Did I Ever Tell You that Beekeeping is Hard?

I am certain that Mark and I encounter beekeeping challenges more than most beekeepers because of the limited access we have to our hives, as they are nearly a two hours’ drive away from our home in Houston.  No matter how heartbreaking beekeeping can be on occasion, we still love it.  Mark sometimes mows around our hives so that we have unobstructed access to them during our inspections, and also for the bees to have easy access to the landing board.  After mowing, we began inspecting the hives. (Click photos to enlarge).

View of the bee yard from the shade trees.

Before inspecting the hives, we found goldenrod beginning to bloom nearby.  A lot of beekeepers harvest a second round of honey in the fall once the bees have had a chance to collect honey from the goldenrod.  After the goldenrod has finished blooming, it will then be time to prepare the hives for winter. 

Goldenrod beginning to bloom in southeast Texas.

When we visited our hives yesterday outside of Caldwell, Texas, on Doug and Linda’s property we continued to witness the impact of our varroa mites.  You may recall from our last post that hive 01 is empty, as during our last visit, we cleaned out what was left of the dead hive.  We closed up the hive box and have planned to use it next spring during swarm season.  If we are able to catch any swarms in the spring, they will have an immediate home in hive 01. 

Hive 01 cleaned out and empty.

Hive 01 with no bees, ready to house a spring swarm next year.

The condition of hives 02 and 03 were very similar to one another.  Both were queenless, had low populations, and had two deep hive boxes with very little brood, no larvae, and no eggs.  Both hives had a decent amount of honey for winter stores for the bees.  We did not find pests, which was really great news.  We had ordered three queens from Bee Weaver in Navasota, Texas, after our last inspection, with the intention of putting one in hive 02 and one in hive 03 and we did that during yesterday’s visit.  We also added one good frame of brood, larvae and eggs into hive 02 from hive 08, then did the same into hive 03 from hive 05.  Mark and I feel really good about both of these hives and we are crossing our fingers that these queens hang in there and get the population up before winter. 

Hive 02 new queen installed from Bee Weaver.

Hive 02 bees are welcoming their new queen.

Hive 03 queen installed.

Hive 03 bees accepting their new queen.

We then moved to hive 04 for inspection and noticed the hive was in good shape.  The population was okay and there was a decent amount of brood, larvae and eggs.  We also saw our Buckfast queen.  It’s always a relief and very reassuring when we see our queens! 

Hive 04 bottom deep hive inspection.

Hive 04 with a lot of capped brood.

Hive 04 honey stores for winter.

Hive 04 queen with her blue dot, near the center of the photo.

Hive 04 frame showing Apivar strip for varroa mite treatment.

Hive 05 is in similar shape as hive 04, with good brood.  Mark and I really took time to look for the queen and couldn’t find her.  When we have trouble finding a queen, our next step is to look for eggs, as that tell us if perhaps we are just not seeing her even though she is there.  Or, if we do not find eggs, there is a good chance there is no queen.  We had trouble seeing eggs in hive 05, too.  Mark and I had one extra queen on hand for “just in case” and we prepped and installed her in hive 05, only to find that the bees did not want to accept her.  As a matter of fact, a couple of bees seemed aggressive toward her through her queen cage.  We got the hint.  Mark and I removed our new queen and kept looking for the hive 05 queen.  Finally, we found her.  We didn’t get a photo of her, but seeing her was a relief.  We brought our leftover “just in case” queen back home with us to Houston and will try to keep her alive in her cage for another week.  Should we need a queen in one of our hives during next week's inspection, we will have one (if she makes it through this week alive). 

Hive 05 frame with honey in the super.  Note that we will not be
harvesting honey from our hives for our use this year because
we have treated for the varroa mites while the super is in place. 

Hive 05 frame with honey from the deep hive box.

Hive 05 capped brood.

Hive 05 capped brood.  Notice the new bee emerging near the center of the photo.

Hive 06 was a challenge.  While inspecting the top deep hive, we noticed very healthy brood and larvae.  Mark and I also saw the hive 06 queen.  We felt good about hive 06 until we inspected the bottom deep hive where we found some wax moth infestation.  Wax moth larvae invade and destroy the honey and the comb and can wipe out the entire colony very quickly, if the bees don't keep the wax moth larvae in check.  The bees in the top deep hive seemed to be managing the wax moth larvae population in that chamber, but Mark and I knew we had to remove the bottom deep hive completely in order to rid of the pest.  We felt good about our decision and think it will help to save the colony by giving the bees half the space to manage the wax moth population. 

Hive 06 frame of honey from super. Note that we will not be
harvesting honey from our hives for our use this year because
we have treated for the varroa mites while the super is in place. 

Hive 06 brood and Apivar strip for varroa mite treatment.

Hive 06 has really nice larvae in many stages of development.

Hive 06 wax moth larva damage.  The worm tunnels through the
comb and honey, quickly destroying the what the bees have
worked so hard to create.

We removed the bottom deep hive and bottom board from hive 06
and kept the top deep hive and honey super in place for the winter.

Hive 06 after our work was completed.

Sadly, hive 07 was in terrible shape and beyond saving.  The super on hive 07 had honey stores that were untouched by pests, but both deep hives were completely overtaken with small hive beetle larvae.  There were no bees in the hive.  We disassembled the hive completely and brought home the deep hive boxes and landing board, as the infestation was so bad, that we will have to clean and freeze each component for 24 hours to destroy any remaining beetle larvae.  We will save these boxes to use during the spring swarm season. 

Hive 07 frame of honey from super. Note that we will not be
harvesting honey from our hives for our use this year because
we have treated for the varroa mites while the super is in place. 

Hive 07 infestation of small hive beetle larvae. 
This photo is so gross, but when you see them actually wiggling around
and decimating the comb and honey, it is even more disgusting.

Hive 08 was doing great, as it has been doing for the past couple of months.  It had very good brood and honey and we did see our queen.  Since the honey super on hive 07 was in good shape, we decided to add it to the top of hive 08, so that the honey would go to good use. 

Hive 08 frame of honey.

Hive 08 capped brood. Notice the queen along the bottom of the frame.

Hive 08 queen with her white dot, near the middle of the photo.

Hive 08 after moving hive 07 super to the top.

It was a hard day’s work at the bee yard yesterday, and losing one more hive was heartbreaking.  The varroa mites in our hives have weakened our colonies and opened the door for the small hive beetles and wax moths to invade.  If we would have treated for varroa mites sooner in the year, maybe we would still have hives 01 and 07.  Hopefully, our hives will soon rebound.  Mark and I will keep trudging along and learning from our mistakes.