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  • From: John Rintoul <beecd AT icloud.com>
  • To: Hamsiba Family <hamsibas AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: Orange County Beekeepers Association <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Multifactorial challenge
  • Date: Sat, 11 Apr 2015 16:44:37 -0400

Brad,
If it makes you feel any better, I went in to my recently
created-from-swarm-cell frames nuc yesterday. No sign of a queen, although
there was capped brood. No eggs, no open brood. The swarm cells that I had
moved in to the nuc were all open, so I assume that there is a dominatrix
queen somewhere - either on her maiden flight, or hiding in the crevices. Not
enough not enough nurse bees to do a sugar shake.

In my weak hive (Hive 2) there was a small amount of capped worker brood, but
no open brood. There was an open supercedure cell on one frame, so I'm hoping
that the lack of open brood means the a new queen is taking charge - soon.
Again, not enough not nurse bees to do a sugar shake.

In my formerly strong hive (Hive 1), which swarmed this week, there are still
a lot of bees by comparison to the nuc and weak hive. I worry about a
secondary swarm. But the medium super with undrawn foundation that I added
last week is unchanged. I think that the swarm on Wednesday sidelined any
thought that the bees might have had to start drawing out comb in the super.

So, like you, I'm confused by the various bee colonies in my yard. I'll keep
watching. Since bees are resilient, insect survivors I assume that they will
sort themselves out. But a honey harvest is probably not a realistic goal for
this year. My goal is to learn from my beekeeper missteps - there have been
many. My non-beekeeping friends are anxiously anticipating the sweet payoff
and eventual success of my beekeeping adventure. They may have to wait
another year - or two.

John

> On Apr 11, 2015, at 3:58 PM, Hamsiba Family <hamsibas AT gmail.com> wrote:
>
> It has been a hectic spring and our bees were a bit neglected as we coped
> with some work and family challenges. Our one overwintered (combined in
> the fall from two) hive is very full. Space is at a premium.
> Unfortunately, the brood is up pretty high and the 8-10 swarm cells were
> all hanging from the upper frames of two deeps. They all got broken as we
> pulled up the upper frames to inspect. There are a few open brood but we
> could not see much in the way of eggs.
>
> On top of this, this was our first sugar shake and we shook a 21. (It was 0
> in the fall after Thymol)
>
> Our goal this year (yes Randall, we have a clear goal!) is more bees. I
> had planned to pull out a couple of nucs, before the rest of life
> distracted us off for the last month or so. Any honey will probably just
> be used to beef up the winter stores or spare frames in the freezer.
>
> Any suggestions addressing more bees, lack of egg laying space, loss of all
> obvious queen cells and lots of mites are appreciated.
>
> (And you folks trusted me to mentor newbees?)
>
> Thanks, Brad
>
>
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