Exploring the World of Bees…
The 4 split colonies from Corona property were moved to GG. Also the one swarm capture from Officer Ed’s property was moved to GG. One Gallon of sugar water was put in feeder for new colonies.
NUC (001) – GG Yellow
NUC (003) – GG Orange
EDswarm – GG Pine
NUC (030) – GG Blue
NUC(026) – GG Green
Hive at Officer Ed’s property cast a swarm which returned immediately to the hive body. I am not certain if this was a mating flight or if this was simply a swarm. This cluster of bees and queen was captured and put into a the Pine hive body at GG. Subsequently we were able to identify by the Bee’s behavior that this queen was mated and producing pheromones.
Upon opening the main hive body, approximately 4 other unhatched queens were found and an unmated queen was also found. The unmated queen was moved along with a few frames of bees to the Corona property for mating. These bees were put into a 5 frame NUC (001).
Nectar is the second resource which bees require for survival. Nectar is the essential carbohydrate source which bees use to fuel all their activity and reproduction. Nectar which is later transformed into honey is what the bees use to survive the long winter months and periods of dearth.
In early spring the bee colonies are coming out of a period of dormancy and are looking for new sources of pollen and nectar. Early spring is a risky time for bee colonies as they are increasing their daily caloric requirements but do not yet have a nectar flow to harvest. Dandelions are the first sign of a nectar flow in the Denver area and bees are quick to harvest the resource.
Maybe we should think twice before removing this valuable source of nectar. We should most certainly stop using herbicides to destroy these nectar sources.
Corona property mother colony (028-029) was opened and inspected. The queen was found and caged. The colony is doing extremely well but no swarm cells were seen. A 2 frame split was performed and put in 5 frame NUC, (030).
A single frame of all capped brood was moved without bees into the smaller adjoining hive (025). This colony has a viable queen but the numbers are still lagging behind. This frame of brood should increase the numbers substantially.
The 4 splits made at the Corona property should be mated. Some should be laying. A quick inspection revealed that all 4 boxes contain queens and 3 of the boxes have eggs. These hives will be moved the GG rooftop tomorrow.
Split (027) from Officer Ed’s property had failed. The bees did not have enough food resources to survive. The bees starved in the last run of below freezing weather.
Pollen is one of two different resources which bees require for survival. The pollen is the raw protein source which bees need to build new baby bees. In early spring pollen begins to come into the hive at an astonishing rate. The bees spent the entire winter surviving inside the hive living off of the nectar stores. Now that spring has arrived the bees despretly need more nectar and pollen to start the colony baby bee production back up.
Queen-right Colony Split (009), sourced from Officer Ed’s hive box was moved over to the campus berm. The 5 frame NUC was emptied out into a full size 10 Frame deep with super (018). The super access was blocked. The queen looked good. The 5 frames were full of resources and eggs/larva.
Once a new queen has emerged in the colony she is not yet ready to lay eggs. The queen must take a mating flight and mate with several drones. The queen will then return to the hive and begin to ley eggs. The process of mating flights and subsequent ovary development can take approximately 13 days. Several things like weather can interfere with the mating flights. Also a queen may take several test flights before the actual mating flight.
Once a queen is mated and her ovaries are developed, she begins to produce pheromones. The other worker bees are extremely keyed into this pheromone. You can see a huge difference in the attention that the worker bees are giving to these two different queens. One queen has been mated and her ovaries are developed while the other is not.
Corona St. Splits were opened and inspected for queens. Queen-less Split (001), started on March 14, mother colony (28-29) was inspected. The split still has good resources and queen is present. No eggs.
Queen-less Split (003), started on March 23, mother colony (28-29) has emerged. The queen appeared to be in excellent condition and the split has excellent resouces and unhatched brood. No Eggs. Several of the queen cells were destroyed by the queen. However one un-molested queen cell was found. This frame was moved to a new box, (009). Two frames of bees were moved from this split (003) into the new NUC (009). There were more than enough bees in split (003) for this split of a split.
Queen-less Split (030), started on March 7, mother colony (28-29) was examined. The colony has good resources but no Eggs yet.
Queen-less Split (026), started on March 14, mother colony (28-29) was inspected. The queen looks much improved since the day she emerged. The color of the queen has filled in and she is much larger in size. The box has good resources and numbers of bees. No Eggs seen.
Queen-less split (027), started on March 31, mother colony “Officer Ed” was not inspected. These smaller 3 frame NUC boxes are so tight in their construction that damaging the queen cells would be inevitable. We will check back next week for an emerged queen.
Corona St. hives were top inspected. The 2 mother colonies (028-029) and (025) looked in good health from the exterior. Good numbers of bees and resources still coming in a t a regular pace.
Colony (028-029) was briefly opened and only 2 frames were pulled. Two frames which were added last week after a split were now full of eggs and larva.
Colony (025) was only examined from the top and the number of bees while weak is a bit stronger compared to the last inspection. We will perform a more thorough inspection next week to make sure the queen is still laying and the colony is still viable.
