best.

Her Majesty is out and about

Well, the little Buckfast babes have released the queen and are rapidly drawing new comb where I cut out the moldy comb from the dead hive. They also tackled an extra project (see photo) so I put the other deep body on top. They may as well get busy collecting their winter stores. I have high hopes I can add the honey supers in time for the basswood nectar flow. Last year's basswood honey was light and slightly minty. What a treat!

Buckfast Package Hived

My package of Buckfast bees arrived on Friday, May 7. Unfortunately, the weather was cold, windy and rainy so I waited until today (Sunday the 9th--Mother's Day) to hive the little buggers. Buggers was right as I was stung twice shaking the bees into the empty hive. Seriously? I thought they were so docile when being hived. Oh well, I admire their spunk. Let's just hope they do as well as their predecessors did in that hive.

The second package for the new hive should ship in two weeks. I couldn't get more Buckfast bees so I ordered Italians.

Winter Kill

Well...this isn't good. We had a really warm day two weeks ago and I was surprised the bees weren't flying. I noticed some bees about on a warm January day, so I became concerned. Sure enough, the bees froze out--too much moisture evidenced by mold--and apparently they couldn't get to the honey stores either because many bees were stuck head first in the cells. There was still a lot of honey in the upper hive body. Next year I'll need to make sure the hives are properly ventilated.

The good news is that the new hive is ready for paint, and I found replacement bees for both hives. I ordered Buckfast bees from the R. Weaver Apiary in Texas, and when I discovered the dead bees I ordered Italians from Gardner Apiary in Georgia. R. Weaver had sold out of Buckfast by then.

I'll post pics from the hiving process when I introduce the new bees in May.