Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

ocba - [ocba] Inspection questions

ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "birdcr AT concentric.net" <birdcr AT concentric.net>
  • To: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [ocba] Inspection questions
  • Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:18:07 -0600 (CST)


Folks,
Today I did my first of the season inspection on my hive. I have
some questions that I'd like answered and I'm sure others who have
just wintered (well almost wintered) their first hives might want
to know as well.

The biggest question is about the dead bees on the bottom screen
board. At the back of the bottom board dead bees were piled up
likely 3 or so deep, towards the front you could see though the
screen, but still a lot of dead bees, my estimate would be 300-500
bees in all dead. Are these just winter die offs and the house
keepers have not been able to keep up with the entrance reduced? I
have been opening the entrance during warm day the past few days.

On to the inspection. Recently added a second medium super and
mixed drawn frames with new frames. Lots of bees on the frames
with honey or adding honey, OK there.

The upper deep was still 80% full of capped honey and mostly
covered with bees, good!

The brood box, I checked 7 frames, once I found the queen I went
no further. Of the 7 frames I found no or little drone brood
found(might have saw one). The outer frame was nearly empty, good
for expansion I suppose. Most of the 6 frames had some capped
brood and larva from tiny to ready to cap. I'd liked to have seen
more capped brood and larva but since it is still early is this
OK? Never found eggs, but did get a good look at my year old
queen. Three frames went unchecked because I did not want to
injure the queen.

No swarm cells were seen, good. About 6 beetle were seen, expected
and bad. Observed the bees and cells on every frame I looked at
and saw no signs of mites.

Most of the bees looked very healthy, did see couple of freshly
crumpled wings and a couple of bees with wings a little K winged,
but only 2. In the cells I saw 4-5 bees that looked to be emerging
and possibly dead, one had the cell chewed beside it as if they
were removing it.

I expected to see a lot of pollen but found very little, likely
more honey in the brood frames than pollen. The bees have been
bringing in pollen like crazy, do you suppose they are feeding it
as fast as they are getting it?

So over all there still is a lot of bees and they were a little
grumpy.

Cheers,
Randy Emmitt



Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page