Category: Bee Keeping Journal

3+ inches of snow fell overnight. I moved the queen starter colonies into the garage for the next 48 hours. I made sure that some of the mini-Nucs had sugar water. I am not sure if they will all have survived. I also moved the swarm catch from Saturday into the garage.

At approximately 3pm a swarm like group of bees took to the air. However the size of the swarm looked smaller than usual and less organized. The swarm did not go very far or very high in the air. The swarm landed on a hive stand just 20 feet away. I assume this was a mating flight. The ball of bees was very small and I could not find a queen. The bees went into the cardboard box and then the box was placed back at the mother hive where they all returned.

Carniolan bee package was picked up from ToBeeOrNotToBee, sourced from C F Koehnen & Sons on May 18, 8:30am. Package was installed using the normal method at approximately 10:15am with cloudy overcast skies and temperatures in the upper 50s. The queen was in good health and sequestered using the marshmallow plug. Colony has started in a 10 frame deep brood box with 1 frame of honey/nectar from WildCA18B colony. This Colony will be Koehnen19A.

The most easterly swarm catcher on campus has a colony inside. A quick check showed circling bees around the swarm catcher and bee traffic at the entrance. I lowered the swarm catcher and closed the openings. The swarm was brought home and the bees were installed into a plastic Nuc box temporarily. Bees were given 5 frames with foundation. Only one of the frames is partially drawn out with wax. The queen was found and caged with cork. I am in the process of building another Nuc box. Colony Labeled WildCA19A.

WildCA1819A and WildCA1819B were opened and inspected. WildCA1819B has eggs, larva, capped brood and a good looking queen. Numbers are in a lull but that is normal as the new round of hatching brood has not yet emerged. Temperament is still aggressive as old queen genetics are still present. WildCA1819B has eggs, larva and capped brood, no queen seen. Numbers are as expected, new brood has not yet emerged.

WildCA18B, ApisCA19A, ApisCA19B were inspected. All hive activity looks normal. ApisCA19A and ApisCA19B have not yet put any nectar stores into the honey super frames. WildCA18B has had 3 total honey/nectar frames removed and given to other colonies for starting purposes. WildCA18B still has queen cups present.

Wild1719A was given a second stacked Nuc box to grow into. One drawn out frame was put into each Nuc box. The queen which has been caged for the past few days was released into the colony.

I received a call from the campus operations desk. A swarm had been spotted on the north berm approximately 100 feet from my hive stands. The swarm was located on a bush directly east along the berm. The hive box where I installed the Wild17 swarm from Sunday May 12 had decided to leave the box. I was able to retrieve the swarm and find the queen. I caged the queen. We will replace her with the newest mated queen that we produce from the mating Nucs. I also took 2 mixed brood and nectar frames from WILDCA18B and gave them to the swarm.

In hindsight, I should have known this would happen. I took a newly swarmed set of bees, sequestered them for only 24 hours. Then I turned them loose in a box with nothing to anchor them in place. The hive box was newly built and the frames had zero drawn comb. The queen was not in a cage. So they just got up and left. The comb that was drawn over the 3 days was deep enough for eggs but no eggs had been laid. There were a few bits of nectar and pollen stored. Always give them some resources to work. Find and cage the queen if possible.

The bees were much more calm this time. No bee protection was needed and no smoke was used.

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.

WildCA18A at Niagara was treated with oxalic acid, 2 caps, 10 minutes. Hive was not opened. Normal entrance activity observed.

Wild17 at Niagara was treated with oxalic acid, 2 caps, 10 minutes. Hive was not opened. Normal entrance activity observed.

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.