Starter colony was checked this morning and a much more lively queen has emerged from the a WildCA18A mother colony frame. Before I could catch her she destroyed another queen cell that was likely to emerge soon. As a result, I divided the starter colony box into 3 compartments which are separate from each other. I also added an entrance for each. This will separate the hatched queens from the other sections and also allow mating flights. An additional frame with capped queen cells was moved from the WildCA18A mother colony. This will create a total of 4 mated queens from the WildCA18A genetics.
The interior of the hive has become far more built out and organized. At least 3 frames should now bee fully drawn out with new white wax comb. Entrance activity should be a steady stream of bees coming and going throughout the warm portions of the day. The eggs which were previously seen in the drawn comb should now be open larva and capped brood.
The hive activity is now almost in full swing. The first round of brood should be hatching out in the next 12 days. We will see an explosion of bees and hive building very soon.
The Queen starter colony continues to make queen cells. These queen cells have been capped since May 8. One of the queens hatched today and is loose in the starter colony. The queen was captured and moved to a mating Nuc (left). Frames containing capped queen cells from the WildCA18A colony which just swarmed were moved into the starter colony. All genetics in the starter colony are from WildCA18A. Also, this starter colony can be opened many times a day without smoke or any sort of bee protection. These bees are extraordinarily calm.
WildCA18A colony was opened one day after it had swarmed. Still good number of bees inside hive. Removed top empty box which had top bars. Found swarm cells in top 3 boxes. One frame of swarm cells moved to starter colony. If we get a virgin queen, I will re-queen the Wild17 genetics out of the bee yard.
Campus hives were inspected. Apis19A and Apis19B were opened and a quick inspection performed. Capped Brood in both hives. New comb being drawn very quickly. Both colonies are extremely calm and easy to manage at this point. No smoke needed.
A second swarm happened in my backyard the very next day. Wild17 colony decided to swarm just 24 hours after WildCA18A. The colony also went up into the exact same Juniper tree but thankfully a bit lower. This swarm was moved into a NUC box and then installed out at the campus on the berm. Multiple attempts to find the queen failed. I will re-queen this colony as soon as I can.
First swarm of the year was caught in my own backyard. WildCA18A colony decided to swarm in my backyard at approximately 10:00am. This despite me splitting them twice in the early spring. The swarm containing at least 10,000 bees went up into the air for about 15 minutes. Then slowly the swarm settled on a Juniper tree back about 50 feet from the hive.
Colony was removed from the tree and put into a Nuc box. The Nuc box was installed on the campus over at the full langstroth hive next to the pond. Queen was captured and put into cage for 24 hour sequestration.
Splits were started on April 14, 30 days prior. Brood was sourced from WildCA18A. Last check, we found virgin queens in both splits. Both virgin queens have mated and are now laying eggs. The colonies are now located at Niagara. These two colonies will be called WildCA1819A and WildCA1819B
So you have started your new bee colony from a package. On day one, you placed your queen cage and emptied your package of bees into the hive. The hive has been closed for about a week and it is now time to perform your first inspection. At this point you should also be able to observe a steady flow of bees to and from the hive entrance. So let’s open the hive up and see what is going on inside.
A first time beekeeper will probably grab the smoker and put on the full bee suit. And if this is what you are comfortable with then there is nothing wrong with that. However, I find that depending on your bees, this may not be necessary. At this point the bees will not yet have any brood to defend and will most likely not be very defensive of the hive. The first week of a new bee package is still a transition period for the bees and the inspection usually does not need any smoke. We are still very much in the honeymoon period with the bees.
Slowly open the hive, being careful not to aggressively pop or snap the top lid off the lower brood chamber. Look at the underside of the hive lid and make sure the queen is not on the lid. Take a look at the bees. Hopefully the approximate number of bees is relatively the same as one week prior.
Take care and remove the outer most frame furthest away from the center. There should not be any bees on this frame. Do a quick check for the queen and set the frame aside. Then carefully starting at the center frame, nudge the group of frames away into the empty space you created. This should allow you to remove and inspect the queen cage that was hung in the center of the box. The queen should have been freed. If not, remove the remaining candy plug and let her loose onto the top bar of the hive. she will quickly crawl down into the hive. Do all of this over the hive just in case you drop her she would fall into the hive.
If the queen already freed herself days ago then pull the center frame up carefully and look for the queen and look for freshly laid eggs. You should probably find that about 3-4 frames have newly drawn comb with eggs.
If you can find the queen, then that is great. If not, do not worry. As long as you see eggs, then you know she is there and is hard at work. It can be difficult to find the queen at this early stage because the colony is very bunched up and not yet fully organized. I got lucky with this colony because the package I received was a bit short on bees.
Carefully put all the frames back in the hive and close everything up. Make sure to move slowly and carefully. Because the hive is still not yet fully built out all the frames with comb, there will be layers of bees in clusters. Make sure not to crush anyone and move very slowly. Finally close everything up and open up the entrance board to the larger opening. The colony will very quickly be needing the larger entrance for all the forager traffic.
