Swarm and recovery!

Sarah yelled the bees are swarming. I watched and stalked them as they buzzed 3 yards over and settled in a tree. I cut a few branches and gave it a good shake and got a bunch of bees into the Nuc. Then continued to transfer then over, by hand, frame, shaking and some waiting. Got about 95% or more in the Nuc with 5 medium frames closed it up and brought it home. 

Tonight we plan to move the frame and bees to a medium super with sugar solution (cooling now). We'll block the hive entrance for a few days then let the out to orient.

quick check

It's been warning up and the bees got super busy. Wanted to check for spreading out in the hive glanced in rather than pulling frames out.

Top box. Almost no change. The two frame that were checkered are the only frames with anything happening. 

Middle box. Almost no change. The two frame that were checkered have a little new comb. From a glance underneath I squished half a dozen queen cells. 

Decided to make "more room" by switching the top and middle supers.

hive check + varroa test

Went to check how crowded the hive is and to try out a varroa test.

Current hive from top to boom. Empty deep for sugar feeder, Medium, Medium, Deep.

The top medium super was empty. The next medium super had a nice half brood ball, nectar, and capped honey across 6 frames, with the outer 2 about half built out. Switched the outer ones with frames 3 and 5 of the top super. And put the empty frames from the top super into 2 and 7 of the middle one. Goal is to give them a bit more space in the middle and to build up into the top layer (both steps are to discourage swarming).

The deep had brood, honey, and a good chunk of pollen. There was a bunch of empty cells that look like maybe they hatched recently. This fits with the large orientation flight we saw about 2 days ago. There were c-shape instar adjacent so no concern queen Clementine has stopped laying. Saw the queen down near the frames with empty cells so will check for brood there next time. 

Crushed the burr comb on the edges of frames in medium super and the deep. Mostly drone comb but about 10 uncapped queen cells too. 

From the brood on the middle super, we removed the bees, scooped half a cup of nurse bees for varroa testing. Placed the bees in a mason jar with a lid made with wire mesh. Covered the bees in powered sugar and let it sit for a few minutes. Then dumped the powdered sugar into the tupperware and then added water to dissolve the powdered sugar. We returned the (not delighted, covered in powdered sugar) bees back to the hive. After the sugar dissolved, we inspected the remains. There was definitely debris of various kinds, but we didn't see any "smoking mites". We're going to decide on a treatment plan so we're ready, and we'll keep inspecting regularly. 

hive check

Both new boxes have bees and comb, more in the lower as it's closer to the brood. There is good build out on the frames in the brood box too. Saw eggs and Cshaped instar. Saw the queen. Looking good.

Adding supers

Prepped two medium supers and left them in -20C for 24h+. Then left them during the day next to the hive to warm back up, and then dropped them on top in the evening. No hive check, a quick 1 minute smoke and add both supers.

hive check

Checked to see how the girls are settling in. They're building out comb on the 3 new frames. Saw the queen. Might be backfilling brood with sugar water/nectar since the weathers been good there's a good flow with all the plants blooming.

new hive

After the sudden decline and death of both hives 2 years ago, we harvested honey and took a break.

Now we're back. We drove down to Centralia to pick up a Nuc from Woods Bee co. We'd cleaned up the old hive equipment and sterilized it in our new freezer. It was wierd being out after so many weeks inside.

Back home, we opened the Nuc and saw orientation flights by mid-morning. In the evening once it cooled and they're settled down, we switched frames into to the deep, with two 1:1 sugars on top. I saw the queen in transferring the frames.

Nuc before transfer