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.