Beekeepers Log

Masai was much calmer this week than last week. I did a full inspection this morning. I didn’t see any problems. There were lots of bees on all combs, and there were 18 bars of comb. I saw two queen cups in swarm cell positions. I rotated an empty bar to the front of the hive to open up the brood nest and to try to stimulate more comb building in the front. Eventually I want to get the bar I bought from Tomas out of the hive.

Since I stopped the robbing, the bees seemed much calmer today. Toward the end of the inspection they did start to get more aggressive. I did not see the queen, but there was lots of brood and stores.

I am looking at the hive out the window, and I can see robber bees trying to get into the feeder slot again. They appear to be giving up after a minute or two. There is a crack between the two bottom boards. I think I am going to go take a closer look at that crack to see if bees are getting in and out there.

All 4 hives were inspected today. I started with Masai, because last week I didn’t see any eggs or young brood. This was a quick inspection. The hive is pretty hot. I smoked it pretty well, but I still got nailed on the hand. The bees were aggressive. There were lots of bees outside the hive on the ventilation/feeder opening. There were also bees on the top of the bars under the cover. One of the bars was not down all the way and bees were getting out of the hive there. I suspect robbing, but maybe it was just for ventilation. There were 16 bars of comb in the hive now. There was uncapped brood, eggs and lots of capped brood in the hive. It was very populous. I straightened one comb a little bit. Stores were plentiful and the bars toward the back of the hive were primarily honey. There was lots of capped honey.

Iramba was next. They had 14 bars of comb. There was a lot of capped honey, capped brood, eggs and uncapped brood. The population of the hive is way up. Iramba was not quite as defensive as Masai.

Hadza was the next hive inspected. There were 6 bars of comb with lots of brood, capped and uncapped, and lots of honey capped and uncapped. They had finished the jar of sugar syrup, so we replaced it with a new bottle. No problems noted. They were very gentle. Lots of dark bees from the Iramba bar of comb.

Chaga was bearding a lot. They were not as gentle as Hadza. There were 9 bars of comb, lots of brood of all types, and lots of honey, capped and uncapped. No problems noted at all. The inspection of all hives took about 45 minutes.

Clearly, the swarms are made up of bees that are not “gentle”. Iramba is better than Masai at the moment. It will be interesting to see how Chagga develops. As the spring and summer progress, it will be interesting to see how aggressive these hives become. Eventually I will have enough resources to start making new queens, and I will need to decide which queen will be the mother of the new queen. Obviously, Masai is a very productive queen because it was a large swarm and they are going gangbusters, but Masai seems pretty hot, so there is a tradeoff between the temperament of the colony and the fecundity of the queen. Perhaps I don’t want her to be the mother of my queens. Hadza seems very calm, but they are not from around here. If they survive the winter strong, the queen might be a good candidate for a queen mother, but I won’t know that this year. The swarms are clearly survivor bees so they have attributes I want to keep.

I will be watching this closely.

I inspected the Iramba hive yesterday afternoon. It was really amazing! There were 10 bars of comb. On the second bar of comb from the back I saw eggs and then I spotted the queen, which was very exciting. She was very easy to spot. All of the other bars except the first bar at the front had lots of brood on it. There were a couple of bars with about half drone comb and the rest, probably about 6 combs were all worker comb with a beautiful brood pattern.

There was lots of pollen on these bars, but no capped honey. I guess the bees are using all of the nectar they bring in to feed the brood. Brood should start hatching in a couple days. Then we should see some increase in production of comb and honey. According to experts, the lack of honey should not be a problem. I guess as the brood hatches, more and more of the bees will be foraging and bringing in nectar.

We took a video of the inspection:

I am expecting the package to arrive either today or tomorrow. I have a ride this morning, so I am hoping I am home when the package arrives.

Gotto go ride!