A Busy Day in the Bee Yard

We spent a good deal of time working in the bee yard yesterday and we have a lot to report.  So, grab your cup of coffee and settle in for some detailed reading.

We knew that hives 01 and 02 were both struggling with low populations of bees and we decided after our last visit a couple of weeks ago, that it would be best to combine these two hives into one.  Still, we aren’t sure if we combined the hives early enough to keep these bees going. 

Yesterday, we were surprised that we saw our clipped queen in hive 02.  During our last visit, the bees were “balling” her, and we were certain that they were trying to rid of her for some reason.  Even though we saw her yesterday, we noticed that there were no eggs.  We did notice a very small amount of capped brood and older larvae. 

Hive 02 Clipped Queen

We inspected hive 01 and expected to see a queen, but did not find her.  The condition of both hives 01 and 02 was the same (small population, a couple of wax moth cocoons and a few small hive beetles) except for the fact that hive 01 did not have a queen.  Not finding a queen in hive 01 made combining the two hives a bit easier for us.  If we were to find a queen in each hive, we would have had no choice but to kill the weaker of the two, which we were reluctantly willing to do, even though it sounds counterintuitive; why kill a working queen that has tried so hard to keep her hive going?  Mark and I were prepared to do this, but looked to each other to do the dirty work, so as not to have to carry the guilt afterward. 

Because hive 02 had a queen, we chose this hive to remain in place and to stack hive 01 on top of it.  Before taking action, we also thought it would be best to add a small hive beetle trap underneath of hive 02.  The trap that we used was a West Beetle Trap, which is place on top of the bottom board, just beneath the deep hive box.  Once in place, we added vegetable oil (it will not evaporate) in the tray which causes the beetles to drown once they have fallen. 

West Beetle Trap situated on bottom board of hive 02.

With the beetle trap in place, we then placed hive 02 back on its stand and removed the inner cover and lid.  We added one single sheet of newspaper across the open deep hive, and sliced about 10-12 one-inch cuts into the paper. 

Mark lining up newspaper in order to combine hives 01 and 02.
Notice the West Beetle trap at the entrance of the bottom board.

We removed hive 01 from its bottom board and sat it directly on top of the newspaper.  The paper creates a barrier to keep the bees separate for three or four days, while they acclimate to each other’s scent.  Otherwise, they will fight.  They will begin chewing through the holes in the paper and entering into each other’s space.

Hive 01 and hive 02 combined.

While combining these hives has been good practice for us, we are worried that this hive will not make it.  We noticed a small amount of eggs a couple of weeks ago in hive 02, but because we suspect the queen is no longer laying, we expect that the hive’s population will soon dwindle down to nothing.  At this point, we feel that it is too late to add a new queen, so adding the trap and combining the hives is our last ditch effort.

Hive 03 was a mess, and we expected it would be.  Our last visit was disappointing when we found the hive’s population was very low, and our queen had gone missing.  We found wax moth larvae and a good amount of small hive beetles and at that time, we expected our next visit would be to collect an empty hive and put it in storage for awhile.  And, that is what happened yesterday.  The hive was overrun with wax moth larvae.  It was heartbreaking.  There were very few bees (possibly robber bees) and what was left of the frames of honey was a mess of wax moth webbing and droppings.

Wax moths have tunneled through the comb.

Wax moth webbing covers the frames.

Link to Youtube video: https://youtu.be/ExjhtdGLWzs

With all of the work we had done yesterday, and with a heat index at over 100 degrees, we took a break in the bee yard before taking a look at hive 04.  We were looking forward to good news from this hive.

Nicki taking a break from the sun.

The canopy helps block the sun while the bees are exposed,
and also gives us shelter from the heat.

Hive 04 was perfect, just as we hoped.  The population is very high and they have capped some honey.  We thought it was time to add a second deep hive, and so we did just that.  There are two reasons why we think this hive is successful.  First, this is the only hive that still has the original queen from installation.  Second, we have made it a point not to disturb this hive unless it is absolutely necessary.  Even yesterday, we were sure to open and close the hive quickly and to leave the frames in place as much as possible, as there was no need for us to do any work, only to check in on the bees to make sure they were happy. 

Hive 04 with capped honey.

Hive 04 with more capped honey.



Hive 04 has high population.

We have decided that we will find new bees to replace hives 01 and 03.  We’ve also decided to treat both of these hives exactly as we have hive 04; we will not intrude upon the bees as much as we have with the other hives.  As new beekeepers it seemed appropriate to us that we should spend quality time inspecting the hives on a fairly regular basis.  However, looking back we wonder if perhaps we spent too much time inspecting and manipulating these hives. 

New arrangement in the bee yard.