Guilfordbeekeepers.org

I thought I would give an update of my hives status.
The highlights include all of the pollen patties given 2 weeks ago have been consumed or stored.
All hives that were alive 2 weeks ago are still alive. All but 2 are growing nicely.
One hive has queen cells. The population doesn't justify swarm cells but they are definitely in the swarming location ( bottom of bars.) One hive has queen cups. Nothing in them yet.
My little 5 frame medium nuc overwintered better than some of my hives. It will undoubtedly need to be supersized in the next 2 weeks.
I fed them all pollen patties today and will have to feed them sugar syrup in the next few days.

Kurt

I went into my one hive of my "hopefuls" today. Two deeps with 7 or 8 frames of bees each, from looking down from the top. I didn't remove any frames. Two supers of honey, about 40 lbs. each. Gave them the third pollen patty of the year.

Very happy with what I saw......C'MON, SPRING

Just went back into the hives today to see where they have progressed. Three hives a still churning along at their own pace (which is not what I want them to do. They must have missed my monthly meeting last month). But two of the hives are splitting the seams. I had 10 or more capped over drone cells in one. In that same hive the queen has laid wall to WALL and top to bottom. Didn't see any queen cells nor the forming of any for later use. Very, very happy. They must have attended the last meeting. The other booming hive was full of bees with the queen laying about 75% of the frames full. No drone cells at all but LOTS o' bees. These two hives will be definite splits soon. Boy I wish I had an extra queen right now. I figure I will be having drones in the next 5 days or so with the one hive. No matter what I give or try with the other three they don't want to get with the program....

Spring build up questions. One of my hives today had 2-3 lbs of bees on the outside, buzzing their wings, drones are out. After opening the hive, it was full of bees. I figured they were thinking of splitting the hie. I did not see any swarm cells but it is too early for the hive to hot.

Is this the behavior for overcrowding? Anyway, I took the suggestion and split the hive. I hope this is the correct thin to do...

Suggestions?

I would have suggested splitting or adding a box. Now I would suggest checking them in 7 to 8 days and which ever one has queen cells, put it in the original location and the other in the new location.

Thanks Wally, I guess I did the right thing. I took 4 frames from the brood into a new box, left six with 4 new frames in the one from last year.

I did have a new honey super as well on the existing one. Being new to this...I never have seen so many bees in one existing brood chamber and one existing honey super for the winter.

After 7-8 days, how far should I move the new split in the new box???

I have both the plastic frames (in another box) and all wax in these...it seems the wax is better than the plastic. This box has plenty of bees but not nearly as active as this brood.

Kurt mentioned this was the time of year to split and I am glad I came home a bit early today. (must get a bee suit as well. they were mad...)

You didn't say if you found the queen. If you didn't, you won't know which half of the split has her until one box builds queen cells. The half of the split with the queen cells should go in the original hive location. The half with the queen should be the one moved. It only needs to be moved 3 or 4 feet from the original location, but can be moved any distance you want.

As for the plastic, I can't give you a fair answer. I am too old fashioned to try many new ideas. Wax works great and I go with the old saying, "don't fix what ain't broke". I don't use plastic. Not even duracell, which is wax coated plastic.

I looked for the queen but did not see her. One reason is once I started to get to the brood chamber the hive "boiled" over with bees....even with lots of smoke they were tremendous. it was all I could do to split the hive (I am buying a suit!). Between the boilover , a million of mad bees on me, I could not find her.

It was a experience and boy no one in the begineer class from two years ago said "wait to you split a hive."

This morning the existing hive is active and the new hive seems o.k. as well. Hopefully both will be o.k. This evening I will check.

Plastic came with the beginner kit recommended from the class. They don't seem to like a combination of different frames...either wax in a hive, or plastic.

You are correct about mixing frames of wax and plastic in the same box. It doesn't work well. You can mix boxes, tho. A box of wax frames and a box of plastic frames will work.

I wouldn't go into them until the 7th or 8th day after splitting. At that time, one should have queen cells.

You don't need a suit. Just call it free apitherapy treatments.

They seem fine this evening. There is no signs of what I saw yesterday.

Now Wally, you experienced guys may not wear protective gear but I know first hand what happens when a bee stings your forehead. My children and wife laughed at me for days.

When a hive is split like this do the existing bees use a existing cell to work out a queen cell?? Otherwise how is a queen cell produced and royal jelly added as well as a egg?

Hopefully, you made sure there was a frame with eggs in the split when you made it. They have to have a newly hatched larva to make a queen cell with. All larva are fed royal jelly for the first few days. The bees have to have one of the new larva that hasn't been switched off the royal jelly in order to make a queen cell. If there are no queen cells in 7 days, you will have to take a frame from the original hive that has eggs and add it to the split.