Checking In on Our New Hives

Today, we made the drive from Houston to Caldwell, Texas to check in on our four hives.  One week ago, our hives were installed and we felt that overall, the bees were in good shape, except that we did not see two queens when installed.  This week, we took time to search for the queens once again.  We also looked at all of the frames in each hive to see if the queens were laying eggs and if the larvae were present in early and late stages in their lives.  We looked to see if there was capped brood, pollen and honey, all signs of a healthy hive.  Each hive has a one gallon container (frame feeder) to hold sugar water as a food supplement for the bees.  Last week, we also placed Beetle Bee Gone in each hive.  Below, I have explained the outcome of our time spent with the hives today, with regard to each of these elements.

Hive 01:

Hive 01 had no sugar water left in the frame feeder.  Mark refilled it with a fresh gallon.
This was the case in each hive.  This hive has the most bees of all four hives.
We expect that we will be adding another brood box to this colony within two weeks.

We saw tons of capped brood on this frame (tan color) and on several other frames in this hive.
Notice the yellowish color around the comb on the left lower portion of the frame - this is pollen.
Lastly, notice the "peanuts" hanging on the bottom of the frame.  These are swarm cells. 
They indicate that for some reason (maybe they feel overcrowded), the bees feel a need to harvest a new queen, one that will lead them away from the hive to find a new home.  This is a sign for us;
we need to pay attention to this hive and react to make sure the bees are happy.

Hive 02:


Hive 02 seemed to be our least healthy hive. For the second week, we found no queen. 
Additionally, we found no eggs and no larvae.  Here, you can see some honey on the left side of the frame (glossy). But, throughout this frame, as in the other frames in this hive, there are many empty cells (no eggs, no larvae). We will need a new queen for this hive. We need to make it "queen right".

Hive 03:

 

If you wish to watch a more enhanced version of this video, click here to view it on YouTube:  https://youtu.be/UUO0DeNQ6Jg.

 

In hive 03, we did not find a marked, clipped queen for the second week in a row. However, Mark did spot this unmarked queen, which was a surprise.  We believe that what might have happened, is that hive 02 might have reared a new queen on their own.  And that this queen, that Mark found in hive 03, was that queen from hive 02.  We tend to think that once she left hive 02 on her maiden mating flight, she returned to the wrong hive, hive 03, and remained there, killing the existing queen in hive 03 to replace her.  This would explain why we do not have a queen in hive 02, and why we have an unmarked queen in hive 03.  We will need a new queen for this hive, one to replace this unmarked queen.  This will bring us confidence that we have a marked and properly mated queen to perform well in hive 03. 

 

In the video above, you can see the unmarked queen moving very quickly, looking for empty cells to lay her eggs.  Her abdomen is long and slender, her wings are short, her thorax is pronounced.

 

Hive 04:

In hive 04, we found a couple of hive beetles trapped in the Beetle Bee Gone.
We also saw a couple in hive 03.  Not a big deal, as we expect to see them from time to time.
We expect the bees to manage the hive beetles population.  If you zoom in on this photo,
you will see that the antennae of the beetle have a "square" end point. 
That feature is specific to this beetle and helps us easily identify them.

Of each hive, hive 04 was the most healthy.  It showed signs of capped brood, honey, and pollen.  There were good signs that the bees were working to build new comb.  They did not seem overcrowded and we saw various stages of larvae. 

 

Overall, we are pleased with the work of all of our bees at their new home in Caldwell, but we have some work ahead of us in getting our queen situation settled.