Waxed Abdomen

Saturday was a great day to open the hives. I spent about an hour with them, and they were all in such a mellow mood, that Isaiah and Cheri came down without any protection and looked at all there was to see.

My first swarm with the old queen, the Celestial hive, has built some wax on nine of the ten frames. Beautiful snow white wax, filled with clear liquid: the hive interior sparkles. Though I looked, I didn't see evidence of eggs, nor the queen herself, but the hive certainly appeared ordered. It may be that the eggs were simply hard to spot; it may be that, after losing weight to get in flying trim in order to swarm the queen is still trying to regain laying ability. If I had to estimate, I'd figure they've built wax to fill about a quarter of the deep.

Their entire feeder box had fermented. Good to remember: do not overfeed! I dumped out the sugar solution. Many of the bees on the feeder, though, stayed for several hours. I was amazed to actually see the wax flakes emerging from their abdomens! Little white plates that they will perfectly place in order to form their hexagonal living space. Incredible.

From the first swarm, I went next to the Daffodil nuc, the last swarm, the Resurrection Sunday swarm. Despite their inferior numbers, they are producing a very superior hive. They've finished about a third of their five frames, and I am hopeful that they will soon need a full-sized space of their own. I saw the little eggs, newly laid, and Isaiah spotted the queen. I'm not sure she has her laying mechanism quite right, as it looked like some cells had two eggs in them, but perhaps that's a challenge to regulate your first day. I even saw some of the foragers do their waggle dance: the figure eight with a wiggle that the workers use to tell each other the location of forage.

My second swarm, Damaris, was also looking good. With about 60% of the frames filled, I put another level on. The queen's eggs were perfectly placed, and Isaiah spotted that queen, too. It's such a privilege to see the queens, and to have the bees so focused on work, not at all stressed or irritated: what a joy.

The original hive, now with a new queen, has not built up into the super at all. When I pulled frames on the lowest level, it made sense: there are many drones hanging out, presumably eating. There wasn't much food in the bottom deep. The second deep was heavier, but I had fiddled with the frames in the bottom deep so long, and with so much jostling due to propolis (the sticky substance the bees use to fill cracks in the hive: to take out frames, the beekeeper needs to cut through it, and it takes some effort), the bees changed their hum. They were agitated.

So I quit poking around, and began a varroa mite treatment for that hive. If three to five mites die naturally per day (which I can monitor on my white tray at the bottom of the hive), it's time to treat. I had a day with 12 dead, and another day this week with only two or three, but on balance, I think the varroa load is more than I want.

I like the formic acid treatment (MiteAwayII is the name of the product). The bees produce formic acid naturally, so to use a little more concentrated product does not harm them (well: it might harm a day or two's worth of brood, but better lose a day or two of brood than an entire colony). It doesn't store in the wax, and over the week of treatment it kills off the varroa. Within four hours, I found 60 dead mites on my tray. To think that all of those would lay multiple babies who would have matured in 12 days: disgusting.

So this was my favorite beekeeping day yet. I saw some new things, enjoyed the company of the bees and queens, and appreciated their incredible efforts, building hives out of almost nothing. What industrious, sweet colonies they are, and how much they enrich the farm.