A Sweet Surprise!

It was time to inspect the host hive again. Mike came out to help. This time we inspected the hive in the middle of the day. We have had some cooler days now and I wanted it to be warmer when we opened the hive. The one thing I didn’t consider is how much shade there would be at that time. The hive was in complete shade when we got there. This colony has let me know that they prefer that we open their hive when it is warm and sunny. At least it was warm.

We got the smoker lit, but I forgot the cardboard to put in it.  I put a lot more fuel in it than I have in the past, hoping that it would stay lit long enough. I started by plugging one of the two entrance holes and putting the entrance reducer in the other. Then I began pulling out bars, starting with the brood chamber. The first two bars had quite a bit more honey in them than last time. I was relieved to see that.

The third and fourth bars were full of honey! They were very heavy to lift compared to the other bars. There was capped and uncapped honey, although most of it was capped. As we got further into the hive, we began to worry because we were not finding any brood. We did finally find a few cells with capped brood, but not much.

I decided to go back through the hive to look for more signs of the queen. As I looked at each bar again, I walked out away from the hive into the sun to try to see better. I was able to see a few small larvae, but I didn’t see any eggs. It was very hard to see with the shade cover into the dark combs.

We did not see any drones in the hive, so they have removed them. The workers were still bringing in pollen and they had some good pollen stores built up. There was a lot of honey in the hive. They have at least seven combs full of honey and some of the combs were completely full of capped honey. There was a tiny comb that was empty at the end opposite the brood nest and I took it from them for educational purposes. I will be at an event soon talking about bees and beekeeping.

The bees were very calm again today. It was so nice to get into the hive and not have to deal with aggressive bees. The hum of the hive seemed content and was relaxing to listen to. They did start to get a little upset once I had gone through the hive the second time. It was obvious that I had begun to wear out my welcome. At that point, I closed up the hive.

I will need to get back into the hive in about two week to see if I can find more brood or the queen. This colony is in a good position now with their honey stores. I hope that the queen is alive and well.

With the exciting surprise of a hive full of honey, I decided that I needed to inspect the hive in my yard too. Once I got home, I got everything ready and got into the hive. My husband helped me with taking notes. I use a little notepad and write down what I see, usually in some crazy shorthand. Once I finish the inspection I will enter the information into my account at www.hivetracks.com. I love using Hive Tracks, it’s really easy and everything is in one place instead of all over the place like my notepads.

I have been very worried about this colony. At the last inspection, I found very little honey. I had started feeding them again. The first batch of food they ate and almost emptied the jars. The second batch of food they did not touch and I got really worried.  I had begun preparing myself for the chance that they may not make it through the winter. After inspecting the host hive and seeing all of the honey, I was very hopeful when I opened this hive.

I did not use the smoker with this hive. The bees seemed calm when I opened the hive. When I pulled out bars, I found the same surprise as in the other hive, honey! They had lots of honey! They had about seven full combs of honey too.

While searching I found eggs, uncapped larvae, and capped brood. I also spotted two worker bees without wings and there were some dead pupae. I looked closely for mites and did see any. There were only a few drones remaining in the hive and I checked them for mites too. I didn’t see any, hopefully that means that they are not a huge problem.

There was one bar that the bees had built some double comb on. I scarped off the small extra pieces for us to keep. There was a small amount of uncapped honey in the pieces that I took.

After looking through the hive I had a feeling of relief come over me. These bees have filled their hive with honey. There were signs that the queen is there and doing well. I now have hope that this colony has a chance to make it through the winter.

After closing up the hive and cleaning everything up, I thought it would be a good time to try the honey from the extra pieces. We all got to try some and it was delicious!