Crisco/Vaseline slathered file folders

YBeek returned from holidays; we placed Crisco/Vaseline slathered file folders under the hives on Wednesday at noon; today, Friday, at noon I will removed these and deliver them for a varroa count before he leaves for summer camp. Here's The Count, received 3 August 2010: red hive, 68; yellow hive, 77.

Drone-comb frame exchange

Since the YBeek et al are on holidays in the Maritimes, Tammy Tigchelaar Quinn entrusted runabout-age Aurora to her mum, and helped with the scheduled drone-comb frame exchange this morning. Thank you, Tammy!

We started with the east hive, new this year. Their drone comb was fully-drawn and capped, mostly brood. We gave them the frozen/thawed wooden frame, which has drone foundation, interestingly partly worker-cell drawn--that must have been a challenge! They had two honey supers, and we found the top (first given) super moderately heavy; the bottom super, light. So we put the hive back unchanged.

The west hive, last year's swarmed hive, must contain 100,000 bees. They had three honey supers, two very heavy, and the third moderately heavy. Their drone comb was raised, but empty at first glance--i.e. not capped, which seems odd. Perhaps that queen has stopped laying drones. Perhaps drone brood is within but not ready for capping. (We will look into the cells at leisure.) Has she swarmed? If so, she left behind an enormous population. We will check the brood chambers for eggs when we go back on 6th August. We replaced the frame with the frozen/thawed green-plastic drone-frame won at our bee seminar. We then gave them an empty honey super, and replaced their three supers in order: that hive now has four honey supers.

Our next date to go into the hives and exchange drone comb is 24 days from now, or Friday, 6 August. Tammy, who is interested in keeping bees, would like to help extract, around Labour Day.

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.

Tuesday, 25 May 2010

First, an apology to the JBeek, who was at school when we worked on bees today.

Family visit this long weekend; last night, Patrick noticed a small beard of bees--sign of discontent--hanging from lip of the east hive,. So, he offered, when he and and Margaret stayed over for car service, to don the bee suits, light up the smoker, and "do" bees. After she went down for her nap, we accomplished the following:

West (new) hive:

1. We removed the drone comb frame from the top brood box of the (new) west hive, and discovered on it a good quantity of capped drone brood. We wrapped it in plastic and put it in the freezer to kill the contents; we will bring it out in thirty days, and the bees can clean out the dead-by-freezing varroa mite and honey bee larvae and start fresh.

2. We replaced this frame with fresh wax drone foundation, to be removed in 30 days and replaced with the frame placed in the freezer today.

3. We estimated the weight of the honey super, and judged that this new hive doesn't need a second honey super yet, but soon will. Patrick had brought down the four empty honey supers from the guest room closet one with foundation placed, and the other three I must clear out the wax from the crevices of the frames, by heating in a slow oven; place new foundation; must do that this week.

East hive:

1. We did NOT flip the incorrectly placed (upside down) screen bottom board; this hive is packed with bees and very heavy, and we judged it not worthwhile under the circumstances.

2. We removed the honey super, and it was heavy with honey, Patrick judged 40 lbs. i.e. full.

3. To give this hive a frame of drone-comb for varroa control, we did the following:

The top brood box was jammed with brood, so we took it off, and removed a frame from the outside of the bottom brood box, which was part-full of honey, no brood, and we placed this on the chair in front of the hives for the bees to clean. We moved the frames over until we could see the edge of the brood "basket ball" and we placed a frame from the outside of the top brood box on the edge of the bottom box's brood ball. We replaced the top brood box, and moved the frames so as to place the new green plastic drone foundation, which I had that morning covered with melted bees wax, in that important-to-bees space.

NB RE covering with bees' wax, as advised, I tried pouring melted wax onto the plastic foundation, and this warped the surface a bit, discovered after a bit of experimentation what's successful is to heat a dish of wax in the microwave so it's the consistency of a soft wax crayon, and then manually rub the disk on the surface, leaving a good covering of wax. I hope when they discover this, they will raise drone-comb, and not be inspired to place regular comb on top of the wax. We will know in a month. Maybe with that hive, shouldn't have bothered--should not have given them the opportunity for "error"; they seem gangbusters.

4. We then replaced the queen excluder, and placed a new honey-super on top of that, followed by the full honey super we'd taken off, followed by the inner cover, followed by the outer cover, followed by the brick.

We dumped the smoker into the metal garbage can on the far side of the compost bins. And, we removed our HOT suits!

Patrick and I haven't done this as a team for 22 or so years, and we were wonderfully smooth--thank you, Patrick!

We must now return in 30 days to exchange the drone-comb frames in the brood boxes.