Hey folks! Things have been busy at the homestead and I'm a little behind on updates but I do have a new podcast episode up.
Check it out here:
Topics covered this week include:
the loss of one of my hens
working with another beekeeper's hive
having an interesting reaction to a bee sting
how to do a split
how I lost one queen bee and handled that situation
supersedure cells and what they mean
swarm cells
merging two hives using newspaper
Last week, one of my hens passed away. I had gone out to the coop in the morning, as usual, to medicate Agatha and put down fermented feed for the girls, and found Big Red looking terrible. She was holding herself kind of hunched over, and her comb and wattles were worryingly pale. When I picked her up, she was very light, although her crop was full.
I brought her inside and put her somewhere warm and quiet. I also syringe fed her a vitamin/mineral blend in the hopes that this might help her rally. I was pretty sure she wasn't going to make it but, when she was still alive a few hours later, I started to hope. Sadly, she ended up having a seizure before passing away.
I performed a necropsy almost immediately. Not only was she very underweight but her crop was impacted, preventing food from moving down into her digestive system. She was basically starving. An inspection of the contents of her crop showed no signs of material that could have caused the impaction, nor were there tumours. The crop itself did have thickening of the walls so it's possible that an infection had taken hold, although I found no ulcers or discolouration.
Up to the morning I found her so close to death, she had been acting normally. which is not at all uncommon in chickens. If I handled her daily, I would have noticed the sudden drop in weight. But I just don't handle my girls more than necessary. Only Agatha gets picked up daily as a result of being syringe fed her medication. The other girls are only hefted for inspections that I do as needed. I think from now on, I'll try and pick up the girls every week or so. We'll see how that works out.
Since my last episode, I was asked to help a local beekeeper with one of her hives. She had reached out to our mutual teacher, Emily, to ask for help with some frames that had been connected with burr comb and were now impossible to remove without the additional help of another person (to hold the box up while someone else cut through the burr comb). Emily wasn't able to get out there anytime soon, and so told D to reach out to me as I'm local.
Gotta admit, I felt pretty proud to be recommended! I know it's mainly grunt work but, still, it feels good to have a teacher say you're capable of helping.
So I went out to help and was stung for my trouble! This hive is her famously aggressive one. Not only do they go for you the minute you get close but they'll follow you about 20ft or so. I honestly don't know how she hasn't re-queened them already. One stung me pretty early on through my glove, and I later discovered that I had been stung by about 3 more girls, although I didn't feel it until later.
The actual fix for the comb issue was easy and it was a lot of fun to work with another keeper. This is her second year, and so we talked about honey extraction and I asked her about winter prep (something I am concerned with lately). She had a lot of good info to share, and she was kind enough to show me some of her winter-prep equipment so it was a rewarding experience, despite the stings!
What was odd was how I reacted to the stings. That first girl got me on my wrist, and it seemed to trigger my carpal tunnel. I developed the familiar aching nerve pain that I am used to, complete with some hand weakness. Later, I found the other stings and about 10 inches of my forearm swelled noticeably. Interestingly, the actual sting sites were barely visible; no redness or raised skin (my usual reaction). It took about 24 hours for the swelling to dissipate, and 12 hours or so for the aching to leave. Very weird!
Queen Bridget was one of my original 2 queens that came with my nucleus colonies, and all had seemed well with them. July 1st, however, I found that Bridget was gone and there were no eggs in her colony. The smallest larva appeared to be about 3 days old so I could surmise that, as of 6 days ago, I had had a queen. Going through the hive, I found 2 supersedure cells, one capped (placing it at about 7-8 days old) and one about to be capped.
The above is a photo of a capped supesedure cell.
These occur when the hive either decides to replace the existing queen, or something happens to their queen and they have to replace. In the first instance, a hive might kill their queen if they sense something is wrong with her, be it disease, poor genetics, or poor laying. The bees know and they take matters into their own hands, choosing to raise a queen of their own. Now, as you might recall, queens are raised from any fertilized egg that is fed royal jelly and given a larger cell in which to grow. A supersedure cell is a queen cell, usually positioned mid-frame. This is different from a swarm cell, which is a queen cell found on the bottom of a frame, hanging downward.
So I diagnosed the problem and then my mind started racing and second guessing. What if these were funky swarm cells? I had been told once that not all swarm cells will be on the bottom of a frame so was it possible they wanted to swarm? The colony was so small for that, though! I decided to ask about it on a few Facebook beekeeping groups, and most agreed with my first diagnosis; the queen was dead and the hive was making a new one.
This gave me two options: let the hive raise their own queen, or buy a mated queen and pop her in there.
I wanted to let them raise their own but there are risks with that. Firstly, they weren’t making as many supersedure cells as I’d expect to see. 2 is not a lot by any means. A hive will usually make as many as they can nurture to give them the best chance of success. Was this low number of queen cells a sign that this hive was fundamentally unhealthy?
Secondly, even if they did raise a queen, mating flights are risky. That virgin queen could be eaten by a bird, come in contact with something toxic, or get squished; the possibilities are endless in terms of potential risks.
Would she mate well? Or are there not enough drones around? I was, at least, optimistic on this last point as my neighbour 2 doors down has over 20 hives, with bees he has purchased, reared, or caught in swarm traps from all over the area, so that points to a healthy genetic diversity.
As someone with 2 brand new colonies, did I want to take this level of risk?
As it turns out, I didn’t need to. One of my teachers had seen my FB post and had a spare queen! It just so happens that she had been inspecting a few colonies on an out yard and saw one about to swarm. She didn’t have time to do a proper split (separating the hive into 2) so she simply removed the queen. This would put a stop to swarming, allow the hive to raise it’s own queen, and give her time to get back out there to manage the hive (add boxes, etc).
But where was she to put this queen? Seeing my post, she offered to bring it round. I gratefully accepted!
By the time she could make it out, it was getting dark. This is NOT a good time to be opening up a hive. We wanted to work quickly. My teacher, Emily, wanted to confirm my diagnosis so I used the flashlight on my phone while she pulled frames to look for eggs. This whole time, she is getting stung by very unhappy bees!! I was trying not to be a baby about it but was definitely uncomfortable and nervous!
She confirmed that there were no eggs, and so we placed the caged queen inside, just under the inner cover of the hive. Emily recommended I release the queen in 2 days. She also pointed out that this colony had started back-filling frames. This means that, as brood emerged, they were filling those empty brood cells with stores of pollen and honey, leaving limited space for the queen to lay. This is not what you want. It’s also infuriating because they still had frames they could draw wax on but, bees are efficient, and apparently would rather use already available drawn cells than bother making new ones!
I started to realise that, during my inspections, I had been so intent on looking for eggs, brood, and the queen, that I hadn’t got a firm grasp of the big picture. Basically, I couldn’t see the forest for the trees! When I wracked my brain, I could say that I had a good idea of laying pattern from each of my queens but I wasn’t really tracking the stores vs brood space.
Considering this, I went back to the hives the next day.
First, I checked on the new queen in her cage. She was surrounded by workers who were already offering to feed her through the cage. A great sign! This hive I’ll refer to as hive #1.
I also added a super/hive body to give them more space and, hopefully, stave off more back-filling.
Next, I went into my other hive; queen Macha’s colony (hive #2). I pulled each frame and really LOOKED at them. Yes, I made a note of eggs, brood, and queen as usual but I also carefully examined the space they had, what they were using, and whether they were back-filling.
They were. So I decided to split the hive.
A ‘split’ is basically an artificial swarm. Instead of allowing half your bees to fly off with the old queen, leaving the remaining girls to raise a new queen, you decide yourself to split the colony, allowing you to keep all the bees but in 2 separate colonies.
I carefully located queen Macha and set the frame she was on aside. Then I split the frames of eggs, brood, and pollen and honey stores as equally as possible. Half went in a deep super with Macha, and that hive I moved to a new location. This is important because, remember, it is the old queen who always leaves with the swarm. By moving my established queen to a new location, I mimic this behaviour. I also added a super/hive body to give them more room to expand.
Next, I put the remaining half of the colony into a deep super back in the original location. This is hive #3. They also got an additional super/hive body to work with.
Any foragers who were out working would return to this hive as they were oriented to it. Then I went back into the hive #1 (the one with the new queen), and removed the frame with superseder cells. After brushing off as many bees as I could, I put this frame in with the now queenless colony (hive #3)
Why did I do this? Mainly, I’m a bit soft hearted and didn’t really want to break down these cells. Although the possibility existed that the genes of hive 1 were not optimal, meaning any new queens they created from those eggs might also be lacking, I felt the cells were far off along that they deserved a chance. I also knew that, should hive #3 feel anything was wrong with these cells, they’d open them up, pull out the pupating queens, kill them, and start afresh with the eggs I had been sure to leave them. My plan was to let them attempt to raise their own queen and, should they fail to do so, I would buy a mated queen for them.
So after all this hard work, I now had 3 hives: hive #1 with the queen from Emily (who I named Cerridwen, Celtic goddess of rebirth and the dark moon); hive #2 with Macha; and hive #3, who had no queen but the ability to raise their own.
2 days after that evening arrival of Cerridwen, I went out to release her. First, I double checked the activity of the bees around her cage; all were showing signs of acceptance. So I released her into the colony and watched her disappear down the frames into the hives. Success! The hive was re-queened. Of course, I’d need to come back in a few days and make sure she was still accepted and actually laying but I took that moment to relish my success. I had gone from a queenless hive to a queen-right hive! Queen Bridget is dead, long live queen Cerridwen!
I was particularly excited because Emily had mentioned that this queen was a 5th generation Ohio queen, meaning she came from a line that overwintered well. She had also said that this queen’s bees built up wax and stores like crazy so I was excited to see the change in the behaviour of this colony as the new genes came to fruition in new generations of bees.
To remind everyone of the timeline: July 1st, I discovered queen Brigid was gone and there were no eggs. I requeened that same day, releasing Cerridwen on the 3rd.
I went back in on the 8th. And guess what? More #beedrama!!
To set the scene, when I do an inspection, I was taught to always start with the bottom box. You remove the upper boxes, setting them carefully aside, and then go through the bottom box frame by frame. When that is complete, you move to the next lower box; leaving the top box till last. So, basically, go bottom to top, or butt to head!
So I have set the top 2 boxes aside, and look in the bottom box. The first thing I notice is that the bees are pissy. They’re cranky and not afraid to let me know it! This is concerning. As I’m pulling frames, I find more supersedure cells!! Crap! Did they kill the new queen??
Trying not to panic, I go through the next box. This was the new super I had given them for more space. There are a few bees on the comb but no sign that they’ve been building wax. Hmm. Next, the top box. It is packed full of happy bees and there is Cerridwen! And eggs!! Yah!!
My queen is alive. THANK GOODNESS. But what was going on? I realised that I had made an error by placing the new box between 2 built up ones. I had thought the bees would be encouraged to build by this positioning (not sure why? A flight of fancy, perhaps??) but instead I surmised that the bees on the bottom were too far away from the queen to smell her and so believed themselves to be queenless. Hence the new superseder cells. Meanwhile, the bees up in the top box with the queen, were happy as clams! I’d accidentally created 2 colonies in one hive.
Lesson learned. I needed to remove the middle box but I was concerned about the bottom colony being exposed to the queen with no cage to protect her. So I decided to treat the process like I would with any hive merging. I took a few sheets of newspaper and placed them over the bottom super before I placed the super with the queen and her bees on top. The idea here is that the bees can smell each other through the paper and will start trying to chew through it. By the time they accomplish this, the two hives should be merged as the queen’s pheromones have had time to effect all the bees within the hive.
I went back into this hive on the 12th and the merge had been a success! Phew!!
While this was going on, I was keeping an eye on my other hives.
Hive #2, with queen Macha, was now a much smaller colony as any foragers from her original hive had returned to hive #3. Her hive now consisted primarily of eggs, brood, young worker bees, and a handful of foragers. This is all normal, though I made a note to monitor the activity at the entrance.
Hive #3, my queenless hive, had been busy! It looked like they had knocked down the supersedure cells I had transferred from hive #1 and built 2 of their own! I could tell the difference as these new cells were younger; not ready to be capped yet. Again, I worried about them choosing to pull just the 2 supersedure cells but decided I had no real choice but to leave them to it. I really wanted to see if they could succeed in requeening.
On July 12th, I moved another frame of eggs and brood into this hive just to give them more options, and to ensure they stayed on task. I was really paranoid that, if I didn’t keep a supply of brood available to them, I’d end up with a laying worker. You might recall that there are 2 things that prevent worker bees from fully developing reproductively: queen pheromone and brood pheromone. Now, with the supersedure cells, the chance of a laying worker was slim but I was paranoid!!
July 16th, I inspected this hive and was delighted to find a hatched queen cell! The other supersedure cell had been completely broken down. A new queen had emerged, killed her pupating sister, and her girls had set to work cleaning up the mess. Somewhere in that hive was a beautiful virgin queen. For the next 5-6 days, she would spend her time in the hive, developing to her fully mature state. The outer layer of chitin on her body would thicken and harden, and she’d also begin building up her flight muscles, as well as developing her pheromones, making her attractive to drones. Then she would be off on a series of mating flights; filling her oviducts with sperm before storing it in her spermatheca. It could take 1-7 days of mating flights, maybe longer if rain keeps her indoors.
I would have to be patient, and keep a close eye on this hive!
On July 29th, I found a beautiful, mated queen. Hive #3 had done it; they’d raised their own queen! By August 1st, I had eggs. I decided to name this queen Morrigan, Celtic goddess of renewal, war, and fate. It seemed fitting!
This is now my largest hive. Because it was the hive that the foragers returned to after the split, it already had a large population. I’d also been moving eggs and brood in on occasion in my paranoia to avoid a laying worker, as this situation is hard to fix, so the colony had young bees born to replace the old. The foragers were also hard workers and brought in a huge amount of pollen and honey during the time it took for them to raise the new queen.
In fact, of my 3 hives, this is the only one I haven’t fed yet. Hives #1 and #2 have been offered a sugar syrup (1:1 ratio) since July 12th to help them build up comb, and then to help them with their honey production. This was especially important for hive #2, which was the smallest after the split, and needed a little extra help. Meanwhile, hive #3 has so much honey stored that the frames are extremely heavy! If I was to harvest honey this year, it would be from this hive, but I’m letting all my girls keep their stores.
I don’t feel experienced enough to be confident in how much I take. What if I take too much and they all starve? And, secondly, all the colonies are still working hard to build up the frames with new wax. That’s a lot of hard work. They need all the honey they can get to keep building AND to have enough stored for winter. The cooler days will be here before we know it and the girls will be hard at work getting enough pollen and honey in for the long winter. I’m going to let them keep all they have and hope that next year I’ll reap the rewards. We shall see!
So that’s my bee drama! Things have mostly slowed down since, although I question my ability to see things clearly more often than I’d like. I also had some concerns about queen Macha near the end of July when I noticed she had stopped laying eggs. This can happen when it is very hot and the nectar production slows or stops. But as the other queens were going strong, I was concerned Macha might be failing. After all, she came from the same place that Brigid had and she was now dead. You can imagine my relief when Macha started laying again, albeit a little slowly. I’m pleased to say that, as of yesterday, I am much happier with how her colony is looking. She has clearly stepped up her laying and the colony is noticeably fuller with a large amount of brood.
Thanks as always for reading, and listening!
For this episode, I’d like to thank my teachers: Emily of Mueller Honey Bee ; Laura and Mike of Urban Honey Bees and Apiary Dave, head apiarist at Stratford Ecological Center for getting me started in this amazing hobby, and for all their invaluable advice.
For my next episode, I’d like to discuss the varroa destructor mite. Depending on how that goes, it might be broken into 2 episodes as there is so much information to cover. We shall see!
In the meantime, if you’d like to get in touch, you can find me at homesteadhensandhoney on Instagram, @homesteadhens on twitter, and you can email me at homesteadhensandhoney@gmail.com
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