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

Hive check July 4th

So much had happened since the 2nd swarm.
1) the equipment arrived from mann lake and brushy mountain.

2) the swarm hive was moved to the backyard

3) a few dozen forager bees were confused and were coming back to where the swarm rested for three days. I've hunted for the clump at night to move them over but with no success. I also tried adding leafy branches in front of both give entrances to force reorientation flights. Which worked and significantly reduced the confused foragers.

4) Hive check; both were full of bees. Saw both Queens. But no brood in either hive. I suspect they've not had mating flights as it has been chilly. Concerned the older hive is backfilling with nectar, will need to keep an eye on this. I checker boarder a little and dropped some frames with capped honey and empty cells for broad to the new hive. And some bees switched hives as they came along for the ride. I took the three the foundation free frames where the swarmed had started to build comb and used them for a honey super in the old hive.

The old hive now has a deep for broad, checked medium for brood, and then an excluder with a medium that has fresh foundation frames and foundation free comb frames on top.

The new hive has a screen ipm board, then the medium and some of the frames I added for the swarm checkered with fresh frames. On top is a second medium with fresh frames checkered with comb and capped cells from the old hive.

Swarm #2 details

Sitting at my desk working from home, I suddenly became aware of a loud humming outside the upstairs window. I looked up from my computer to see the entire back yard filled with bees. Not just orientation flights (it was about that time of day) but a swirling tornado of bees 40 feet in all directions. I ran out to see what was going on and it became apparent that my hive might be swarming (AGAIN)!

I stood in the middle of the massive ball of bees and watched it drift slowly across my neighbors yard. The bees coming and going from the hive to the ball seemed to become less and less the further away it moved, and it seemed to become tighter knit, maybe 20 feet wide.  For a minute it looked like they might start settling in a beautiful ornamental maple about 35 ft from home. I could clearly see bees landing and nudging one another on the leaves, but then the buzzing ball gently floated south to land in a plum tree just over the fence of a neighbor but one away, 45 ft at most from where they started. Watching several beards of bees formed and then slowly coagulate into a larger one was amazing.

Then my real fun began. Swarm harvest time. I'd watch three or four of videos a few years back and had a good idea what was needed. I grabbed my gear, a bucket, a step ladder, and some clippers. I got set up, climbed up and dropped two of the smaller branches into the bucket quite skillfully for a first timer. Particularly considering, I was on my own up a ladder with tens of thousands of bees in tree, clippers in one hand and a bucket in the other. Then I got ready to cut biggest clump, probably 2lbs of bees. With the clippers on the branch, I lifted the bucket, and click.... missed the bucket. The bees CRASHED onto a patio table and went everywhere. They weren't mad, just confused. So I picked up the branch, placed it in the bucket and started to scoop up the other piles and dump them in too.

The bucket 'o' bees was quickly carried to my ready and waiting hive. I'd splashed some sugar solution around and set up what I could, bottom board, 5 frames and a sheet of ply for a lid.

One quick dump and shake and they settled right in. Fifteen minutes later they switched from humming to that "ahh peace" everything is alright again. Second hive, thank you very much!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/NAJX77Eqt83BVuAw8

Swarm day summary

Hive swarmed. I caught them 50ft away in a plum tree, and I've moved them into a hive.

Hive check - growing and healthy

Went into the hive for a check and also to switch the rubbermaid lid. We put in the rubbermaid as a mote to stop the ants, but with so many bees drowned we wanted to switch to individual tupperwares under each leg of the hive stand. Unfortunately from the picture below I had to substitute the 4 tupperware I'd brought for this with 2 others. I'll go and add the ones at the back later. 

In the hive was thriving. Previously, I set it up with a fresh medium, deep (built out), and another fresh medium on top. The top medium had six frames packed with brood, pollen, and nectar/sugar solution. All eight frames of the deep were also packed. The lower medium was empty. Both boxes with brood had queen cells, probably around 10-15. I crushed all them as I went through the frames. The medium also had some frames with small patches of bullet shaped drone cone. There was also small patches of burr comb in a few places.

I pulled a foundation from one medium frame, and shoved some burr into the corners, with the intention that this can be a drone comb space for them. Given the density in the upper two boxes, I put the deep back on the bottom, and checkerboarded the two mediums.