Sunday, 20 June 2010

First, a reference and revision. Ontario Bee Journal, vol 29, no. 3, June 2010, p. 25, Drone Brood Removal for the Management of Varroa Mites: "...Leave the drone bood frame in for 24-28* days ...*If freezing drone frames you should replace the frames every 24 days, as the bees only need a few days to clean out the dead drone brood." This is a revision from my seminar notes: We are now on a 24-day schedule. 14 July the drone frames must be switched. The JBeek & Co. will be away; perhaps Patrick will be free to come along and help on Monday, 12 July.

This morning we accomplished the following:

Removed drone frames from each hive, and replaced the west hive with their own frame, frozen after removal during our last session, and thawed 24 hours before replacement in the hive; we gave the east hive a new frame of drone comb, and I was glad to see that they'd raised drone comb on the plastic drone-foundation we won in a draw at our bee-seminar this spring (was wondering if had painted wax too thickly).

Gave each hive a new honey super. The west hive's single honey super was perhaps half full, but had enough weight to warrant a second honey super; the east hive's top super was estimated by the JBeek's dad to weigh 80 lbs.; the newer super underneath was also heavy; we gave this hive a third, empty honey super on top of the queen excluder, and replaced the two top supers in order. These honey supers have foundation, no drawn comb.

Weeded in front of the hives.

List of things to do on Sunday, 20 June

30th day of drone comb is 24 June, but that's not a handy date so we're set for Sunday, 20 June at 7:30 a.m. (hoping for sleepy bees). Here's a to-do list:

On Saturday, 19 June, remove the west hive's last month's frozen drone comb frame from the freezer.

On Sunday, 20 June:

West hive: remove single honey super, and estimate weight.

Remove the queen excluder.

Remove drone comb frame from the top brood box, and, replace with the thawed drone comb frame in the busiest part of the brood. Place the removed drone comb frame in a plastic bag, and when you are finished work, put this in the freezer, labeled.

Lift the top brood box, and look for queen cells hanging down, and if you find these, destroy them, and mix up the busy part of the brood boxes a bit, give them a couple of new frames in exchange for old frames in the middle of the brood, and this will also serve to give them fresh frames in the brood boxes.

Replace the queen excluder.

If the honey super was heavy, give them a honey super of empty foundation on top of the brood boxes.

Put the heavy honey super on top of the empty one, and take a look at it: put the full comb on the outsides, and the unfinished comb in the middle.

East hive:

This hive has two honey supers at the moment. Remove these, having estimated weight. Remove the queen excluder. Take a look at the drone comb placed in the brood chamber three-plus weeks ago. You may find that because this was incorrectly (was it?) waxed, they have raised worker comb on it. Pull it, and freeze it either way. Replace with a frame of drone comb foundation. Look for queen cells between the brood boxes, destroy these, mix up the brood boxes a bit per above, replace old frames with new frames of worker foundation, etc. to give them some housekeeping to do during swarm season. Replace the queen excluder, and if the two boxes were heavy, give this hive a third empty honey super directly above the excluder, and take a look at the honey supers removed, move the empty comb to the middle and put the full comb to the sides, put them back in the order they were taken off.

Varroa count

The sticky boards were removed 48 hours after placement, and on Wednesday evening given to the JBeek to count varroa; he just phoned to say that the yellow hive's sticky board contains nine varroa mites, and the red hive's count is ten.

placed Crisco/vaseline slathered file folders

Placed sticky boards under the hives this morning; must be removed 48 hours from now; Wednesday morning, can go home with the JBeek for counting varroa on Wednesday after we go to the library.