Newbie questions - variety of topics

[reedyfork]

Hi everyone - I am brand new to beekeeping and to this forum! I have two urban Greensboro hives located on a second-floor flat roof deck near UNCG, and just picked up my packages from Beez Needz this past Saturday morning. As far as I can tell, everything went well and all are happy. Only got stung once - right on the lip...

A few initial questions for the experts:

1. I was out of town for the mite/pest/disease class. Do I need to be doing anything right now for mites, beetles, etc.?
2. Do I need to be feeding them anything other than sugar-water (pollen patties or similar)?
3. I did remove the packages from the hives on Sunday, after about 30 hrs. There was a group of bees that were still tightly balled up on/around the queen cage, so I felt like maybe she hadn't been released yet and decided to close it up, wait, and come back later. I was planning to do that tomorrow, but the weather is supposed to be cool, cloudy, and maybe a bit of rain. Question - when is it considered warm enough to open the hive up? I hate to keep waiting in case there's a problem and I need to release her myself or something.

Thanks!

Ron

[Jacobs]

Welcome to the forum.

1. For now, you just want to get your hives going and make sure the queens are functioning well. If your hives are getting plenty of sun, this will help keep SHB numbers down. Keeping your hives strong and not giving them too much room to patrol is the most important control factor for the beetles. The adults don't do the harm, their larvae cause the fermentation of honey and conditions that can cause a hive to abscond.

For now, you don't have to do anything about mites. The package/caged queen situation creates a period of brood interruption where mites have no place to reproduce. THIS WILL NOT LAST. Once you have drawn comb and a decent area of brood, the mites will have what they need to reproduce. Even with first year packages, you will need to monitor for varroa and take appropriate action when (probably not if) they reach threshold.

2. There should be plenty of natural pollen for the bees now so feeding sugar water should be fine. If the bees slow down taking sugar water once the nectar flow begins, feed them less. Be prepared to start back feeding when the flow stops, around June 1st. Your bees can easily starve during our summer dearth.

3. I installed packages on Saturday. I am planning on checking for queen releases on Wednesday afternoon. It is supposed to be in the high 60's then, and that will be 4 days after installing. Most of the time the bees will have released a queen by 4 days, but it can take longer. If they have shown no interest in releasing her, look for eggs/queen on your drawn comb. Sometimes the people shaking packages miss the queen and shake her in with the bees. 65F+, sunny & little wind is best for not chilling brood, but I would not wait for that to check on the queen release.

We hope you will keep posting with questions and observations. The more we hear from folks, the more information we have about local beekeeping conditions.

[Wally]

Like Jacobs says, except I wait 7 days before opening the hive after installing a package. Then I only open it long enough to find eggs. I leave it closed for 10 or more days after finding eggs. Don't worry about checking it before the weather warms. Checking too often is much worse than checking too seldom when first installed.

[reedyfork]

Great - thank you both! It's really hard to be patient when you can't see what's going on inside that box...

One other amateur lesson learned: I'm using an all-medium set-up, and discovered the white plastic package does not fit inside a medium super!!! I did start to panic for a second, but remembered I had already bought a couple of extra medium supers that I was able to put on empty over top of the first one.

[Wally]

I do hope you replaced all missing frames Sunday. You NEVER want to leave empty space in a hive more than a day during comb drawing season.

[reedyfork]

Yes, I sure did. I removed the empty packages, set them out beside the hive (for another 24 hrs), and put the missing frames back in the bottom super. My biggest challenge was trying to figure out how to do everything without squashing bees! Even putting the frames in and moving them around seemed like a really hard thing to do with all the bees in the way.

[reedyfork]

YEAH! I opened up both hives on Wed evening and found both queens released. I'm using 10-frame medium supers, and there were ~ 5 frames in each hive that had drawn comb. Most of the cells seemed to be filled with clear liquid (guessing sugar water/nectar), while some were darker in color. I didn't notice anything capped yet. Plenty of bees carrying pollen, and several bee "butts" sticking up at me with their heads down in the cells (I assume cleaning them out for egg-laying?). I was so excited to find the queens that I have no idea whether I would have seen eggs/larvae or not - I was more interested in getting everything closed back up that I forgot to examine more closely for eggs... Everything seemed like it was going well, so hopefully I'm in good shape.

When do I check again, and what should I be expecting to see?

[Jacobs]

Give it about 10 days before opening the hives again and when you do, look for eggs, larvae, and some capped brood. Until then watch to see if the bee flights seem purposeful and if you see a steady supply of pollen coming in on the back legs of foragers. Although not 100% certain, steady pollen is a strong indicator that the nurse bees are calling for pollen to make bee bread for feeding brood.

[reedyfork]

My bees have been crazy-active since I found the queens last Wed! Constant, purposeful flights in and out all day. I'd say every 4th or 5th bee comes back with full pollen baskets.

My plan was to open things up this coming weekend (10 days after seeing queens released) to check for eggs, larvae, and/or capped brood. At what point will I want/need to add another super? I am using an all-medium, 10-frame setup. I am feeding them sugar syrup and pollen patties, and when I checked on the 3rd, about half the frames had drawn comb. Do I wait until this weekend, do I add it now, or does that come later?

Thanks again to Rob and Wally for all the help and advice!

[Jacobs]

If you are using 10 frame equipment, when 8 of 10 are drawn out, move the 2 undrawn frames to just beside the brood frames, 1 on either side of the brood, AND add the next super with frames to be drawn. If you put the 2nd super on before the majority of frames below are drawn, the bees will tend to "chimney" or draw comb up above (where they like it) and neglect to draw comb in the 1st super or the 2nd out toward the sides (where we want them to).

You should be ok waiting until the weekend to check the brood and to see if you need to add a super.

[LeahD]

I had lots of the same questions- thanks everyone for asking and answering!