Nectar cells.

HIVE CHECK     "Hunter Hive"      7/20/2019

Clear day. Moderate temperature.


Before going into the hive, I assembled the supplies needed for a mite check.

Smoker and mite check supplies.

I had such a hard time the last couple of times I worked with the smoker. Using pine needles, newspaper, and twigs just wasn't working. I was pretty frustrated when the smoker kept going out and I had to repeatedly relight it.  I broke down and bought burlap since that's supposed to maintain the smoke better. I got the burlap from Amazon.

 I opened up the top super. Notice the empty super to the right. As I check frames, I'll put them in the empty super.

Frame with nectar.

Capped honey.

Close up of capped honey.

Nectar

Nectar frame.

All the frames from the top super have been transferred to the extra super which had been set to the side.

The next order of business was to check to check the bottom super. 

Nectar frame.

Nectar and pollen cells, with some capped honey in the upper right corner.

Empty comb cells.

Pollen cells.

Pollen cells circled.

Frame with worker brood and uncapped larvae.

The green circle shows the capped worker brood The orange circle shows larvae.

More capped worker brood, uncapped larvae and pollen.

Having gone through all the frames, it was time for the mite check--which I've never done on my own before. There's multiple ways to do a mite check. I decided to do the powered sugar method.

The supply list:
1/2 cup measure cup
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
container with white bottom
Ball type jar
ring part of lid for Ball jar
screen (large enough to cover jar with a few inches to spare

I prepped the supplies, including having the jar ready without the lid. The instructions I had said to not use a ton of smoke to keep the bees from running around.

I put 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar in the ball jar.

Get nurse bees from brood or bee bread frames (they have the most mites). Don't get the queen.

I gently scooped the 1/2 cup measuring scooper, gathering up a 1/2 cup of bees. I gently poured the 1/2 cup of bees into the Ball jar and topped it with the screen and then screwed on the lid ring.


I gently rolled the jar, coating the bees with sugar. It's important not to tip the jar upside down because mites could fall out and affect your mite count.

The bees are coated with the powdered sugar.

Set the jar in the shade to rest for two minutes. Then shake the jar upside down over the white container to shake the mites out. Shake for at least one minute to dislodge any mites from the side of the jar.

You can then return the bees to the hive. I emptied the jar into the white bowl and then scooped the bees into the hive.

It looks like no mites.

I put water in the bowl with the powdered sugar to dissolve it.

Small specks can be mites. I enlarged the photos and the specks don't look like mites to me.

If there had been mites, I would have calculated the percentage of mites per the 300 bees (or 1/2 cup).  If there were more than 3% mites, or more than nine, that may indicate a problem with the hive.

 For now, it looks good.

6/12/19                 HIVE CHECK:  HUNTER HIVE

Clear day with some wind. About 60 degrees F.

It's been too long since my last hive check, but I was out of town and came back pretty sick. I've been pretty much sleeping and recouping.  The hive was packed with bees, though.

As I prepped my tools and smoker, it was apparent this hive check may be more challenging than usual. None of my lighters were working right and I couldn't get the smoker to sustain smoke once I did get it lit. I guess I'll break down and order burlap, since that's supposed to work well in a smoker and I need to find a more reliable lighter.

I opened the hive and worked as fast as I could, since I couldn't smoke the bees. I figured they'd get mad pretty fast, and I was right. Oh yeah, I'm buying burlap and a better lighter. It's challenging to evaluate the status of the hive while being attacked by bees...fortunately, I was suited up and ready for them.

 The lower left side has worker bee brood. The upper right has honey cells. I can't see any eggs or larva. I hope that isn't a bad sign.

 There's a supercedure cell on the lower right side of this pic.

Closeup of the supercedure cell. Is there a new queen in the making?

For info info on various queen cells, visit this link.

Zooming in, I think there may be larva. I was moving so fast since the bees were mad, the pic isn't great. I'm just not sure if the queen is laying.

There's plenty of pollen.

Closeup of yellow and white pollen packed in cells.

Uncapped nectar...not yet dehydrated by the bees fanning their wings. This is future honey!

Capped honey across the frame top.

 There seems to be lots of worker brood. Maybe the queen is alright? I'm just not seeing new eggs and larva, so I'm concerned.

There's a swarm cell partially in the pic at the bottom.

 Another swarm cell.

 Swarm cell close up.

 I added a honey deep super. I put some of the frames from the bottom super into the top and put some empty frames into the pretty full bottom super.

 Top super filled with frames.

I had the hive cover leaning up against the wall. It looks like the bees formed a heart! Maybe they're not mad at me after all.  

:)

 The cacti around the house are blooming at the bees seem to enjoy it.

 

The neighborhood is blooming like crazy, providing lots of pollen--not great for allergies, but perfect for feeding the bees.

"HUNTER HIVE"

5/11/19      Clear skies at time of hive check. 55 degrees F.


There was plenty of pollen coming in.

Opening the hive up, things look good. The girls are busy.

I added some sugar water to the feeder (see above photo--the feeder is between frames in the hive).




I checked the frames. It seems that the queen is laying well.

This pic shows larvae clearly.

There are eggs, with one to each cell. If there were multiple eggs, there would likely be a problem with the queen. It could mean worker bees were laying, as well.  However, with just one egg per cell, it seems that all is well.

It looks like eggs are being laid consistently.

Here's another frame. There's lots of capped worker brood. 

Frames are filling up nicely.

There are plenty of larvae.

Burr comb scrapes off easily with a hive tool.

Now we wait.