The Smell of Hives in the Fall

Fall is here and I find myself reflecting on all the things I was going to do over summer that I never got around to.  This was an unusually hot and dry summer and it was challenging at times to suit up in full sun and do more than general hive inspection.  As a result didn't do all the queen breeding I was hoping to do.  On the plus side I did have a chance to put together a simple solar wax melter that melts wax beautifully.  I'll write up details in a future post.

Looking around the garden I'm seeing leaves starting to pile up and mushrooms popping up everywhere.  The hives are also starting to give off a familiar fall smell as they dry primarily ivy nectar.  I sometimes get asked what ivy nectar tastes like and it tastes just like it smells if you crush a leaf.  I find ivy to be a bit of a repulsive smell and I have found I need to limit how much time I spend pulling it out of the garden for removal projects.  Ivy honey also doesn't take long to crystallize so it's easy to spot and avoid.  I'm glad something finds it useful but if you have garden space there are much better fall blooming plants to plant.

This is also the time of year that hives are tested, especially if they are in the cities that have a high colony density that almost assures exposure to all the nasty stuff out there.  My hives all get 1-2 brood breaks a year and I generally don't simulate feed, which should mimic the opportunities that wild hives have for brood breaks.  When I see mites eating up a hive I think of them as wolves.  Nature has many ways to flush out weakness and mites are one of them.  I have hives that look beautiful, strong, and healthy and I have some that get sick.  Some genetic lines get sick every fall and still pull through, but in general once a hive gets sick it will crash.  Swarms are my biggest unknown and also my highest loss rates.  I could requeen with my stock, but I feel doing that limits the possibility of identifying new good genetic lines.  Instead I think of swarms as a test hive for the next year, and give them all the resources they need to survive winter.

I also never got around to posting last month so a few plants I took photos of are pretty much done blooming now as noted below.  

Caryopteris 'Dark Knight' is mostly done blooming now.  The bees love this one.

Dahlia flowers are still going strong, and a small Agapostemon bee has found this one.

Hardy Fuschia has been blooming all summer and loved by the humming birds.  The bees have only lately been attracted to it and this girl was collecting the white pollen.

Sedum is done blooming now.

English Ivy is in bloom and getting a lot of attention.

Seven Sons Tree (Heptacodium miconioides) is a late summer bloomer that is desirable to both bees and gardeners.  Flowers are fragrant and typically found in small clusters of 7, which gives us the common name.  After the white flowers fade a berry forms surround by deep red calyces that last late into the fall.  This tree also has attractive tender looking curled green leaves and exfoliating grayish bark.  Typically multiple trunks will sprout, but they can be pruned back to a single trunk allowing the tree to reach 15-20 feet tall.  These delicate looking trees are actually fairly hardy and can survive in a variety of garden conditions, however they do best in full sun with moderate soil moisture.  New plants can sometimes found in nurseries, or propagated by seeds or cuttings.

Impatiens omeiana is blooming.

Some Asters are still blooming.

Camellia sinensis (Tea) is blooming as well as many other members of the Camellia family.

Osmanthus fragrans is another great fall bloomer.

Hive checks (8/24/2015)
Roma
They have been very conservative in growth, however they have good numbers and bees deeply cover all the frames.  They also have good stores and a nice brood pattern.  The hive looked clean and no signs of disease.  Saw a few drones as well.

The queen looks good.

Nice brood pattern.

Hive checks (8/28/2015)
Queen Castle Slot 4 and Slot 2
I moved them into a double nuc for winter.  Didn't inspect closely, but saw nice patches of brood in both colonies.  Saw the queen in Slot 2 and she looked good.

This is a robust queen.

Nice brood pattern.

Queen Castle Slot 1
I moved them to a new location and put them in the old Icon hive.  They had a few frames of brood as well, but looked like they were low on stores.  They will take a hit losing some workers to Slot 2 that were left behind on on the sides of the walls of the queen castle.  This is the "mean" queen that is a machine when it comes to raising a LOT of brood when she wants to, and I'm curious to see how they build up with ivy and knotweed starting to bloom.

Hive checks (9/9/2015)
Rebel
Broodnest was not very tight and there were 2-3 bees with DWV.  The queen looked good, but was not seeing much nectar/pollen coming in.

Attis
Things actually looked good minus the fact that they are still a small cluster.

Double Nuc
South - The south side was acting slightly defensive and didn't inspect, but gave them an extra empty comb to maybe fill.
North - They were building comb!  Didn't inspect either and gave them an empty comb to work with.

Hive checks (9/19/2015)
Echo
Did a cleanup inspection to fix cross comb.  They have done a good job of holding onto their honey stores.  Didn't make it to the broodnest area, but fixed the worst of the cross comb.

Rosemary
Same inspection as the Echo hive actually, spent all the time fixing issues and didn't get into the broodnest.  I'll harvest the junk frames from both hives I don't want them to reuse next year and those have mostly been moved to the back now.  I needed to be in and out without causing robbing otherwise I would have went through the entire hive.

Hive checks (9/26/2015)
Luna
The hive is in great shape for winter and they have lots of young healthy bees and I even saw a few drones.  They have good stores and the broodnest didn't show any signs of disease.  I would have liked to see more pollen reserves, which I'm sure will change with the return of more rain and flowers.

There are some mites in this hive as seen on the worker bee in this photo.

Solis
Typical of this queen line I found DWV and signs of mites which is typical for them in the fall.  I've come to expect this problem with this genetic line and sometimes they make it and sometimes they don't.  They have good honey reserves and a good population of workers.  I've kept them around in hopes to breed more resistance into them, but did not raise queens from them this year like I have in the past.

This is a new young queen and I'm optimistic they will pull through.

Plum Creek
They are in good shape for the winter.  I was hoping they would have built up more, but it's been a tough summer.

The queen is still looking huge.

Quickdraw
I was happy to see that all the frames that used to be stored pollen from summer have turned into honey stores.  They are being slow to cap honey though.  The queen is still going strong and the broodnest is still about the size of two basketballs.  There is a little surplus pollen, but not much.  I also saw drones in this hive.

Another good looking queen.  This line of bees was treatment free.

Icon
They were a tad pissy (I suppose that's an improvement) and didn't want me in the hive.  The broodnest looked good and it looked like they might be trying to build comb.  There is a lot of brood on the way for this small hive.

Another young, stubborn queen that keeps going.

They have a nice pollen arch on this frame for the brood they are raising.

Dyno
Found DWV, mites and some melted brood.  This was a swarm from a beekeeper that treats and I suspect they don't have any natural resistances.  There are a good number of bees and they weren't happy to have me around.  Yellow jackets are bad at this location and I closed down the entrances on all the hives.

Hive checks (9/27/2015)
Loyal Heights Nuc
Wow this girls get more pissy every time I look at them.  I requeened over summer in hopes that they would calm down and they are just as bad as ever.  I'm starting to wonder if they raised a queen from the old mother brood and killed the queen I put in there.  Either way they are in great shape for winter and the bees are two levels deep on the combs.  The broodnest looked good and there were no signs of disease.  They are light on stores.

Split Nuc
Side A
The broodnest was looking good and no signs of disease.  They were building comb, but also looked light on stores.

Side B
They are light on stores.  They are raising a good amount of brood, and no signs of disease.

Hive checks  (10/4/2015)
Titan
Signs of DWV and the queen seemed weak.  There are a good number of bees in this hive and didn't see melted brood so perhaps they might pull through.

Ballard
They were looking great and no signs of disease.  Nice tight broodnest and signs they are ready for winter.

Roma
They were looking great and no signs of disease.  Nice laying pattern and showing carniolan winter tendencies with a smaller colony size.  They also had a pollen surplus and several frames of capped honey which is pretty good for a swarm.

Queen is looking good.

The broodnest is still looking good in this hive.

Back to the bees.

- Jeff

Late Summer Flowers Are An Ossais in the Dearth

Preparing for winter and surviving the summer dearth can be challenging for hives.  Hives have to conserve resources and try to find as much food as they can all while trying to avoid predators.  Yellow jackets circle around hives this time of year like sharks, waiting for a weak bee to fall to the ground or get knocked off balance while entering the hive.  Dry soils also make finding nectar rich flowers a challenge and bees need to visit more flowers to find food.  All of this is happening while hives are raising bees that will need to survive months until spring rather than a few mere weeks which makes good nutrition even more important.

Malva sylvestris 'Zebrina' is a desirable pollen and nectar source.

Silk Tree (Albizia julibrissin) is a nectar source.

Fireweed is a great nectar source if you have a lot of it around.

Heather is in bloom and a nectar source.

Sunflowers are a good pollen and nectar source.

Knotweed is a good nectar source if you have any around.  This is usually a #1 suspect to eradicate on noxious weed lists.

Calendula officinalis is easy to grow and attractive to the girls.

Oregano is still blooming in some areas and covered in bees.

Borage is an excellent nectar source.

Mint is a good nectar source.

I don't often use cell phone camera pictures because the dimensions don't layout as nicely on the page, but it seems like the bees were posing for me so here are a few I snapped recently.

Dahlia flowers can be attractive to pollinators if you get the right varieties.  If you can, resist getting the ones that are all petals and try to select varieties where you can see the pollen.  I snapped this photo because of the mostly black honey bee next to what I would say was an typical Italian breed of honey bee.  I have one hive with a small percentage of dark bees like this but on average Carniolan bees look more like the bee in the second Dahlia picture.

Another Dahlia photo with a metallic green bee and a Carniolan looking bee in flight.

Zinnia is a popular nectar source.

This huge Artichoke flower is easily a feast for multiple bees at once.

Chitalpa tashkentensis 'Pink Dawn' can be a good nectar source.

Hive Checks (8/3/2014)
Swarm
They have gone through the 1/2 gallon of syrup I gave them in the last few days.  It looked like they had mostly transferred the syrup into existing comb and they have built a new half comb in the last week.  No signs of eggs yet, but I did see the queen and she looked large and ready to start laying any day now.  Will keep the syrup on in an effort to help them build comb and build up.

If nothing else she is a good sized queen.

Hive Checks (8/9/2014)
Solis
This new queen has a tight broodnest across three frames.  The queen looked good and they were making good use of the pollen and bee bread I gave them.  I would expect the first of the new bees to be emerging this week.

The new queen.

Brood pattern looks pretty good for a smaller sized hive.

Luna
Like Solis this hive has multiple frames of capped worker brood now as well.  The pattern is solid and I even saw a few newly emerged bees (mostly light colored).  I'll have to do some balancing next inspection to give the weaker hive a boost.  Between the two hives there is enough food for winter at the moment and the challenge will be to raise enough winter bees to make it till next spring.

Nice brood pattern.

The queen is looking good.

I posted previously about how I saw a higher percentage of bees requesting to be cleaned in this hive than what I see in my other hives.  A commenter asked what this looked like and I thought that it was a great question, but it's not easy to describe so here is a video.  What you are looking for is the bee vibrating in place and not dancing in any direction or pattern.

In case the embedded video doesn't show up (I'm pretty sure it doesn't in email) I also posted the link to YouTube here: Cleaning dance

Ballard daughter
Saw the new queen and she is a tad darker than her mother.  She still has that young queen look but she doesn't seem to be wasting any time either and had laid a nice cluster of eggs and there were even a few 1-2 day old larvae. So that means she started laying on 8/4 and since the split was done on 7/12 that gives us 22 days, or 15 to emerge and 7 to mate and start laying.

I like to see a large group of bees form around queens when they pause like this and tells me she is a desirable queen.

Hive Checks (8/10/2014)
Rose
I'm going to call the swarm from the Rosemary hive Rose because the landed next to an old climbing rose.  I gave them two frames of pollen and beebread I stole from the Rebel hive and have been adding syrup to help them build up resources.  I was quite surprised to see that they already had capped brood.  I'd say it was maybe 2-3 days into having been capped as well.  Doing the bee math this is quite an impressive turnaround.  Split on 7/13 and capped brood lets say in the last 2 days which means that eggs were being laid around 8/1 or just 4 days after the swarm.  She is definitely ahead of the curve compared to what I've seen from other hives this year.  Perhaps that is being driven by the urgency to buildup before winter and the fact that every day counts.

The queen is looking good and also well liked.

Rosemary daughter
This is the sister hive to Rose and while they aren't as far along as the Rose hive there was a good amount of young brood coming and just a few cells that looked like they were a few days away from getting capped.  I thought the Ballard daughter hive was being quick when I looked at them yesterday but these two queens are both a few days ahead of their pace.

A good looking light colored queen.

Hive Checks (8/15/2014)
Ballard Nuc
Upon opening this hive my first thought was, hey they aren't dead.  I did see a few bees with DWV, but overall the larvae looked healthy and there were a lot of young healthy bees.  It looks like the split gave them the boost they needed, and helped pull them out of the DWV issue that was starting to take hold.  There is a lot of brood on the way and a lot of young bees in the hive.  Hopefully they can make the most of fall nectar and pollen sources.  Stores were low and I likely will have to give them a frame of honey.

Still going her usual slow pace.

Roma
The hive looked like it was in good shape and the broodnest and honey arches looked good.  I also now know which hive the completely black bees are coming from (they look like the bee pictured earlier in the Dahlia photo)!  The make up maybe 1-2% of the overall population but they are impressive to see especially with bright yellow and orange pollen baskets.

This big queen is still going strong.

Hive Checks (8/18/2014)
Rosemary Nuc
The nuc is doing well and the queen has been busy.  The frames are crammed with bees and there is plenty of brood on the way.  Honey stores are still a little light.

Scriber Creek
Similar to the Rosemary nuc there is a lot of brood coming and frames have good honey arches, however there is not much surplus anywhere for winter.  They are going full steam ahead through this dearth and are burning stores which is more typical of what you would see with Italian strains for this time of year.

Another shot of Borage that captures late summer well.

Back to the bees,

- Jeff

A swarm in July

"A swarm in July ain't worth a fly"... at least that's what they say.  In the Seattle area I would agree that swarms this time of year or later are basically doomed unless a beekeeper makes an effort AND some investment to save them.  A big swarm could build enough comb but are unlikely to fill it unless they are near huge patches of Knotweed (which doesn't exist in many areas in the city) or maybe you haul them up to the mountains for Fireweed.  You could also steal honey and comb from other hives or get a couple 50lb bags of sugar and feed it as syrup over the next two months and hope they store enough for winter and also raise good winter bees.  However who says hobbies have to make money and if bees need saving then go for it.  If you are wondering where this is headed, read about my recent swarm adventure below in the hive notes.

Echinacea is now in bloom and a good nectar source.

A bumble is resting on this Dahlia flower.  Dahlia varieties with open petals can be good pollen and nectar sources.  Hint - if you can't see the pollen then the bees probably can't get to it or the nectar.

Caryopteris x clandonensis is another summer favorite that is a very popular nectar source.

Asters are in bloom and provide pollen and nectar.  A lot of the bright orange pollen coming is will be from asters.

Silk Tree (Albizia julibrissin)

Many gardeners are surprised when they hear that we don't have many late summer flowers blooming in this area.  Blooming bushes and trees make up a large portion of forage for city hives which many gardeners forget about when they think of flowers.  To counter this I encourage people to plant trees and shrubs with late summer blooms to help provide abundant food sources.  The Silk Tree is a good example of a late summer nectar source and can also be very appealing in the garden.  These trees can range from 15 to 30 feet tall and have wide arching branches with wide flat crowns.  The leaves are fern like that droop downwards at night and the wispy flowers have long silky treads that are white with pink or red colored tips.  Like many good honey bee food sources the trees can be invasive in some areas.  These trees can also be messy in fall and are also susceptible to several disease which can make them short lived, but fortunately they grow quickly.  They prefer full sun and produce nectar in the morning hours which is often why you won't see many pollinators on them in the afternoons.

"Black & Blue" Salvia (Salvia guaranitica) has attractive deep blue flowers and also a good nectar source.

Hive checks (7/20/2014)
Solis
Found the new queen and she is a little smaller but looked like she had mated.  I couldn't find any eggs or brood yet.  Part of that might be due to the fact that the hive is smaller and doesn't have many workers left.

The new queen.

Luna
Similar to the Solis hive the new queen in here looks mated.  The two queens look really similar so I'm going to have a hard time telling them apart in pictures.  I found some larvae laid in drone cells, but only eggs in worker cells so far.  Will have to check back in a week or so to determine how well she mated.

The look-a-like sister.

Hive checks (7/26/2014)
Solis
The queen looked a little bigger and finally has started laying.  There was a small patch of young brood and eggs in worker cells.  The hive is just a few frames of bees so I stole a couple frames of bee bread from the Luna hive to help them along.  Looking at my estimates this marks 22 days since I pulled the queen.  Assuming they made a queen from 1-2 day old larvae a queen would have emerged about 11 days later.  Seeing that I have probably 1-2 day old larvae now she would have started laying 4-5 days ago which means it took her 6-7 days to mate and start laying.  Perhaps I was a bit eager last inspection to hope for eggs/brood.

Looking a little more queen like now.

She is looking for places to lay which is always a good sign.

Luna
This queen also looked a little bigger and is about the same size as her sister and mother.  Overall they are all slightly smaller than what I typically see for queens.  Also because of their striped markings they are much harder to spot and blend in well with the workforce.

There are several newly capped drone cells (laid in drone sized cells) and she has now started laying in worker cells as well.  There were multiple frames with brood in worker sized cells coming and she has the majority of the work force so it doesn't surprise me they are jumping ahead of the Solis hive.  No worker brood capped just yet though which will tell me how well she actually mated.  What I find odd is that she started laying almost a week ahead of the other queen and was laying drone eggs initially.

This queen started laying drone eggs right away that are already capped.

Frame of bee bread that has been fermenting to break down the pollen to release nutrients.

Dyno
They have built up really well and the queen has an excellent brood pattern.  She stubbornly lays out as many cells as the hive can support.  Hopefully they start to bring in stores because they don't have much to speak of at the moment.  They are even starting to raise drone brood.

Nice laying pattern.

The queen is looking good.

Despite the damage the queen is still using this comb.  A stronger hive would have fixed the holes first and it does make me worry that they are still focused on buildup and not winter preparations.

Plum Creek
They have several frames of brood on the way and a good amount of stores for winter.  I'm curious how much they will build up in the next month of it they will try to maintain their size.  As always they are still raising drone brood.

This is the mother queen for Luna and Solis.

Quickdraw
The girls were in my face today telling me to go away, however they were not trying to sting.  As with the other two hives at this location there is a decent amount of brood coming.  They have stores but not enough for winter yet, and are using a good percentage of the hive for brood.  Hopefully they scale back from the buildup cycle and start prepping for winter rather than burning through the little reserve they have saved.  I suspect that this South facing, full sun, location is encouraging them to buildup more than I'm seeing at my other locations.  I curious to see how they winter here and buildup next spring.  I may have to watch for early spring swarming plans.

The queen looks good and has done a great job of building up.

Hive checks (7/27/2014)
Rebel
The hive is full of comb and most of it is either bee bread or nectar/honey.  The nuc I introduced to the back of the hive was still the active broodnest area and the queen didn't have many options for expanding being behind multiple frames of honey.  I resorted the hive combs from the entrance so that there were a few frames of honey, bee bread, broodnest, bee bread and then most of the nectar/honey stores. The laying pattern looked good and they don't seem quite as reactive as the mother hive was. No signs of the DWV that was taking a heavy toll on this hive in the spring.

Nice laying pattern on this new queen.

She looks like her mother, perhaps slightly bigger.

Rosemary Nuc
The queen is aggressively laying brood to rebuild the hive.  The laying pattern looked really good as well and I expect them to buildup well.

She is doing well in the nuc.

Ballard Nuc
Saw signs of DWV on a few bees.  The queen is being conservative as usual in her laying to repopulate the hive.  I'm curious to see how they deal with the DWV now that they are in a nuc.  That seems to be an ongoing issue with this queen.  What I've seen is borderline hives like this don't prep for winter well and die out in November.  Hopefully the new daughter queen will work out better.

She is still going at her usual slow pace which is going to make fall survival risky.

Scriber Creek
The hive is full of comb and for the most part it's all in use.  There seemed to be a good amount of honey stores on each frame, but no full frames of honey stored anywhere yet.  The laying pattern looks good and the new daughters of this queen all look very light colored which seems to support my thoughts that this was a virgin queen.  They were very clam today and I could have easily worked them without any protection.

Nice laying pattern.

A big healthy queen.

Hive checks (7/28/2014)
Rosemary Split and Swarm
I split the Rosemary hive on the 13th and on the 28th rather than having a new queen killing her sisters I had a new queen that decided to be a pacifist and leave the hive in a tiny swarm.  Having already done a split the hive was depopulated and being that the nectar flow is now over I was surprised to discover that they would even try to swarm.

While I call the queen a pacifist for not wanting to kill her sisters the reality is that this wasn't a queen decision but rather the collective workers.  Maybe they aren't localized enough to know that we have a long dearth coming, or perhaps that genetic instinct has been washed out because beekeepers always step in to prop them up with late summer feeding efforts.  Another thought is that the heavy rains in the last week might have created a surge in plant nectar production that is misleading their instinct that a dearth is here.  Who knows, maybe they know something I don't and it's going to be a rainy August and flowers will be plentiful.  Maybe I should buy a lotto ticket.

The small swarm hiding in the branches.

The swarm was about 1.5 pounds and I hived them with some old comb, but have no idea how they would expect to build comb and fill it with stores this time of year.  Not to mention with a virgin queen still has to successfully mate. I will give them a few resources and see how they do in the next few weeks.  I'm curious to see how they fare and if the risk pays off.  I'll give them some honey and syrup to keep them alive to see if they can survive the winter.

After hiving the swarm I looked through the originating hive and found another queen running around killing the others and piping quite authoritatively.  There were a few queens cells in the process of emerging that had not yet been killed and I was able to cage them as a backup.  I had one fly off while I was trying to get her to go in a queen cage and I stood still watching her go up up and away into the air.  She never did come back and I held still waiting so she could orient to me.  Having not come from a hive I have no idea where she will end up but wouldn't be surprised if she tried to enter one of the queen right hives nearby, which would not end well for her.  However being that is was evening I also wouldn't be surprised if a bird found her before morning.

The new queen was running around piping.  She would momentarily stop on the comb and vibrate against it when she made the piping sound.  The rough pattern was about 15-20 seconds running and 1 second stop to pipe.  I did see her cautiously inspecting the outside of a queen cell with stinger ready to make sure no one was home.

Back to the bees,

Jeff