The Plot Thickens
- Donna Brown
- May 6, 2021
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 30, 2021
HIVE INSPECTION: 05/02/21
We had a plan. We started working the plan. Unfortunately the Spice Girlz had a different plan.
(Quick info on the different types of bee boxes: Super = shallower box used primarily for honey; Deep = large box used for brood)
Working from one side of the apiary to the other, we left the Spice Girlz hive for last. Hives C & D, our new (NUC) hives, looked great. Lots of activity in and out of the front entrances. We went into the hives only to make sure they settled in and the queens were doing their royal job. We saw eggs and larva in both so we closed the hives back up and gave them sugar water. We even spotted the queen in hive C (pictured above) - so yay!
Hive B, the small split with one of the the new queens, looked very iffy at first glance. There was no activity at the front entrance so I thought they must not have accepted the new queen. Maybe the bees went back to the original hive. BUT when we opened the hive, not only were there bees, but we spotted eggs and larva. So they accepted the queen and are well on their way. Since we split the hive during the day, this hive probably doesn’t have any forager bees yet (hence no entrance activity), so it’s very important we feed them sugar water and pollen until the existing bees “graduate” to foraging and start to bring in their own resources.
Onward to Hive A: aka the Spice Girlz. Strap in because this is where the story gets interesting. When we last left them, we configured the hive with a honey super on top (that they had started to build out the comb in), a second super that they had previously built out with brood at the end of winter, then a queen excluder, and then the deep brood box. The hope was to reclaim the super that had brood and have them use it for honey only. Putting the queen excluder below the second super would allow for the nurse bees to take care of the existing brood as they emerge in the box, but keep the queen out of the box so she wouldn't be able to lay eggs there. Then the bees would fill it with honey instead.
The top honey super looked good. We saw some capped honey which means there is a small nectar flow which is great news!
We moved on to the second super to see how much brood was left, which should have started to deplete by now. We saw a ton of swarm queen cells* along the bottom of a couple of frames, as well as a few supersedure queen cells* [see below for explanation] in the middle of the frame. These are never a good sign, so we decided to remove these cells (as in the video below).
Here’s the BIG PLOT twist. We then noticed eggs and larva in the frame. (Mild warning: the video below has some icky bits)
Um… Wait. WHAT? Holy f*ck! After scratching our heads for a second we realized we have a queen ABOVE the queen excluder, meaning the elusive queen we hunted for for so long last weekend (when Robbin tried to grab her) must have flown into this super that was on the ground behind him. We didn’t check it before putting it back on the hive since we assumed she flew back into the main hive. The critical issue would have been neither the old queen nor the new swarm queen would have been able to leave the hive, given that the queen excluder trapped them in place. Oh my! And because we didn’t know what was going on below in the deep box, we didn’t bother looking for the queen, which in hindsight was a mistake.
Can you guess what all this means yet? Read on for another twist.
We start inspecting the deep box below the excluder. We assumed that the new queen we installed in the cage would not be accepted by the bees in the brood box since they would know their true queen was still alive above. Again, we assumed incorrectly. We found eggs and larva. So the twist of twists is we had 2 laying queens within the same hive.
By now, we were at a loss of what to do. The Spice Girlz were starting to really get agitated, we were flustered and hot and tired. If we had a spare hive we could have easily split the queens, but alas we did not have a top or bottom with which to make a new hive. Our inexperience trumped our gut instincts (which is always spot on with time and distance from the situation) and we panicked a little. We ended up putting the excluder under the real honey super and just put the hive back together. It really will be a Battle Royale or a Thunderdome cage match. There will be 2 likely outcomes: 1) one queen will prevail and her reign will be over all bees; or 2) the old queen will swarm and leave the hive with half the bees. We have no idea what to expect next weekend. I have more equipment on order so as to be better prepared next time.
As new beekeepers (we are really only a year in), these girls (and boys since we spotted a lot of drones) teach us hard lessons every week and definitely keep us on our toes.
On a positive note: NOT ONE STING.
[*NOTE: queen cells are very different in look than regular brood cells, vastly different from drone cells (which are larger and more pronounced than worker cells). They either hang off the middle of the frame or from the bottom (depending on which kind it is) and look kind of peanut like.
Swarm cells (those along the bottom of a frame) are created when a hive is getting close to capacity. The bees create these new queen cells for the sole purpose of dividing the hive. Once a queen emerges from a swarm cell she will fly off to mate after a few days and then stay with the existing hive. The previous queen will take off with half the bees and form a swarm and look for new digs.
Supersedure cells (those that are formed in the middle of a frame) are created when the hive is either queen-less (perhaps she died) or the queen isn't performing up to their standards and she needs to be replaced.]
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