Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You.

I checked in with my backyard hive the other day, expecting to find them busily working on drawing new foundation and storing nectar. They were doing that (see above), but...

...apparently they are working on some side projects as well.  Dang!  This is the fancy pants Russian hygienic queen I bought last year.  Multiple capped and uncapped swarm cells in the middle brood box (I use all 8 frame westerns).  

Here is a queen larvae swimming in a bath of royal jelly.  And WOW, my gloves are dirty!

Here is another surprise for me.  Look closely...

Multiple varroa mites in a single drone cell.  I check the mite board on this hive regularly, and I have counted maybe one mite in the last few weeks.  But scrape open the drone cells and it's a different story.  This highlights the importance of monitoring and testing for varroa beyond just visual inspections of a mite board.  

It's not all doom and gloom though.  The bees and brood look good and they are bringing in loads of nectar and pollen.  Swarm season is upon us! I hope this queen stays.

Today in the Apiary...

...

...I marveled at how many bees there were (and how much I love my gloves)...

...scolded myself for letting the syrup run out of the top feeder...

...reluctantly treated another hive for mites....

...checked to see that my new local queen was released and happy...

...and she was...

...and wondered how in the world this particular hive continues to build wax in the wrong place.

Overall, a good day.

There Are Two Queens In My Hive

This weekend my bees discovered the joys of reading Dan Savage.  I can't argue with them, I love the guy too.  But let's back up a bit...

I recently acquired the space to start a new apiary in South Corvallis.  I moved two hives from other places here last week.  This is going to be an interesting place to have bees - they grow lots of chinese medicinal herbs here, in addition to blackberries, blueberries, and tons of vegetables.  

The bees in Green (H1) have been going nuts lately.  So much so that I needed to reduce their population in the feeble hope of reducing the likelihood of swarming.  

Look how covered this one is with pollen!  

I grabbed a variety of frames from Green and put them in a new box on top of Blue, which had a smaller population (and only two brood boxes).  When equalizing hives you try to transfer as many nurse bees as you can, spray them a bit with sugar syrup, and separate this box of strangers from their new colony with a layer of newspaper.  By the time they chew through the paper they should be fairly acclimated to the smells and order of their new hive.

Hence Mr. Savage is in my hive, probably having his face chewed on by hundreds of bees as we speak.  He has probably written about bee fetishes, don't you think?

Green and Blue have cute apiary buddies now, too...