Day 36: Reading up on what has happened...

Beekeeping class textbook--with wonderful drawings

Having not heard back from my bee guru Rick, on how to proceed with my queen-wrong hive, I revisited my beekeeping class textbook and read Chapter 11, entitled “Special Management Problems.” I fully admit to having not read this chapter during my class, as I was much more interested in Chapter 4, entitled “Obtaining and Preparing for Bees.” Better late than never!! 

There are three main scenarios that result in the appearance of queen cells: swarming, supersedure, and emergency replacement. Each case can occur for several reasons, and have different features that a seasoned beekeeper could easily recognize--as for me, I am trying to do my best to play detective with limited information, and even less experience :)

Example swarm cells

Swarms can happen from hive congestion, overheating, inclement weather, loss of queen pheromones, poor egg laying due to too much honey in the combs, etc. It is characterized by 10-40 queen cells on the bottom of frames, a populous colony, and bees hovering near the hive entrance.

Supersedure happens when a colony decides to replace an old or inferior queen with a young queen. Workers build a few queen cells (between 1 and 5) and when the new queen emerges, she destroys the other queen cells, and generally her mother queen. This happens when the original queen is deficient in egg laying (due to injury, poor rearing, disease, or a hundred other reasons). 

Example emergency cells

Emergency queens develop when there is a sudden loss of the queen. Under these circumstances, the workers are forced to turn a couple of ordinary worker cells into a queen cells by adding wax as the larval queens develop. These cells are different than large queen cups that would be used for planned swarming or supersedure events. Emergency queen cells are usually found within the regular comb adjacent to capped brood and not at the bottom of the frames. Since emergency queens are unplanned, and start their development as worker larvae, they do not look as robust as swarm queens once they emerge.

Suspicious loitering by hive entrance

At this point I am pretty confident that my hive has undergone an emergency queen situation, even with some of the queen cells a bit close to the bottom edge of the frame, and despite some bees hanging out near the hive entrance later into the evening than previously (perhaps they are enjoying the warm weather!). I added the second brood box to the colony today, just in case congestion is an issue, though I have no evidence of this. I have decided to let all of the queen cells hatch on their own, and wait to see what happens next.

Honey & Trouble In Paradise :(

First honey of the season for the bees

 Upon opening the hive today, the first sight was capped honey on the outtermost frame! What a win for the bees…  However, within seconds, things quickly began to look more grim.

As I continued my inspection it was immediately apparent that things were not right in the hive. Though there were still several frames with capped brood, there was not a single egg, hatched egg, or young larva to be seen anywhere.   

If you look closely you can see two queen cells here--one of the left half of the picture, and one on the right

With each frame, the message became more and more clear: the queen was missing, and had been gone for at least a week judging by the stages of brood that remained. Last time I opened the hive I hadn’t seen the queen, and now her absence was confirmed. I was heartbroken. 

Another queen cell, a bit too close to the bottom edge 

Eleanor was visiting from California the weekend, and with her help we managed to take a few pictures of the frames. Notable were the presence of queen cells, which look like long distended drone cells. I think there were somewhere between 3-6 queen cells, but it is hard to know for sure since it took me midway through the hive before I realized what these cells were. This confirmed that the workers too had realized that the queen was no longer around and were making preparations.

I put in a call to Rick for advice, and sent him an email with some photos of what we had seen. He suggested that I wait to hear back from him before making a move. Options were to re-queen with a mated queen (in a cage, much like during the initial shake in) and destroy all of the queen cells, or destroy a few of the queen cells, such that when the new queens emerge their ensuing fight to the death for ownership of the hive would not be too gruesome. For a new queen to be successful, she would need to survive the fight, be strong enough to go out and mate, and then return to the hive to start laying new eggs. I awaited further instruction, and kept my fingers crossed.

Day 26: Removing the frame feeder

Gigantic drone cells at the top of the frame with larvae

 It has been nearly two weeks since I opened up my hive, so I was eager to have a look inside. Since the bees have settled in and there are plenty of flowers out, I removed the feeder and put in an empty frame a few frames from the edge. I was hoping it would be time to put on the second brood box, but it seems that the bees still have a couple of empty frames to fill up first. Perhaps they are still adjusting to their move across the yard.

Liz helped out with the inspection, and neither of us managed to spot the queen. However, there were plenty of small brood, suggesting that she has been laying. We saw a few drone cells near the bottom of several frames--a new sight of the season. Liz did a great job smoking, clearing the bees to prevent crush upon closing the hive, and taking pictures. 

The hive always looks a bit disturbed after the inspection with more bees than usual jamming up both the front and back entrances, but a few hours later all was well.

A trip to Juniper Moon Farm in Palmyra, VA

Entrance to Juniper Moon Fiber Farm

The 4 hives at Juniper Moon with adorable outer covers!

Recently I had the opportunity to spend a few days with my Mom and Emily at Juniper Moon Farm to celebrate mother's day. In addition to sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, geese, cows, donkeys, and dogs (and babies from nearly all of those species), they also had a few bee hives that we had the opportunity to open up. Immediately it was clear how good these bees had it in Virginia--warm sunny days, fields of clover, and a much longer flowering season than in Massachusetts.

Burr comb from idle bees with missing frames in the hive

So much honey already! Virginia bees are happy

Zac Hackney is the resident beekeeper on the farm, and has already caught two swarms this year (last year there were only two hives). During one of the swarms he was caught off guard and did not have enough frames to fill the hive. You can see that the bees wasted no time, and built out their own comb, maintaining perfect bee space between the sheets. He encouraged the bees to depart from this comb and take up residence in the new frames. The wax will be saved for candle making later in the year.

We also had the opportunity to stick our fingers into the recently capped honey to have a taste! The honey was so delicious and warm right out of the hive. I have the feeling that if my bees had any idea how plush their life would be (and were capable of flying 600 miles) that they would have moved to Virginia yesterday. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for honey in my hive later in the season...

Pollen from the combs and into the baskets!

My favorite bee sight so far this spring has been spotting the foraging bees with hind legs loaded down with pollen. This indicates that the workers have found some flowering plants to their liking close by. After returning to the hive, the workers deposit the pollen pellets into the comb and hive bees add bacteria and enzymes from their stomachs to the pellets. These organisms acidify and eventually ferment the pollen, which turns it into bee bread. Pollen provides protein, lipids, vitamins, and minerals that are necessary nutrients for the colony.


Also discovered yesterday that re-wearing pants that you got stung in without washing can lead to re-aggravation of a bee sting :)  My sting from Day 6 had disappeared without a trace.  However, after another day in my weekend jeans, my knee starting itching all over again--I am guessing due to some bee venom lingering in the fabric. No doubt a rookie mistake not to be repeated.

Day 12: Moving the apiary, and checking for a "good brood pattern"

Hive in its new location, 90 degrees rotated

Plenty of bees and burr comb on the inner cover

With nicer weather it becomes clear just how much our bees love flying into the neighbor's driveway! Wanting to cause as little friction in our new neighborhood as possible, we decided to pick up and move the hive closer to our driveway and garage. Emily was a trooper and suited up for the big move. Eric and Melanie watched from a few feet back. This time we tucked pants into socks to prevent intruders--this makes the bee outfit even cuter! The eggs were maturing perfectly, with visible eggs, tiny hatchlings, small larvae, big larvae, and capped pupae. It seems that the queen and her attending workers have been exceedingly busy in the last six days. I can't wait until the new bees start to hatch, which should be in the next 10 days. The hive feeder was nearly empty, so we refilled with sugar syrup, drowning only a few poor bees. There were only 2 completely empty frames left, so it won't be long before we can put the second brood box on. Many a bee were still flying in the old hive location, but I have been reassured a thousand times that there are still thousands of bees left in the hive. I hope the 90 degree rotation doesn't throw off their waggle dances for long.

Really beautiful picture showcasing several stages of baby bee development, worker bees, a few big drones, and a nice stash of bright orange pollen around the perimeter.