Winter Check - Bee Yard Visit on January 26, 2018

The temperature made it to the mid 60s, so it was a good day to check on our bees.  Hive 01 is a very healthy hive. I saw the queen and there were hardly any beetles (SHB). This hive has about half of a box of bees. I added Apivar strips and sheets Beetle Bee-Gone sheets to help keep the beetles at bay. (Click on photos to enlarge).

 

The bees were calm and huddled close together with
their little heads pointing upward.

Hive 02 is in nearly identical shape as hive 01, but with maybe just a few less bees.  I saw the queen, no beetles, and I added Apivar strips and Beetle Bee-Gone sheets.

Hive 03 has two deep boxes and a lot of bees. There were hardly any beetles. I did not see queen, but I didn’t look too hard for her as I didn’t want to disturb the colony too much.  I pulled only one frame from the top hive box and it was solid with honey on both sides.  I added Apivar and Beetle Bee-Gone sheets to the top of the bottom hive box and to the top of the top hive box.

Our hive 04 is the colony that we have struggled with recently. We introduced a new queen a few days ago and today I am checking in on her.  When I looked inside the bottom hive box, I saw absolutely no honey. The comb had been chewed and it is obvious that robbers have taken over the colony. The top hive box had very little honey and the bees have already started chewing at the comb to open the capped honey.  I found our new Italian queen from Hawaii still in her cage and still alive, but all of her attendants were dead. There were a handful of bees, maybe 10 or 15, that were on the cage screen trying either to get at her, or maybe to help her escape, but the bees had not touched the queen cage fondant at all, which left her trapped inside.  I removed the queen cage and continued to inspect the other hives to see if, by chance, another hive needed a queen, but found the remaining hives all doing well. I closed hive 04 and let the robbers finish off the rest of the honey.  I gave the Hawaiian queen to a beekeeper friend of ours and hopefully she can continue her life elsewhere.  We will order a new queen for springtime pick up and we will get this colony going again in just a couple of months.

 

Robber bees have chewed the caps off the comb and taken the honey.
See how the edge of the comb is torn up?

Robber bees in action.  These are bees from our other hives.
They are removing this honey from hive 04 to take back to their own colonies.

Robber bee destruction.  This dust at the bottom of the hive box
is chewed comb from the frames above.

Hive 05 has two deep hive boxes. This colony is perfect. I did not see any beetles and there was still a lot of honey for the bees. These bees were very calm and there are tons of them. I added Beetle Bee-Gone sheets to the top of the bottom box and added Apivar strips. I did not search for the queen, but I’m confident that she’s in there.

 

Healthy bees in hive 05.

Our hive 06 is nearly identical to hive 05, but it looked like there were more bees in this colony. I added Apivar and Beetle Bee-Gone sheets.

 

Healthy bees in hive 06.

Hive 06 bees close up.

Hive 07 has one deep hive box. I checked each frame and notice the bees had enough honey, although it looked as if there could have been some robbing on the end frames. In the center of the colony, there were three or four frames full of bees. I didn’t see the queen, but there was uncapped larva, capped larva, and also new eggs in the middle of the hive box. I didn’t see any beetles, but I still added Beetle Bee-Gone sheets and Apivar strips, too. 

 

Look closely near the bottom left to see some bees have
completely inserted themselves into the cells where they tried
to stay warm, but died from the freezing temperature.

Hive 08 looks great and is full of bees. I didn’t notice any of beetles. Still, I added Beetle Bee-Gone sheets and Apivar strips.

Hive 08 bees.