Frame Building w/ Walter Kelley Jig

This video demonstrates how to put frames together using the Walter Kelley jig.    Overall, I've been really pleased with the jig.   Enjoy!

Busy Hive Entrance. Orientation Flights, or Robbing?

Walked out to look at the hives, as I do most every day, and saw a whole lot of activity at the entrance of both hives.   It was notable only because it was more than what I have been seeing, a lot more.    My first thought was "robbing", when bees from another colony invade to steal food.   I had just freshened the sugar water the night before.    But I'm just not sure what I am looking for.   The activity didn't seem overly aggressive, not like what I would expect from bees defending their home.   But then I did see a few times a bee here or there look like it was being dive bombed, but perhaps that is normal.  I just don't know!      Watching the bees that were swarming about in the air, they looked like they were flying out in a circle, hovering at the entrance, coming to the entrance and then repeating the pattern.  That to me seems like orientation flight, so I am thinking perhaps there is a just an increase in new bees finally graduating from their janitorial duties in the hive and moving on to flight.

Larvae Development

This is an cool photo as you can see the stages of the larvae development pretty clearly.    Just below the bee, looking at the cell just below her wing, you can see an egg.    After three days the egg hatches and will get a bit of royal jelly, which you can see in the cells just below the egg.   To the left of the egg you can see a larvae in jelly, in the typical "c" shape.  And if you keep going left you see increasingly larger larvae.    The larger ones to the left of the bee will soon be "capped", at which point they will metamorphize, eventually emerging as a fully grown been.  Egg to to bee in 21 days.  Simply amazing!

Bringing in the Pollen

This video is at the entrance of the Nuc hive.     In the latter half, I get a little closer and little better focus so you can really see the pollen on the legs.

Nuc Inspection

Two goals for this inspection:  Check the Nuc to find the queen and make sure she is still doing OK.    Check the package hive and make sure we have a queen in there.   It had only been a week, but didn't spot eggs last time (didn't look ... need an inspection check list!) and saw supercedure cells, so wasn't sure what to make of that hive.

For the Nuc, I also wanted to take a better recording of the frames.  Mostly to have better documentation of what to expect in a Krantz nuc.   So, we'll start there:

 Frame 1 Side 1

 Frame 1 Side 2

 Fame 2 Side 1

Frame 2 Side 2

 Frame 3 Side 1

 Frame 3 Side 2

 Frame 4 Side 1

 Frame 4 Side 2

Yes, I know that is only four frames ... I must have skipped one.  Have I mentioned I need a checklist?   Everything seems really straight forward and I feel like I have it all covered until I get back inside, update this blog, and realize I've forgotten things.     Have I mentioned I need a checklist?

Back to the inspection ... plenty of larvae in just about all stages of development.  This photo is nice in that you can see eggs, freshly hatched larvae with just a drop of royal jelly and increasingly larger "c" shapes.   Nice.

With eggs spotted we know the queen is actively laying.  The eggs take just three days to hatch, whereupon the workers will start feeding them the jelly.  Since it has been 7 days since the Nuc install, we know that she  has been laying *since* transferring from Nuc to permanent hive.

But, we also spotted the queen!  Aidan was really excited about this!

Now the other exciting thing about this photo is that you may notice this isn't plastic foundation.   See the wire through the comb?  This is brand new foundation installed into the hive body last week along with the Nuc.  Since a Nuc is only five frames, you have to add five more to it to fill a standard 10 frame hive body. 

So in the past week, the bees have drawn this frame and the queen is laying in it!   Excellent!

  New Frame, Side 1

 New Frame, Side 2

The rest of the new frames were just starting to be drawn, except the outer ones which had a little wax here and there but nothing yet work noting really.

Aidan spotted a hive beetle hiding in the corner of a frame ... good for him!    We quickly dispatched it but also installed a hive beetle trap before closing up the hive.    Topped off sugar water and provided a brood builder patty.

Nuc Install

One week ago, we picked up our Nuc from Krantz.      I was really looking forward to this as Aidan wasn't able to help with the package install, but with his new suit he would be able to help with the install of the Nuc.      I think enjoyed the idea of riding home in the car with a box of bees in the seat next to him.

The Nuc was pretty much as expected, five frames in a Nuc box.

I've read different methods of dealing with the Nucs when you get them home, from opening the hole and leaving them for a couple of days, or using specialized covers that mate the Nuc to your regular hive box and letting them migrate, to just moving the frames.   I opted to just move the frames from the Nuc to their new hive body.      This is simple and lots of people do this with no problems, plus it gives you the opportunity to inspect the frames to make sure you got what you paid for.

So what do you pay for?   It wasn't to clear to me when I paid for it, but I've now learned that not all Nucs are created equal.  Some folks put in 2 or 3 frames of brood, 1 or 2 frames of honey/pollen and sometimes an empty frame.   Some frames are new (under 1 year) and some suppliers pawn off their own older frames into the Nucs.    

I was happy with what I got from Krantz.   All of the frames were in very good condition.  One was clearly older than the others, based on the propolis covering the frame, but the wax was not super dark.    Four of the frames were well drawn, one of them partially drawn.    Three frames had a good amount of capped brood and developing larvae, one frame was well supplied with honey and pollen and the partially drawn from was filling up with honey and pollen as well.

Aidan and I looked for the queen but didn't spot her ... though we saw plenty of eggs so we knew she was in there working.

You'll notice that bottom of the cells are black.   These frames were all wood, but had Pierco plastic foundation.   For those that use plastic foundation, the black plastic is often preferred in the brood chamber because it makes the eggs easier to see.  

After we put the frames back in, we put on the feeder with some fresh sugar water w/ Honey-B-Healthy.

Making Way for a New Queen?

Another hive inspection today.   This one was with Aidan, decked out in his new bee suit from Jawadis.   He's really getting into this!    And now his older brother, Owen, has been getting interested.   He's actually been asking lots of questions from the beginning but I wasn't sure if he was just making conversation on our long ride to school or genuinely interested.    Today he said he wanted to help with an inspection.  Great!

I already have another suit, which I won at the beekeeping course, but it was a bit small for me.   So now I just need to get a veil (I actually have two on back order).

Anyway, the inspection went fairly well ... was hoping to see more drawn comb.   This time I noted what I saw on each frame:

Frame Position	Side (L/R)	Cover	Type
1	L	0%	N/A
1	R	0%	N/A
2	L	0%	N/A
2	R	25%	Nectar/Honey
3	L	75%	Nectar/Pollen/Brood
3	R	75%	Nectar/Pollen/Brood
4	L	100%	Brood
4	R	100%	Brood
5	L	100%	Brood
5	R	100%	Brood
6	L	100%	Nectar/Pollen
6	R	33%	Nectar
7	L	25%	Nectar
7	R	0%	N/A
8	L	0%	N/A
8	R	0%	N/A
9	L	0%	N/A
9	R	0%	N/A
10	L	0%	N/A
10	R	0%	N/A

This doesn't seem to me like they are drawing out as fast as they should be, but then again, I lost *a lot* of bees due to drowning in the feeder.

In any event, there were a lot of uncapped cells and what I would think was not a good "brood pattern" but many of the uncapped cells did have larvae in them.   I was not as diligent as I should have been though and didn't notice or look for eggs.  I also didn't see the queen, though I did look for her.

What I did see that was different this time was this:

At first I wasn't sure what it was ... I suspected a supercedure cell, but the pictures I have seen didn't quite look like this.    But then there were a couple of more:

Note the one has larvae and is not yet capped.      I found a couple more that look like the supercedure cells I have seen in books, hanging downward a bit:

So, is the queen gone?   Is she not laying fast enough?   I've read that a supercedure isn't uncommon after a package install as it takes 21 days before new bees are hatching and the other bees may get the idea that their queen as failed during the lull ... but just two weeks ago there were no supercedure cells and plenty of capped brood, eggs, etc.      I wish I would have found the queen and eggs ... but I figure bees know best so regardless, I'll leave them to it and hope that if a supercedure occurs, the new queen does well.

Jawadis Comes Through on Youth Suit!

I've had a youth suit on back-order from Pigeon Mountain since March 10th.    I've got a 10 year old son very eager to help out and it's been really disappointing for us both that he has had to sit out on the first package install as well as the first two hive inspections.   Pigeon Mountain has given me incorrect information on two occasions with regard to when the suit would ship and most recently have simply not responded to further inquiries.  

So, I was really interested when someone posted in inquiry on Bee Source about a company called Jawadis.   They offer suits for adults and youth and have very reasonable pricing.   $45 will get you a youth suit with a free pair of gloves thrown in .. pretty hard to beat.   And their eBay feedback was all pretty positive so I figured I would give them a chance.

I placed an order on Friday and posted to the Bee Source forum letting folks know I was going to give them a try.  Within minutes I had a note from Jawadis letting me know they were going to take care of me ... ensuring my order was in the mail right away.   They later confirmed with a shipping number and let me know the package would arrive by Wednesday ... well today is Monday and it already arrived!

I'm very impressed with their customer service and attention to ensuring I am a happy customer.   The suit is well constructed with a good design and well executed seams.   The sizing may be a little large, but for a growing kid, I don't think that is much of a problem.   My son is 10 and a bit small, but I ordered him a Large, recommended on their website for 11-12 year olds.   I suspect this will last at least a couple of years.

The veil is fencing style and has a nice front closure.  The mesh is a poly mesh with pretty good visibility.     There is plenty of overlap in the zippers with a velcro flap for additional security.  

There are quite a few pockets, so plenty of places to put tools, bubble gum, or frogs.  ;-)

The legs have an elastic loop as would be expected as well as zippers to make it easier to get on and off.  

The free gloves are nice leather gloves and sized just perfectly. 

The overall quality is very nice ... the material is a pretty typical cotton canvas, similar to the majority of bee suits I've seen.  Definitely recommended!