We did our second hive inspection today; things went much better this time, and we got through a long to-do list. I can see that things will get even smoother as we do more work with the bees.
I don’t really have a big difference to report between the two hives, so I’m going to just report the steps in one go, noting any differences as I go.
We got the smoker going with grass clippings, as the pinecones seemed too smelly. It lasted OK, although we had some trouble with the smoker going low in the middle of the inspection. It never went totally out, but we had to keep an eye on it.
For the record, I need to figure out how to get my hair right inside the veil, because it doesn’t really stay in place, and it drives me a little nuts. I have to say that I’m seriously considering a major haircut, not completely related to this issue. But that’s another show.
We opened the lid, and most of the sugar water was gone. They took it a lot faster this time, probably less than a quart total was left in each hive. We took the jars back inside, and made more sugar water, which we’ll deploy tomorrow morning.
The feeder bracket was stuck down with propolis; the bees are really making an attempt to call this place home.
Upon checking the frames, we found that the outer 2 frames were essentially untouched, and that the 2 inside those were only partially built-out on one side. However, the 6 center frames were really hopping with activity, all 6 were essentially fully brooded, with the outermost sides being mostly eggs, then a frame or so of larvae in various growth stages, and with about 3-4 frames full of capped brood! Some of the brood pattern had onesie twosie holes here and there, and I’m not sure whether this is because those bees have already hatched, or because these were the few that were skipped by the queen in the first place. In any case, the capped brood looks pretty good to me, with each brood area covering 80% or so of the frame side, with pollen and capped “honey” (which I assume is mostly sugar water-based at the moment) around the upper edge.
We only saw the queen in the western hive, but there were definitely eggs in the eastern hive, evidence that the queen is still there, doing her thing. If I had to choose one, I’d say the western hive is a little stronger-looking right now, just based on the amount of brood.
With things getting as full as they are, and with all that capped brood (4 frames * 7,000 cells per frame = possibly upwards of 25,000 bees are about to be born!), we decided that it was time to add a another deep to the hives for a second brood chamber. We “baited” the new deep box by moving the two strongest-looking capped brood frames up from the lower box to the upper. The rest of the upper box is empty frames, and we pushed the remaining frames to the center of the lower box, adding two new frames to the outside edge. Hopefully this will bring the bees up into the second box more quickly.
Since we are now out of deep boxes, we had to use a stack of 2 westerns above the inner hive cover to accomodate the quart jars. The stacks are pretty high now, as they are physically the height that they’ll be in late summer. Of course, the top two boxes are empty, but it’s a pretty impressive sight. The hives are now about chest height.
We got out of the day without any stings that made it through clothes, but I did pull a couple of stingers out of the fingers of my gloves. The bee veils are really work clothes, despite being white. They reek of smoke, and are covered in dirt, bee poop, and who knows what else. The hive tool is pretty sticky, too; not sure if that’s honey, propolis, or wax. Probably a combination, honestly. 🙂
We dumped the bees off of the inner hive cover of the eastern hive, on the ground in front of the hive entrance. They clustered there for quite some time, and I began to worry that we’d have a big die-off like after the first inspection (we must have lost 50 bees who couldn’t make it back into the hive in the cold and rain). When I went out in the morning to replace the sugar water jars, I only counted 3 or 4 bees dead outside either hive. That’s pretty much a normal days’ worth, so I think we pretty much made it through the second inspection without killing anyone. That makes me feel a lot more confident about how gentle we’ve been treating our bees.
Oh, we finally got the last bit of the filter from the original can of sugar water from the western hive. The bees had ejected the cotton filter material, but were apparently stymied by (or oblivious to) the little rubber gasket that held the filter in place. With that out of the hive, the western hive is now set up the way it’s supposed to be.
We probably need some more sugar, because I have a feeling they’ll eat through these jars, too, before blackberry nectar starts flowing. We have put in 30# of sugar so far (15# per hive, I guess).
Do your thing, hives! I’m proud of you.