Mystery Queen

Every once in a while a bee will fly in completely covered in neon yellow pollen.

I opened hive #1 today to find no sign of the queen cell. It is as if it had never existed. If the queen cell was a desperate attempt to requeen I will not know if it worked for 5 days after the disappearance of the queen cell, which is approximately how long it would take a virgin queen to mate and settle in to egg laying.
Everything I have read says that a queen cell on the edge of a comb is a swarm queen, but there is no way this colony is preparing to swarm. They just do not have the mass of bees it would take. Or they've gone completely of  the deep end.

I am very concerned that there is something wrong with this hive. I finally pulled a couple bars back to try and locate some brood or eggs and found a few cells with larva but the cells looked dry and all the cells that were capped around them were drone cells. If the queen is only laying drone eggs that is bad news.

I started this endeavor believing that the bees know best. But I am realizing that the cost of finding out if this is true is the possible loss of this hive. I guess I need to be O.K. with that or I need to seriously consider introducing a new queen.

This is a comb they began building a month ago and they have never finished it. This was my first clue that things may not be going right. They should be building comb like crazy for the impending nectar flow.

But for now I will wait a week to see if there is an increase in population and I will check then for more progress on the brood.
I have put in a syrup jar and a pollen patty to help things along.

If it doesn't look better by July 1st I will think about taking drastic measures by introducing a comb of brood from hive #2 so they can raise a queen if they need one.

Straight Comb in Top Bar Hive #2

Four weeks have gone by and Hive #2 has been busy building comb. They have filled up 10 bars with beautiful straight combs, so I feel confident in celebrating the fact that something I did was right.
The trouble is that I have done a couple things different than hive #1 and I will never really know which one or two things worked.

This is the early version of my new bar design. It has a deeper cardboard strip. I have since taken the hint when the bees chewed it down to suit themselves and trimmed them all from a 1/2" to a 1/4" deep. I was happy to see that the bees built supporting comb up to the wood bar. At first it seemed they were going to just build the comb on the edge of the cardboard strip, which would not be good as the comb became large and heavy with honey or brood.

I feel pretty good about recommending my new bar design though, because I have put a couple of the new bars into hive #1 and they are building straight comb on them, in spite of the fact that the comb next to the new bar is crooked.

The queen cell looks a little like the shell of a peanut

I am a little concerned about hive #1. They seem to have a new queen in the making and I don't really understand why. In theory they were left with a new healthy queen when the hive swarmed, twice.
I can only guess what is going on is that the queen they were left with did not get mated because of the really poor weather we have been having, or she was effected by the mite population.
I opened the hive yesterday to find only healthy bees- no wing deformities at all and a queen cell on the edge of the outermost comb that was not there last week. I will be keeping a very sharp eye on them.

Mites in the Hive

I was very alarmed to find a drone scuttling around in the grass under the hive the other day. That in itself is not an unusual event. Drones are expendable and are often unceremoniously tipped out the door of the hive when more room/food/cells are needed.

These were full drone cells last week, now they are cleaned out and being used.I am watching to see what develops here. Drone cells are very attractive to mites, so drones are commonly higher in mite infestations.

What was alarming was the comparatively giant Varroa Mite that was hanging on the belly of the drone. Seriously, if that mite was on my belly it would be the size of a small cat!
I took these pictures and then went on the search for what to do.

Mite is circled, click to enlarge this photo

 I have found this series of videos from the Florida State University on bee diseases to be concise and exceptional in their information content. Every time I watch one I learn something new.

I found a few other up to date sources on the web that also confirmed that screened bottoms are the way to go. My hives already have screened bottoms.

The next thing to do, it seems, is to make some "grease patties".  Here is a recipe I adapted from a much larger recipe from the West Virginia University (go here for a pdf with more detailed direction on the type of salt and where to place patties). I cut the recipe down because I didn't need enough for 10 hives.

That's "wintergreen oil" last on the list

The sugar and salt encourage the bees to eat the pattie. The oil in it gets on the bee's hairs and makes it difficult to hold onto for the mites.

 It also has wintergreen oil in it which is supposed to upset the mites and cause them to run around, increasing the chances that they will fall off the bees and through the screened bottom, never to be seen again.  

Caution: do not add more wintergreen oil than this. It will cause the bees to attack and kill the queen because they will not be able to smell her. In this recipe, more is not better. Also do not follow older recipes which advocate antibiotics being added. New studies have shown this only harms the bees in the long run by making anything the antibiotic treats, resistant.

 

I didn't even try to stir this stuff with a spoon, it's just too stiff. I just squished it in my hands like play dough, scraping the bottom several times in the process.

Grease pattie the size of a small hamburger.

You can see the screened bottom of the hive here. I had a syrup feeder in the hive so I replaced the jar with the grease pattie and put one on the side for good measure.

Only time will tell if this is an effective method for my top bar hives.

I am keeping a close eye on them. I am on the fence about using anything stronger to deal with the mites. There are a few more organic methods to use. But the danger is in Fall when the bee population drops for winter and mite populations spike. I have heard several accounts of seemingly healthy hives suddenly being a dead pile of bees, and apparently this is the number one sign of a critical Varroa Mite infestation.

The livestock salt from the feed store is too coarse for the grease patties so you have to whurr it up in a blender.

 I am hoping that the mites only achieved a foothold in the first place because of the stress the hive was under from of the very wet spring/summer we are having, and that as the weather improves and the bees now are not so crowded (because they swarmed twice) they will become healthy enough overcome the mites again.

Drone next to the mite

 Apparently all hives have mites these days. But it's all about how many mites they have that determines the health of the hive.