No bees in hive...?

Optimism of April 11 gone…as are bees from the TBH. On Saturday I noticed many bees coming and going, which was as it should be since it was an amazingly nice day for Oregon. However, bees were fighting at the entrance but not vigorously, and strange bees entering and not being ejected--thought robbing was happening, but that didn't seem the case, really, since bees were not aggressive when I was around—if there was robbing, they should have been attacking all strangers. Also, noticed no pollen being returned. Nothing to do about it…

Sunday afternoon I went in to remove 2 more bars of honey, B10 & B11. There were no guard bees as in the past and the other bees didn't seem to care about the disruption, so decided to continue through to the beginning of the hive to see what was up. Not many bees, maybe 200, and those were taking honey, and very little brood on the combs. On the brood combs, I saw several dead bees that didn't make it all the way out of their cells, a few cells of pollen and some cells with uncapped nectar.  Most importantly, no queen. Did they swarm or did the robbers kill the queen—no dead body—so I’m leaning toward swarming…for reasons I do not know at this time nor did I hear the swarming buzzing which if often referenced in articles about swarming.

B4, right, with few brood and nectar cells

B5, again little brood, but notice full shape of combs

B6, small honey section with a few nectar and pollen cells

Bees had been flying last week during the warm days, seemingly making orientation flights (although I may have misread that) and some returning with pollen. Alarmingly, on one day I smelled a heavy scent of herbicide in the air which had me concerned for bees out that day returning with pollen. I think that was not the cause of this hive failaure, because there were not many dead bodies on the bottom board.

Left side of hive after bar removal; few bees on bottom board.

So, what happened? I don’t know. Now I wish I had checked the brood area during the nice days of February so we would have had an idea of the hive conditions then. Disappointed, of course, but not discouraged…glad I am not in it for my livelihood—can relate to the commercial operations just a bit now. I'll concentrate on the new Warre hive first and decide later about rehiving the TBH. Jacqueline in Battle Ground, WA who has been beekeeping for 8 years has moved to Warre hives from top bars after comparing the two systems. I'm checking into getting a nuc from Eugene beekeepers and have been in touch with someone on the local swam list who will take me along on his next call. Ken almost has the hybrid Warre hive done and we anticipate setting it up soon. Will make it a bait hive using some of the used bars from which we removed comb/honey and pheromone.

Removed all combs from the TBH and added back eight bars in the following order: two new 1.25” brood bars, two used bars from honey extraction with wax remnants, 4 new bars. Maybe one of the robber bees will convince her hive to move here!

Yes, there was still honey left…we extracted about 14 cups of honey from five bars removed yesterday, using the same process described in April 9 notes. Plan to render the wax from all the combs, including the brood combs, which will make very dark wax candles.  

The dreaded cross combed B10 and B11 were no big deal—heavy when removed together. They actually had three combs on the two bars. That was the only cross combing in the hive.  Most of the combs holding honey had brace combing on the sides, which is normal to support the weight; see interior picture above.

It's a beautiful day here in Oregon's Willamette Valley, unseasonably warm with temperatures in the low 80's...I'm off for a bike ride...after a quick look at the abandoned hive!

April 16 notes...before all the above happened...

Only a few bees flying yesterday afternoon, high 60's and partly sunny. Saw two drones coming back to the hive. What's up? They should be out gathering pollen and nectar for the brood.

This morning I installed the new feeder system Ken developed; instead of using the ziplock bag, I used the Boardman jar feeder with a pint jar which sits a little high--need to find a shorter jar. The feeder itself is about 1/8" too high so I'll shave off the bottom a bit for a better fit when I remove it. Marked  level of 1:1 syrup with tape to be able to assess amount used.

In order to fit the feeder inside the hive, I removed B14 which had been left in when B12 & B13 removed for honey harvest and moved the left follower all the way to the end.

While the top was open I could hear a very quiet even buzz so assume all is well, even with no flying yesterday. Later, during the afternoon, there were more bees flying--yesterday was too windy perhaps and bees are staying in to keep brood warm and new bees are in their first 21 days before flying out???

Drones...large drones

About a week ago, during the few warm spring days, I noticed drones flying...really big drones, larger than I remember them being last year. From that I surmise that 1) brood is hatching for spring build-up and 2) drones are larger because bees are making cells the size they wish for different populations...a good thing.

Drones take 24 days from egg to bee and spend six days in the hive before flying; workers take 21 days from egg to bee and spend 21 days inside hive before going out to forage. According to those numbers, we should see quite a few bees on orientation flights some time between April 16 and Arpil 20. Exciting to have gone one year from installing the package and beginning the cycle once again. I believe it is safe to say the hive made it through the winter successfully. Although the plan was to dismantle the hive when weather warmed, I am less inclined to do that now that I know that even a minor drop in temperature adversely affects the brood. We shall see...

The ants come marching...and honey harvest

April 2. The ants are back. I've been expecting them and there they were, the first really nice day of April, crawling up the base of the hive and onto the honey combs at the back of the hive. Wanting to know where they were, I opened the hive at the back and saw them on the last two combs with no bees in sight. However, having the colder air entering the hive alerted the bees and one came to the opening. I closed the hive and considered various options to keep ants away; decided to install a moat between the cement blocks. I had developed the idea last fall--it hadn't been implemented because the bees had propolis sealing the hive so ants could not enter easily. But, my opening the hive to remove honey comb had disturbed the seal and allowed entrance to the ants. Three days later the moat seems to be working although weather has been poor and ants haven't been foraging much. Had to add a landing pad below the entrance because bees were falling into the water and drowning...problem solved.


Several days ago two B12 and B13 which were about 2/3 full of capped honey had been removed and stored in the refrigerator, awaiting extraction when grandchildren arrived during spring break. The comb had broken where there was cross combing and the cold refrigerator temperature kept the honey from dripping from the opened cells. We followed directions found online, crushing the comb, placing it in jars so honey would drain through cloth. Worked well and we ended with six cups of very dark, strongly flavored honey; these combs were at the far end of the hive and would have been honey from the final fall foraging. The two bars and fillled combs weighed 5.5 pounds. There were four cups of crushed comb after draining, still quite sticky with honey. That may be placed out for the bees to glean the remainder of the honey or will be washed when wax is rendered later this spring.

While removing B12 and B13, I looked closely at B11 which we knew from hive checks last summer was cross combed with B10. Because of the considerable amount of cross comb, both bars will have to be removed at the same time to keep the comb intact. That will be an interesting exercise because bees will probably be in the cavities and not easy to brush away--will deal with that when it is time.