Its now been about three weeks since we first installed our bees and I wanted to share with you how they are doing. We were a little apprehensive after first getting them installed because we went on vacation for a week three days after installing them and worried something might happen while we were gone and we’d lose our hives. As you’ll see, the bees made it through the week we were on vacation despite our absence!
The day after installing them I was very excited to see how they were doing. Before going into work I went out back and took this video of them. This was about 7:30am yet they were out early flying around getting oriented. One even flew over to say good morning, landing on my hand while I was recording the video. It was a great feeling seeing them there after the first night and not all flying away (I had lots of worries after reading about all the things that can go wrong when introducing a new package of bees into a hive).
Bees On Syrup Feeder
Prior to leaving for vacation we did a mini-inspection of the hives. The first thing we looked for was how they were doing with the syrup. Since we’d be gone for a week we wanted to see how fast they were drinking the syrup to determine if they had enough to last the week we were gone. You can see from the picture that they were all over the feeder but after two days it looked like they’d be fine for another seven with the remaining syrup.
Queen Cage
The next thing we did was find the queen cage. The queen was still in the cage so we went ahead and release her by removing the cork on the side with no candy piece so she could get out of the cage. This was kind of a risky move since if we released her too early she may leave the hive because the workers had not had time to build comb or become accustom to her. On the other hand if we did not release here and there was a problem with the bees getting her out through the candy piece then she may die or the other bees might abscond. Our friend Tim who has been mentoring us through the beekeeping process recommended releasing her so we took his advice and released the queen.
The First Inspection
First Hive Inspection
Upon our return from vacation we again had our friend Tim over to help us with our first full bee inspection. Due to some supply issues we did not have all of our gear yet, we only had one jacket/veil so with Tim’s equipment we could only have two people with protective clothing at once. In retrospect this was not really a problem because the bees are so docile that unless you are the one right over the hive moving the top bars around the bees completely leave you alone. We also did not buy an actual “hive tool
During the first inspection the goal was to make sure the queens were still present and active. We did not see the queens in either hive but saw brood cells as well as larva. It was too late in the evening and not enough light available to spot the eggs during this inspection. We were amazed at how much comb the bees had already built in just the week since we had them introduced into the hives. We saw that they had a little comb on all of the seven or eight top bars that we had in the hives plus the brood comb and larva. Overall, both hives looked in very good shape for how long the bees had been present! Tim recommended we fill in the top bars all the way up to the feeder, so we filled up all but the last third of each hive with top bars. He also suggested we do another inspection in a week and keep doing inspections every week for a few weeks to make sure they were getting started on the right track and give us time to address any issues that may arise. For example, if it turned out that one of our queens had left we would need to get a new queen, but they are only available from the suppliers for a limited time each year so knowing as soon as possible if you needed one could make the difference between having bees this year and losing an entire hive!
The Second Inspection
About a week and a half after the first full inspection we were ready to do another inspection. The day before this inspection I went out and watched the bees for a couple minutes just to see how they were doing. You can see in the video that they are very busy coming and going from the hive. During the previous inspection we added a dummy top bar to the entrance end of each hive that did not have any molding underneath. The reason for this was that the bars with molding did not fit flush with the edge due to the shape of the barrel and created an opening along the top that the bees were going in and out of continuously. The dummy top bar closed that gap, but as you’ll see in the video they are still going in and out of the corner underneath that front dummy bar. I don’t think there is really a problem with this though as its a relatively small entrance that they can still defend well, so if they want to use that in addition to the main entrance, they can “bee” my guest!
Great Comb With Brood, Larva, Eggs, Honey, and Pollen Cells!
If we were impressed with how the bees had progressed during our first full inspection then we were floored when we took a look in at them for the second inspection! The second inspection took place at about three weeks in from when we first got the bees and the amount of comb and brood we found was incredible. The bees had expanded the number of top bars with comb and built out the comb to fill 1/4 to 1/2 of each of the top bars they had already established comb on during our first inspection.We were successful in spotting the queen in one of the hives but saw lots of larva and eggs in both hives so knew the queens were both in good shape.
The following are some more pictures of the comb from this inspection.
Queen Bee Spotted!
Larva Cells Next to Capped Brood Cells
Egg Cells (Looks like tiny rice grains)
So after about three weeks of having the bees they are doing really well. During our next inspection we’ll probably remove the feeders completely. Check back later to see how our third inspection goes!
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