They Made It

[bassman1977]

Well, I did my first full inspection of the year today.  Queens are alive and well.  Hive 1 is flourishing, hive 2 is very small but I believe will come around when the queen starts laying.  All in all though, I am pleased with the outcome of my first wintering.  100% success rate.   :D

There was a lot of honey/sugar syrup left over.  I think all in all, they went through 45 pounds each this winter.  A lot less than I expected.

Neither one of my queens had any eggs laid with the exception of some drone comb.  I was wondering if the hive will produce drones before workers?

Also, I mentioned in a post a couple days ago that hive two may have a nosema problem.  Considering the amount of food they have left over, I don't want to feed.  Also, I'm not too keen on the idea of extracting right now either because some the stores are sugar syrup.  Is there another way I can administer the Fumagilen-B (SP?) without feeding them syrup?

Come to think about it, let's say I do entertain the idea of extracting what's left over.  Is their a way to tell the difference between the syrup and the honey without doing a taste test?  I did notice that there was some dried up sugar in the cells.  Would it be reasonable that all of last year's sugar is dried up by now? If so, I can select and chose the frames that I extract.

Any ideas?  Thanks.

[Bruce Hanson]

All that extra honey that you say you have will dissappear in the next couple of weeks with all the brood that will have to be fed.       A good rule that I have gone by is it takes a frame of honey and one of pollon to produce one frame of brood.                             Give the girls pleanty to eat and most of the time they will fed you.

[bassman1977]

Thanks Bruce.  That's what I had hoped would be said.

[Finsky]

Neither one of my queens had any eggs laid with the exception of some drone comb.  I was wondering if the hive will produce drones before workers?

That is bad sign? Is the queen unmated, born during winter?

f bees have no pollen they are not able to raise brood.

[Kris^]

Well, I did my first full inspection of the year today.  Queens are alive and well.  Hive 1 is flourishing, hive 2 is very small but I believe will come around when the queen starts laying.  All in all though, I am pleased with the outcome of my first wintering.  100% success rate.   :D

Good deal!

I found my second deadout of the season, the littlest colony I transferred to a nuc a couple weeks ago.  The other small colony I transferred is still kicking, not flying or taking Fumadilan syrup but eating the pollen patty.  2 losses (both late summer splits) leaves me with a 66% survival rate.   :(

-- Kris

[bassman1977]

That is bad sign? Is the queen unmated, born during winter?

f bees have no pollen they are not able to raise brood.

You know what, both queens are "new".  Not sure how new though.  I only saw 1 supercedure cell in each hive and it looked old.  Whether they are unmated or not I don't know.

I have been seeing the bees bringing in pollen, but I didn't see any in the cells, so they must be using it up as soon as they get it.  The pollen patty I put in will help with that.

[fuzzybeekeeper]

I went through my hives on Sunday, 10 days ago and moved all the brood chambers with queens to the bottom.  That left the second medium with empty comb.  I looked in this last Sunday (1 week later) and 5 of my 10 hives had 3-4 frames of open cells of liquid (nectar, I guess) that had not been there the week before.

I removed all except 2 frames of capped honey from each hive because it seemed like they were trying to fill their "overhead" with honey to limit brood area.

Like bassman1977, I don't want to extract this because I am sure it consists of a good percentage of sugar syrup.  Then Bruce Hanson comments that all the stored honey will be consumed during brood rearing.

I am in Texas and it is 80+ every day and 60 at night.  While they are bringing in pollen and apparently nectar, we do not have a lot of blooming things around here yet.  Perhaps the trees are contributing?

Should I put the honey back on or are they at a point where they are supporting themselves?  Should I extract what I have and save it to feed next fall?

Fuzzybeekeeper

[Finsky]

Difficult to get comprehension what kind of hives you have and how much hives have brood.

Nectar in upper box may be from lower flrames when bees arrange room for eggs.  I understood that there is very much flowes YET in lanscape.

When you took extra capped food away, it is well done.

Next you should wait that more new bees emerge and fill whole  hive. Then you give next box to colony. But before you give next box wait that each frame gap is full of bees.  You may also put the new box lowest so bees take it into use when they are ready for that.

There are many ways to use those cappad frame but according my experience they will not stay good until next fall. I should put them one by one in the middle of brood area and bees transfer food away and mix it with real honey. But do that when hive is 3-4 box.

[ian michael davison]

HI Bassman
In your first post you said you have only eggs/brood in some drone comb.
Is that correct?. If that is the case you have got trouble.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Also If you have any hive with out brood in at this time of year I would think you have lost the queen in the winter. Bees bring the queen into lay long before the end of winter.

Give us an update on your next inspection. SORRY TO PUT A DOWNER ON IT.

Regards Ian

[bassman1977]

Let me clarify a bit.

There was only a bit of capped drone comb (10 cells max) in 1 hive.  

No pollen, so that could explain the lack of eggs/brood.  I placed pollen patties so that should take care of that.

Both queens are there.  I saw them during the inspection.

I hope to have another look soon.  If the pollen patties worked, the queen should be laying.  I'll keep updating.

[bassman1977]

I checked the hives again today and as suspected, the queens started laying eggs so I think all will be well.  It has only been three days since I first opened the hives this spring and from what I've seen, they haven't touched the pollen patty yet.  Workers are still bringing in loads of natural pollen.  I don't blame them for wanting to use that instead of the stuff I put in for them.  They'll take it eventually I'm sure.

Oh and regarding the potential nosema in hive two, I'm am feeding them medicated syrup but there really isn't too much brown streaking on the hive front any longer.  I wonder if it was just some way for them to clean their systems.  I'm going to continue feeding the fumagilen-B just in case.

[bassman1977]

One other thing.  I did a mite drop count with great results also.  Hive 1 had 12 mites and Hive 2 had three mites, both in a 24 hour period.

[lively Bee's]

I have lost 4 out of 15 all fore in the same bee yard on my inlaws farm all still had honey and the weather has been great