Last time I wrote, I had just done a split after our winter bees swarmed (maybe a couple times); today I am here to report that only one of the hives was successful with queen rearing and mating.
When I checked on the bees in Hive 1 on May 18th, I found the hive TOTALLY honey-bound and there was no evidence of brood, eggs, but several queen cells that were empty. There were quite a few drones and the bees were getting a bit lethargic...what to do now? After a bit of inquiry, I decided to recombine the two hives by shaking all the bees into one deep and using the "chew through paper" method to combine them.
I also checked Hive 2 and found that there was indeed a new queen just getting started with laying, as there was brood and eggs and workers bringing in loads of pollen. Worryingly, there was also a lot of old empty brood in the lowest deep-but the new queen was starting at one end and had 3 frames of brood already.
I decided to split the frames of honey between my IQ hive and Hive 2, so both could have that to get started. The bees chewed through with no problem and all seemed well until May 28--when I was sitting in front of the hive and a worker bee flew out with a a wax moth larvae and dropped it in front of me! Yikes.
I put on my suit and dug into the hive. I did not discover any wax moths, but there were a few areas of bald brood. The queen had filled several more frames and the hive seemed active and healthy; a bit more inquiry and I figured that while there had been a lull in population a wax moth must have flown in and laid a few eggs in the first deep in the old dark brood comb (will rotate out this year :^) Most say that the bees should be able to take care of it, so I'm letting theme do it. I haven't seen any more moth larvae dropped outside, but admit that the Stellar and Scrub jays are keeping things very tidy in front of the hive. No waste!
When I checked on the bees in Hive 1 on May 18th, I found the hive TOTALLY honey-bound and there was no evidence of brood, eggs, but several queen cells that were empty. There were quite a few drones and the bees were getting a bit lethargic...what to do now? After a bit of inquiry, I decided to recombine the two hives by shaking all the bees into one deep and using the "chew through paper" method to combine them.
I also checked Hive 2 and found that there was indeed a new queen just getting started with laying, as there was brood and eggs and workers bringing in loads of pollen. Worryingly, there was also a lot of old empty brood in the lowest deep-but the new queen was starting at one end and had 3 frames of brood already.
I decided to split the frames of honey between my IQ hive and Hive 2, so both could have that to get started. The bees chewed through with no problem and all seemed well until May 28--when I was sitting in front of the hive and a worker bee flew out with a a wax moth larvae and dropped it in front of me! Yikes.
I put on my suit and dug into the hive. I did not discover any wax moths, but there were a few areas of bald brood. The queen had filled several more frames and the hive seemed active and healthy; a bit more inquiry and I figured that while there had been a lull in population a wax moth must have flown in and laid a few eggs in the first deep in the old dark brood comb (will rotate out this year :^) Most say that the bees should be able to take care of it, so I'm letting theme do it. I haven't seen any more moth larvae dropped outside, but admit that the Stellar and Scrub jays are keeping things very tidy in front of the hive. No waste!
Our Hive IQ is going gangbusters! The queen is obviously doing her job as we've enjoyed several afternoons of watching the new bees taking orientation flights. Go girls!
Bonus Image: accidentally knocked this lovely piece of naturally drawn honeycomb out of the frame. So pretty!
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