Nucs & HRH

On Sunday, one of the drone larvae that fell out was topped with Varroa Destructor mites, the one of the banes and main pests of the hive and aptly named. Too many and it can devestate the colony. It carries the Deformed Wing Virus which cripples the honeybee. It was time I put in my sticky boards to monitor the hives. While I was at it I wanted to monitor the nucs as well. I needed to re-inspect Boris to make sure I got all of the swarm cells out the day before. One of my mentors, Libby Mack from the Mecklenburg County Beekeepers, told me to keep the hive off-balance and inspect often, but above all make sure you get all of those cells out (thanks, Libby).

A closeup of the awful, awful Verroa Destructor mites attacking my colonies. I knew they were in there (they're in every colony) and you just can't put your head in the sand about it. Question is, how bad is it? This is another reason I got Russian bees last year, because they can actually pick these mites off of each other, as well as lay increased drone cells if they need to to attract the mites (they attack drones first 'cause they're big and fat). I plan on adding in Drone frames in each hive to further attract the mites, and will destroy the comb and larvae routinely to keep the mite levels under control. Integrated Pest Management is the key to T's Bees. Further plans include the natural comb I'm going to (the bees know best which size cells to build ... usually smaller, which leads to earlier hatching and less mite count), and the survivor stock I'll let my new queens mate with. The mite counts I got after 24 hours were 202 from Boris and 56 from Natasha. The 202 is an extremely high number. However, Russian bees are super hygienic and groom the mites off of them. They fall out of the hive via the screened bottom board. So this number means the bees are grooming effectively. Or does it mean that my mite load is huge? Does the lower number mean that hive isn't as effective? Regardless I'm going to dust soon using the Varroa Dustructor from Brushy Mountain, and the drone frames. IPM never hurts!

Here's a shot of one of the in-hive feeders I put in each nuc. They hold one gallon of feed. I put a piece of scrap from the reducers I cut to size for the nucs as a flotation device to reduce bee drowning.

The next day I realized this wasn't good enough, at least for T's Bees where we want to keep happy bees. I cut two pieces of porch screening I had on hand and folded in half. The ridges on the inside of the in-hive feeders help the bees a little but not enough. These screens should give them perfect ladders to safely climb in and out of to feed.

While installing the nucs on Sunday, I had to put the feed in before transferring the frames. To reduce robbing from Boris & Natasha, I put straw in the entrance until I got my nucs all nice and installed.

A closeup of the screen ladder (and flotation device) on the in-hive feeder. This nuc has 4 frames. The other has 3, for the time being. I put in another half gallon of feed to augment the quart I put in each the day before. I gingerly put the tops back on and wished my nucs well. I'm leaving them alone for 4 weeks, to give the queens time to hatch, orient, mature, mate and start laying, Lord willin'.

Back to hive Boris. I re-inspected each and every frame on Monday. In just ONE DAY they'd spun out new wax from the empty frames. Go girls, go! I want to keep them busy and the faster they can make new comb the faster the queen can have more room to lay. Apparently the bees know this, and hopefully having satisfied their swarm urge with an artificial swarm (splitting into the nucs), they'll get to work. They certainly had. More than one frame had new comb on it, in ONE DAY (I still can't get over how fast they make their own comb if they want). Look at how they connect up and begin to draw the combs down from the starter strip (the wedge piece I popped off the top bars and nailed into place, on its side, giving them a 1/4-inch lip).

This is total bee porn. I had to tell myself to not look for the queen but look for swarm cells. I still managed this shot. Look at how much and how tight of a capped brood pattern is on this frame. These frames were on bottom, from the reversal I did the day before. This is PERFECT, in that all that capped brood will hatch any day now, giving Her Royal Highness plenty of room to lay in.

Another amazingly filled, super tight capped brood pattern. And look at how strong Boris is.

As the sun was setting I tried to inspect Natasha. All of the foraging bees were coming in for the night. Natasha REALLY started to light me up, attacking me with fury. One bee tried in vain to get inside my glove through a hole (gotta replace those gloves ... and yes, I'm gloving for the time being, with all this intense work ... maybe I'll get there one day, to inspect and work glove-free on even big hives ... nucs are one thing, but huge angry hives are another ... we'll see, maybe I'll flip-flop back to gloveless again this season). The sting hurt, but I was glad to have gotten my FIRST STING of 2012 out of the way. That makes 8 or 9, including last year. I've been told that the more you get stung, the more resistance you build up to it so that swelling and itching the next day is minimal. This sting actually didn't swell but a tiny bit and was gone in a day. :) So, I inspected a few frames of Natasha from the top box, looking for swarm cells. Little had been drawn out on the super I'd put in the day before. Finding none but hearing her ROAR at me as the sun was setting, a level of panic began to rise in me. I've learned enough to know that you shouldn't be working your bees if you're not calm. Time was up anyway, and it was stupid to work them as the sun was setting. I closed her up and was thankful her roar settled down. I'll check back in a few days. I plan on taking out a couple or four honey frames from Natasha, since nectar is flowing, so I'll have backup comb ready to go, whether for the nucs / new hives or back into Boris and Natasha so the HRH's have plenty of egg laying room. Always have backups!