So seven days had passed since Hernan and I had installed the two new Russian queens. After a nerve-wracking week of wondering whether or not they'd been released, it was time to take a look. (The squashed bee on top of the frame is one reason for general anxiety when working the hives. One false move and you can easily kill the queen.) Here you can see the queen cage in hive Boris. The candy end had been completely eaten through. A bee is seen cleaning out remnants. The queen had been released!
In Hive Natasha the queen cage had fallen from the frames. Fortunately it landed bottom-up, and the screened bottom board caught it, too. This candy end also had been eaten through, so that queen had been released. So far, so good. I worked the hives to clean them up a bit and remove the cages.
I put the cages at the entrance so that any bees inside could find their way back out. I'd read that in a book. However I quickly discovered that remnants of Her Majesty's pheromone was enough to set off a bit of robbing, as bees from Natasha quickly flew over to see what the good smells were about. The ones who did met their demise thanks to Boris' guards. For Hive Natasha I just blew any bees out of the cage. No more robbing.
This end frame had been drawn out on one side and filled with syrup honey. There were more bees than I'd remembered in Natasha. She seems to be doing well, regardless of my worries about only seeing a bee or two at a time at her entrance.
Hive Boris' numbers also seemed to have leveled off. This original hive had many more bees on it immediately after our requeening efforts a week prior. Now the two hives seemed closer in strength, more even, though Boris still has more bees.
In the following eight days I built and readied more frames. This time I used old-fashioned crimpwire with 100% beeswax. Bees love this stuff, and take to it in no time, is what they told us in Bee School. I had to make 14 of these total, to combine with my four frames of drawn comb I'd harvested and readied a few weeks prior, to make 18 frames (nine each for each hive addition).
In these past two weeks I've become convinced that one of the most important things we can do as beekeepers is, "First, do no harm." I always prepare a mental game-plan for my inspections. Now, I'm going to do only what's necessary to achieve that and nothing more. I'm also going to learn how to read a hive without even opening it. Minimizing risks and trusting the bees to do their jobs seems to be a perfect approach to me. Less is more. Hive Boris was looking good, even stronger than before and was moderately calm.
I found a good many bees and evidence that the new queen was laying, as capped brood was found. I quickly put things back in order and moved on to Hive Natasha.
A fair number of bees greeted me in the new hive, and her demeanor was calm.
One end frame totally capped with syrup honey. They are busy laying up stores for the winter. Only one side of this frame had been drawn and used, so I flipped it when I returned it to the hive to encourage them to work the other side.
And another honey frame. Both sides full and capped. Wow, these deep frames were H-E-A-V-Y! Each hive needs to store up about 60 pounds of honey for the winter.
And a third honey frame in Natasha. Where's the brood and eggs? Uh-oh. Was this hive queenless?
On the fifth frame I found what I came looking for: capped brood. I could hear the choir of angels singing. The new queen had laid these eggs. It had been 15 days since I'd requeened. In the life cycle of the honeybee, it takes 21 days for the worker bee to go from egg to larvae to pupae to emerged bee. In that time, it takes nine days to go from new uncapped egg to a capped larvae or "brood" on the comb. It had been 15 days since the split, so all brood on those frames we put in Natasha had hatched. Only new eggs would be capped brood. Both Boris and Natasha with their new queens had capped brood. Success!!!
Deeper into Natasha showed that her strength had greatly increased since she'd been started.
I took the four empty honey frames I'd spun out, and placed them in the center of Natasha's second box. This gives them a jump-start, as the queen can start laying right away in those frames. The sooner the better, so this new hive can get up to full strength before winter comes.
The still wet honey frames quickly attracted attention from below.
I also converted a beetle trap into an inside-the-hive pollen feeder. I removed every other rung on this trap with a Xacto blade. Natasha's bees immediately loved the fresh pollen gift I gave them.
I cleaned out both top feeders. I must say that the plastic two-gallon top feeder is wonderful. Hose it down to quickly clean. Any bees underneath it seem to not mind as I clean the top side. I love my plastic top feeders and so do the bees!
Fresh syrup was given to both hives and bees quickly climbed up to feed.
Boris is looking good. The numbers outside the hive have been growing.
As has little new hive Natasha. It's not a ton outside, but it's far more than the none or one bee I'd seen in the previous weeks. She's off to a great start!
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