Comments Requested
This photo is one of the new frames from our colony. The five frames from the nuc were added to our empty hive five days earlier.
Can someone tell me if the bottom cells are brood or uncapped honey? I know the top whiteish cells are capped honey. The bees seem to be drawing out the comb at an excellent pace. I wonder how soon I should be adding a super and if I need to add it for the brood or honey and if I should use a queen excluder.
Any advice would be appreciated!
A new frame after five days
May 10, 2009 11:12 pm 4 Comments
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By Mike Stoops, May 10, 2009 @ 11:57 pm
Hi, I’m located almost exactly 1/2 way between Montgomery and Mobile, Alabama. That’s why I sign myself as living in LA (Lower Alabama).
You have a beautiful frame of brood. If you will notice, the cells capped at the top of the frame and having an arched design at the bottom of the cappings is honey that has been capped. You then have an arched band of open cells below that. That could be either open cells of honey being cured or it could be open cells of brood in stages before they are capped to pupate. If you see cells filled with yellow, brown, red, sometimes other colors of a solid, that is probably pollen.
You then have a wide area of capped cells which is capped brood. It is almost solidly capped. The open cells that I see in it might be indicative of having hygienic bees. For whatever reason, disease or mites, the bees have gone in and extracted the pupae because they were somehow infected with something and as a control the bees have pulled the pupae and evicted the pupae from the hive so the problem would not be expanded in the hive. That is good.
If you find that 8/10ths of the frames are full or being filled, that is a good indication that you need to add another super or hive body, whichever you decide to use. You will probably notice that the two outside frames are not very well completed. To force the bees to do that, swap the two outside frames with the two frames that are just inside of the out side frames. The bees will completely use all the frames in that box then. Good luck.
Best thing to do is find some other beekeepers in the area who would be willing to watch over what you are doing and help. Here in the States we call them ‘mentors’.
Mike in LA
By John Tranbarger, May 11, 2009 @ 5:05 am
Dear Steve and Alison: A very interesting report and photos. I had bees a number of years ago, but did not learn much about their care. I don’t remember now what it was, but something destructive came through the country which killed out lots of bees, ours included and I never did try to get any more. John T.
By Greg Bohannon, May 13, 2009 @ 7:11 pm
Steve,
I’m from Kansas and my wife and I have also gotten into bees this year being our first year. We don’t have a mentor to fall back on but we do have a local beekeeping group. It’s too bad you don’t have a group to get together with because i know we couldn’t have done it without at least a group. It’s so amazing that we are learning new “bee” information everyday.
Mikes right as it was explained to me the “white” capped cells are honey the “yellow-orange” capped cells are capped brood. The caps sticking out are drones. You will usually see honey along the edges of the frames and the brood in the middle. Around here they said the bees do that also for using the honey as insulation from the cold in the winter time. Also around here our winters are cold and long enough we need 2 hive bodies for them to survive. So, i’m getting ready to put my second hive body on hopefully this week. I panicked the about the third week or after we put the bees in the hive and upon inspection i found a lone queen cell way out on one of the hives, all i could think of was swarming. This boggled me since none of the new brood had actually hatched yet. I took the cell off the comb and worried until I finally talked to one of the beekeeping group he put my mind to rest when he said don’t worry about it and that i did the right thing. It’s just something a new hive sometime’s does. I guess insurance in case a new beekeeper (me) accidently kills the queen which from what i heard happens to even the best of beekeepers.
It’s exciting and sometimes nerve wracking when your not quite sure what the book “meant” when the author stated what to look for or do. But i do love to go out to my orchard and stand about 10 feet back and just watch the bees come and go. It allows me to take a moment and reflect on God’s simple beauty before going into this rat race world that is around us.
Good luck with the beehive from one newbee to another.
Greg
By Stephen, May 13, 2009 @ 8:49 pm
Greg,
Thanks for the feedback. Yes, I wish I had a group but because of the competitive nature and the language barrier, I find it very useful to turn to my virtual beekeeping groups on the Internet.
I know exactly what you mean when you read about something and then you see it, sometimes wondering if your assessment is correct. I have not been able to see the queen yet. There are so many bees! When I put those frames back in I do it nice and slow thinking any single bee that is hurt can be the queen.
When do you open your hive after the winter? Have you figured out how much honey to leave them? Have you had to deal with meds yet?