Verbose

Last Friday I had Phil don my suit and merge the two hives. I knew I wouldn’t be able to lift that deep filled with honey that had been the broody hive all my myself. I was pretty trepidatious about the whole thing, and now reading Caroline’s and Dave’s comments I hope I didn’t ruin the whole operation.

Liam snapped while Phil moved. Plenty of bees, but no eggs, no brood. Just honey. The honey super that I put on there over a month ago was still completely untouched. When I’ve been going down and watching the activity through the hot weather, Moody has been out on the porch cooling and Broody has been just flying in and out, not worried about hive maintenance. My comment about decay earlier… Maybe decay was harsh, but it just looked a little unkempt. Not as clean and thriving as the other.

broody's honey super that's now been there for over a month. nothing

from the heart of the broody's brood box - all honey

The difference between the two hives was impressive. Moody had capped all of the honey in the first honey super and was starting to draw out the comb in the second. Plenty of capped brood down below too.

Moody's capped honey

nice work, girls

I don’t know if it really means anything, but the fluff waste on the boards below the screen were the same consistency, but Broody had about 4x the amount that Moody did.

bee waste

Now I guess I just need to cross my fingers and hope for the best. We ended up putting Moody on the bottom with a couple sheets of newspaper on top then Broody. Empty honey super on Broody, then the full honey super.

I hope I didn’t disease a good hive but I felt like I should do something. Time will tell.

the plan

I wrote Danny S. and asked him his opinion, and from what I interpreted from his message this is what I think I need to do. I want to clear it with Those Who Know More Than I Do, though, just to be sure.

Liam and I went out to check and, if needed, add another super.

First we went to Moody (from now on Rightie to avoid confusion), and all was well. The second super (a medium) was all honey, some starting to be capped, so we added another box and closed it up.

Rightie now consists of :

• 1 deep = brood
• 1 med = honey
• 1med = empty frames

Then we hit Broody (from now on Leftie), and things looked awful. The second super that we’d put in there was still completely empty after almost a month! They hadn’t even thought of building any comb up there. We pulled that one off and looked in the original deep, and things weren’t happy. There seemed to be almost a decay going on. We pulled 3 frames and the cells that has once been brood were ALL HONEY. We didn’t see any brood at all. I can only assume the queen is gone, but now what to do?

Do we try to get another queen, or do we just put that deep super onto rightie and consolidate then get another nuc next year?

Liam and I just went in to remove the feeders and see if they were making any progress…

Moody is doing great. They’d drained the feeders so we put in 2 full jars and they’d drawn out comb on at least 3 of the new frames.

Broody looks like they haven’t even stepped up into the new frames but they’d eaten about half out of each of the feeders. We pulled one of the lower frames just to see and the brood wasn’t evenly laid nor was it evenly capped. The capping was all at different levels. I’m a little concerned. I’ll check back in one week and if I can’t find that queen I think I’ll have to investigate how  to get another one in there? I’m not sure.

Liam and I went out about 8pm. I’d wanted to go out sooner but we’re always short on time.

Moody first to keep things consistent. There was a little burr comb built up on top, and they’d hardly touched the food. No queen sighting but we’d only pulled 3 frames and saw plenty of eggs and larvae so we put the extra brood box on and left. I kept the extra food in just in case it would help them get all that comb built up, but I don’t think it was necessary. I accidentally knocked some of the capped honey on one of the frames that I pulled out. oops. I need to be a little more careful.

a little burr comb

Yikes! Honey spill

Broody was strangely silent when I opened her up. Almost alarmingly so. Everything was fine inside though. Again, no queen, but plenty of brood on the two frames we pulled. I put the extra Brood Box on and closed ‘er up. Broody hadn’t really touched ANY of the last food I had put in a week ago, but again, I left it in just in case.

larvae, capped brood, and capped honey

I went back to Moody to take some pictures of them cleaning up the honey spill and they started wagging out some pheromone my way. I took that as my cue to leave.

cleaning up the spill

wagging some pheromone my way

I’m cursing myself for not taking a camera with me down to the hives. There was a lot of cool stuff going on.

I went into Moody first. both jars were bone dry, but before I replaced them I pulled out a few frames to see what was going on. The first frame I pulled was the frame on the far right, and there was next to nothing. The next frame in was filled with honey and was very nicely formed. The NEXT frame in was filled with perfect little eggs. I was happy with their progress so I put two full jars of food on them and shut them up.

Broody was also dry in the food department, but I was relieved to see a lot going on in the reproduction department. I saw some eggs and some larger larvae on at least 2 frames. These ladies were much less patient with me and were dive bombing my face screen. I tried to get out of there quickly and as I was closing it up with two new jars of food I could see about 20 bees come in on the landing area with sacs of bright yellow/orange pollen on their legs. It looked so cool. I think they were waiting for me to leave before they’d land.

As long as the smoker was going and I was suited up I went ahead and snipped a bunch of lavender. The bumble bees that are always on it didn’t mind for the most part.

The going in with full jars and just swapping them out was a much better plan that filling at the hives. I want to go back in a few days and add another super on both, but need to order the black foundation.

It’s sunny and in the mid 80’s today, and there are bees EVERYWHERE. You can look at any random patch of clover in the yard and see 4 or 5. I went down and snapped some pictures.

We went in to feed the ladies tonight. From what we’d seen last time I was certain that Moody would have gone through more food. Sure enough, one jar was empty and the other was a little more than half way empty. I filled them both up and watched for just a minute. They weren’t bothered that I was there and went about their business. I didn’t see anything definitive, but it was cool to watch.

I opened Broody and they weren’t really as cool with me interfering, but they weren’t stinging my gloves like last time. Both jars in there were BONE DRY. That shocked me. I filled them both and again watched for a bit, and again didn’t see anything that told me anything. The comb was maybe built out on the new frames, but I didn’t want to jostle them like that.

One more week and I’ll pull a frame to see, but I’ll check back mid-week and see how the food levels are going. Thinking maybe I should prep four reserve jars and just switch out instead of refilling at the hives.

I went out tonight and just observed. Broody was a flurry of activity at 9:30 with about 20 girls out on the porch milling around. Moody had just a couple flying in. After I tucked the kids I went back out and snapped some pictures. Phil says I need to take my own advice and leave it alone for a week, but I really want to dip in there tomorrow… I’ll try to resist.

I went back in again to check on the food level and fill the top super with newspaper so they didn’t build comb up. Moody is doing great. They’re building up a bunch of comb on the frames and we could see eggs and the queen laying. They’d drained both the pints to about half so we filled them back up and closed the hive.

Broody, first of all, didn’t like me in there. As soon as Liam did a little puff of smoke on them when I took off the lid, the girls got vocal with their displeasure. I took out some of the new frames that we had sandwiched every other and wasn’t too impressed with the comb building. Frame 2 had an odd building formation on it. Liam thought it looked like queen cells but I’m not certain. We pulled out 2 of the established frames and they’re totally capped. I can’t tell if it’s honey or brood though. I need to look in some of the books. The food source had barely been touched. I’m worried about the lack of eggs and lack of queen spotting in this one, but i didn’t get all the frames out. They were too agitated. I told Liam we would check back in one week and see what was going on.