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.