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| First time into the bees in 2012 |
I am a bad beekeeper I am ashamed to say. As you know, I was afraid that Hippolyta was ready to swarm on April 13 but the weather changed and I was given a reprieve. A beekeeper colleague told me I had 2 weeks to work on them before they would indeed take off. I fully intended to go in but the weather turned very cold and I got very busy at work...excuses...excuses!
I looked ahead at the weather forecast and spotted April 25 as the next warm day...and sadly it was a day full of events that I could not bow out of. It was the perfect day. At about 1 pm Bill texted me with the information that the bees were very busy. At about 1:30 pm Bill called to say the air over Queen Elizabeth I was black with bees swirling. He could see them from the house! A half hour later, he called to let me know that the air was clear. I feared the worst. At 3:15 pm I got an e-mail from the President of the Beekeeper Association! That's a bit like being called to the principal's office. The note said that he had been called by a property owner about 6 blocks away from our house...a swarm of bees had landed there. He surmised that they were my bees and did I want them back?
So, today, Sunday is a SUNNY day about 13 degrees already and heading up. The beeyard faces south and is protected so it's a perfect day to go into the bees. I have not been in since last October so this is exciting and a little bit scary. I would be able to tell if the swarm I was told about was mine by going into the hive to see if a: there were not very many bees b: there were queen cells.
What I am going to do in the hives:
1. Check for queen cells. And also look for the queen if she is still there.
2. Add the bottom screen for the summer.
3. Move the bottom box up one.
4. Take lots of pictures.
5. Work very slowly.
It was great to start taking the hive apart. It felt so good to slowly open it up and see the bees boiling up out of the hive. They weren't agitated but there were a lot of them. If half of this hive took off, I would not have wanted to see the whole hive! I saw a bit of capped brood but no sign of uncapped brood or eggs. In the bottom box I found the queen cells...about 12 of them. My reading has told me that if a colony is ready to swarm the worker bees will make queen cells on the bottom of the frames but if there is an emergency and the queen has been hurt or isn't good enough the worker bees will make queen cells in the middle of the frames. Strangely, all the queen cells in Queen Elizabeth I were in the middle of the frames so I don't really know what is going on with her. Perhaps my bees did not read the rule books. Here are some pictures of the queen cells.
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| Capped queen cell |
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| Capped queen cell and brood |
My bee math tells me that these capped queen cells will have queens emerging in about 8 or 9 days. The first queen to emerge will go to all of the other queen cells and kill her rivals. After she emerges it will be about 20 days before she is a laying queen. She will need to fly out of the hive and be fertilized by a bunch of drones and return to the hive. Anything could happen to her while she is out there...blown away by wind, eaten by a bird or caught in bad weather. This is the risk that many beekeepers avoid by getting a new queen from a queen breeder but I am going to take the risk. I am going to let my queen go out and meet up with some London Romeos and see what comes of it. Wish her luck and hopefully the end of May will see her laying eggs like crazy.
The fact that I found queen cells and no queen tells me that the swarm found was probably mine but to tell the truth, I would like to stick with the two hives I have.
The cool thing that I discovered while in the hives was that most of the honey I had left for the winter had been consumed by the bees and they all looked very healthy. I also found out that I still suck at keeping the smoker going. I was in Queen E for over an hour and in Hippolyta for about 45 mins and my smoker went out a bunch of times and Bill got it going twice for me. I didn't really need it too much since the bees stayed very calm throughout. This may be because I am becoming a calmer beekeeper.
I went into Hippolyta after Queen E and though I never found her majesty, it was pretty clear that all was well there. There was brood in all phases and though I am not good at finding eggs, I am pretty sure that the queen is laying fine.
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| Queen Hippolyta brood...looking good |
The dandelions are blooming and that's the beginning of spring, I would say so Happy Spring finally!
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| Yay! Dandelions! |
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