Chewed Newspaper and Good Weather

It looks like we successfully managed the swarm hive. They had eaten away most of the newspaper and they have been working hard to build new comb. We are hoping that the queen will start laying eggs in the bottom  of the hive because right now there is brood in the honey super. That couldn't be helped though considering that they swarmed and Matt had to put them into a new hive a.s.a.p. They looked good though and we decided to stop feeding the sugar syrup. Matt gave me a turn with the entrance feeder so they didn't have to quit the syrup cold turkey. 

Himalayan Blackberry. Photo by Cheryl Moorehead

It has finally warmed up and stopped raining! It is the middle of the blackberry bloom which is a huge source of nectar for the bees. Nectar is what they use to make honey. When it is raining, the nectar washes away. We are crossing our fingers that the bees can still get enough nectar from the blackberries. 

The bees crack me up when they cling together in chains like circus acrobats!

Matt's hive is doing well too. Matt did scrape off a queen cell. We only found that one, so hopefully the bees aren't getting any ideas . . . Matt also drilled a bee sized hole in his honey super so the bees could have another entrance and more ventilation. The picture was blurry so I will show it next time.

Scraping off burr comb

Lots of bees!

Post Swarm Post

One of the rebel swarmers

After my bees swarmed, and Matt called me at work to tell me, I got home and we tucked the bees in as best as we could and went to bed ourselves. Whew! 

The Aftermath

As the week progressed, and we wondered what the bees were up to. Matt checked on the "old" hive, (the bees that stayed behind and didn't swarm) on Monday or Tuesday to see if there was any larvae or eggs. If the bees don't have any larvae to take care of, there is a risk that one of the workers could start laying eggs and that is not a good thing. So Matt scraped off any queen cells that he found, and kindly donated a frame of brood from his hive, so the bees would have some babies to take care of. While he was working the hive, he just happened to see a skinny little queen!

Usually, new queens are really hard to find because they are small. They need to be able to go out on a mating flight, and if they are too fat they can't fly. When a new queen hatches, she prepares for a mating flight or two, mates, and then comes back to the hive ready to lay eggs. We didn't know where she was in that cycle, but Matt made a quick executive decision to kill that new queen. Another option would have been to keep her and put her in a queen cage just in case we needed her. He also checked to see if my old queen was still with the swarm and she was.

This weekend, Matt's bees were super crabby! It might have been this crappy weather. We did a routine check of his hive and rotated some frames. We both got stung, Matt on the arm and me on the wrist. I guess they just didn't want to be messed with that day, but it's not as if we've had many nice days to pick from to check on them. Matt added an entrance feeder because it won't stop friggin' raining and the blackberry nectar is getting
all washed away.

Entrance Feeder

Can you find the Queen?

No honey yet!

We decided to combine my swarm hive and the old hive so I would have one stronger hive. To start, we checked the old hive and scraped off all the queen cells we could find. To combine the hives, you need to put a layer of newspaper in between them. The bees chew through it, and by the time they are done, they are used to the queen and they won't kill her. We cut slits in the newspaper to give the bees something to bite on to. Then we put the swarm hive on top. 

Swarm hive

Some of the bees that were out foraging were confused at first, and didn't know where to go but they figured it out eventually. We put a screen bottom board on the tall hive so they could have good ventilation and crossed our fingers that the queen survives and that the bees get to work without any more drama. We will check on them next week to see how they are getting along. In the meantime, the peas from the garden are yummy and the blueberries are getting blue!