May 28 Bee Yard Visit

Mark and I have mostly good news to report from our May 28 bee yard visit.  And, just a bit of no-so-good news, too. (Click on photos to enlarge).

All eight of our hives upon arrival at the bee yard.

When Mark and I arrived, we checked each hive to ensure all of our queens were in place and that they were at work laying eggs.  In each hive, except for hive 02, we found either a queen and / or new eggs. 

In hive 01, our queen was moving around quickly and hard at work.

Hive 01 queen.

In hive 02, we couldn't find our queen.  We didn't see any eggs, nor did we see larvae, so this lead us to believe that this queen had died.  We removed a couple of queen cups that we found on a frame in the hive.  These queen cups are created by the colony as the first step in replacing their queen.  Removing them will keep our bees from creating their own queen, as we prefer to replace their queen for them by purchasing a queen that has already mated and once installed, she will begin laying eggs immediately.

Hive 02 queen cups (right center).

 

Once we arrived home and began looking through our photos from the day's bee visit, Mark and I noticed in the photo below, that we possibly still had our queen in hive 02.  Look closely at the photo below - what do you think?  Do you see a queen in the lower right portion of the frame?  We are not certain if this is our queen.  However, even if this bee is our queen, we must replace her with a better queen that will lay eggs.  We ordered a new queen and will install her on June 7.

 



Frame of bees from hive 02.  Do you see a queen in this bunch?

Hive 03 looked awesome!  This queen was laying and there was a ton of brood.  Notice the dark brown color of this brood.  This comb is dark in color because it has been in place for a long time and the bees have used the comb over and over for honey production, pollen collection, and for housing their brood.

Hive 03 brood.

In this photo below from hive 04, you can see capped brood.  The color is yellowish because the comb is brand new.  The bees are working feverishly to get the entire black foundation covered in new comb, and they appear to be behind schedule, as the queen has already laid her eggs in comb that is not completely built out.  Look closely and you will see many eggs in incomplete comb.  By the way, this hive has our Buckfast queen.  She is over 2 years old and probably our best egg-layer ever.  Since day one, she has been a great queen.

Hive 04 brood.

In hive 05, our queen has stayed very busy laying eggs.  In the cells below, you can see tiny white specks; these are her eggs.  These eggs are less than 3 days old. 

Hive 05 eggs.

This frame below from hive 06 has a mix of honey, pollen and larvae. 

Hive 06 honey, pollen, and larvae.

Here is our queen wandering on a frame in hive 07.  We found this hive to be in very good shape.

Hive 07 queen.

Our queen in hive 08 is still hard at work.  It is a little unnerving to think that we once had planned to replace this queen.  As it stands now, we are happy that we gave her a second chance and didn't replace her.

Hive 08 capped brood and uncapped larvae.

Overall, it was a good bee visit.  We will visit the bee yard again on June 7 and look hard for the queen in hive 02.  If we find her, we will have to dispatch her before installing our new queen.