Mother Colony (28-29) was opened and checked for new eggs. All empty frames from last weeks split were now full again with eggs and larva. 2 frames were removed from the mother colony and placed into a 5 frame Nuc (003). Mother colony still has 3 frames of almost solid brood and larva to stabilize with. New split (003) was moved to the Niagara property.
Split (001) was moved to the Corona property along side the mother colony.
Split (030) was opened and checked for queen cell progress. The queen cell is now capped and the queen should be emerging in the next few days. This split is about 5 days behind the normal expected queen cell timeline. A few numbers of the brood in this split were killed by cold temperatures. It is my fear that this queen cell may too have been damaged by the cold weather. I will check the cell for a hatched queen in 4 days. If no queen has emerged, then we will reseed with a new frame of eggs.
Colony Split (01), Mother Colony(28-29), was opened and checked for queen cells. The colony was split one week ago on 03-14. Three queen cells were found. No more inspections will be performed until later in development cycle. Hive should be moved soon to appropriate breeding yard.
Colony Split (30), Mother Colony(28-29), was checked for queen cells. Colony was started one week prior on 03-07. Only one queen cells was found. No more inspections will be performed until further along in development cycle. Hive is located next to mother colony.
Mother Colony (28-29) was split with 2 frames of brood and 3 resource frames from other died off colonies was created. This new queen-less colony (01) was moved over to the Niagara property.
Winter is slowly in the decline with occasional rain instead of snow on the forecast. As this is Colorado, I am sure we will still be seeing some low temperatures and snow. But in the meantime, the bees are out and collecting Pollen.
Late winter into early spring can be very difficult for the bees. Specifically in the weeks of warm weather but before we get into the nectar flow, the bees will need supplemental feeding.
Our colony has made it through the harsh low temperatures. To find them starving out mere weeks before the spring nectar flow would be a tragedy. So the best thing to do is put out sugar water mixed with a bit of pollen and perhaps some health promoting additives and get them some food. Even if you do not own bees, feeding the wild population of bees is tremendously helpful.
These are not all my bees but rather probably from a nearby wild colony in the neighborhood.
Mother Colony (28-29) is packed full of bees. We decided to begin making splits early. 3 frames of brood and open eggs were taken with 2 frames of resources into a 5 frame NUC (30).
Total number of viable colonies has now been reduced to 6. All colonies on the campus berm have perished. I am now considering moving the hive stands from the berm to a less exposed area. We lost all 7 colonies which were located on the berm. A new location is most certainly warranted.
The colony at officer Ed’s property and the polk building property are still viable and very healthy.
We also lost one of the Warre hives at the Niagara property. This loss was a complicated one. I learned a few lessons from this problem.
I opened the hive on a nice day and suddenly discovered that this colony was extremely weak on the very edge of collapse. I could immediately see the queen and that she had been laying eggs. However there were only approximately 45 worker bees with her. One more cold evening and the colony would have certainly failed.
I caged the queen and moved her and the workers to a 3 frame Nuc box. I took one frame of brood and nurse bees from a stronger hive and combined them. I then smoked the box extensively. There was a problem though. The candy plug I put into the queen cage was not secured. The queen escaped prematurely and I found here being attacked and balled about 15 minutes later. I rescued the queen and caged the queen again and checked back the next day.
The next day the queen was released. She was working the brood frame had begun to lay new eggs. I assumed that we were in the clear and that she was doing just fine with the new bees. However, a quick check the following day revealed that she had died or was attacked again and was on the bottom of the hive.
So what did we learn from this queen death. I should be far more careful about queen rejection when combining bees from different colonies. It is possible that this queen was not viable and that is why the foreign workers killed her off but she was laying eggs and appeared to be a viable queen. So I probably just screwed up the introduction of new workers to strengthen the hive. More care is needed with queens and new bees.
Also, the small 10watt heater did not do anything to keep these bees strong during the cold winter nights.
Corona property hives were quickly inspected. External entrance activity between the two hives is greatly different. Both hives show activity and are viable with queens. Hive (28-29) over wintered with 2 deep 8 frame brood boxes. Colony (25) overwintered with only 1 deep, 8 frame box.
Colony (28-29) is packed full of bees in both boxes. The Queen is laying across at least 3 deep frames. Signs of drone brood are present but no drones were seen. This hive does not show any signs of remaining nectar or honey resources. Supplemental carbohydrate was given immediately. Also pollen supplements were added.
We will consider splitting this colony well in advance of drones and spring nectar flow. Our concern is that this colony, when it chooses to split during the normal spring season, will swarm without much warning.
In comparison, Hive (25) contains only about 5 frames of bees and queen laying is far less. The hive is still viable and should launch into spring very well. However the difference is quite startling between the two hives. Hive still also contains at least 3 frames of resources on the outer boundaries of the active cluster. This hive does not need any supplemental carbohydrates. I would supplement with pollen.
