San Queens

Blue, 70's. Trying to figure out whether to feed her or not. Saw a drone at the entrance. Late in the season.

Four supers.

S4--7 frames, a lot of bees toward the middle. All looking healthy

• F1: empty
• F2: Empty
  
• F3: some comb getting drawn out
  
• F4: drawing out, L uncapped honey, R capped honey 2#
  
• F5: 5# mostly capped, medium color
  
• F6: 4# L half and half capped, R uncapped, medium color
• F7: Drawing out on R.

S3

• F1: L is empty, R c. 1# capped honey
  
• F2: Heavy, uneven but dense and capped. 10#
  
• F3: L looks full capped honey. R same
  
• F4: Capped, c. 6#
  
• F5: 10#, capped
  
• F6:
  
• F7: 10#

S2--the recorder stopped recording. But there was nice steady brood in here. Even lay. I don't think I'm going to feed them this year.

Petaluma

Clear blue, afternoon, mid-70's. 2 supers.

S2--still collecting in there

• F1: honey to right side--4#
• F2: all capped honey (8#)
• F3: 5#
• F4: 5#, a lot of uncapped honey
• F5: 2#
• F6: 1# all open on the left
  
• F7: empty

S1

• F1: R empty, L top sealed, bottom uncapped 1.5#
• F2: R--lot of open brood, some sealed, pollen, More so on L
  
• F3: Solid capped laying pattern both sides
• F4: Lots of capped brood, pollen
• F5: More brood and pollen, Honey, pollen still coming in
• F6: L uncapped honey, R nothing

Before putting S3 on with 7 undrawn frames, I took F6 and 7 from S1 and put them in the middle of S3, bees and all.

3 full frames of brood. She should be moved soon.

San Queens--8/31/08

11:30am. Clear blue, light wind, c. 70º. SQ has 4 supers. A lot of pollen coming in

S4, they've started drawing all the undrawn frames out. Some honey.

S3, honey. Couple frames about 10# each, capped, and lots open. Pollen in the middle, some of it not packed down but loose kernels. A little bit of brood comb on the bottom.

S2, Worker brood that was pretty good, but it was starting to get spotty. No open brood. No sighted mites.

Saw one wax moth in the hive. Put on obs board. All told in the top 2 supers, there was about 58# of honey.

Petaluma--8/31/09

11am, Clear blue, 70º.

Put Obs board on it. S2--only has 2 supers--Filled from f2 to f5. In the middle capped brood, even pattern. Need another super. Still see pollen coming in.

Los Gatos--8/30/09

Went in about 2pm, little bit of wind, c. 80º.

At the entrance, not as much activitity as I would hope, but comparing to San Queens, which just is a bigger hive. Put on observation board, need to come back soon and check that.

LG has 3 supers.

In Super3, nothing on frame 1, little honey on F2, F's 3 and 4 are about 10#s each, F5 has a good amount, F6 good amount. Guessing about 28# in S3. Good amount of bees, no mites sited.

S2: about the same amount of honey, on F's 3 and 4 saw drone cells at the bottom (clearly outer ring of the brood chamber), and possible queen cup. No mites.

S1: Looking for the central brood chamber. More drone brood, and very spotty laying. Saw a reasonable mix of workers and drone, but clear the drone had not been kicked out. Saw the queen, who looked fat and happy, but didn't have too much of a court, she was sticking her head in cells, but wasn't sticking her butt in anything. No new eggs. Wondered if she stopped laying with the heat (some 100º days the week before). Should I start to feed them?

Petaluma & San Queens

Sunday Morning, about 10am. 70º, clear skies, no wind.

Petaluma: Put the observation board on before I started. I'll check it later on today.

Rachel and I have both noticed that this hive seems to have changed its flight pattern--rather than flying generally south across the lawn at about eye-level to a 5 year old (something that has effectively kept small children off that back lawn for most of the summer).

Opened the hive, and see they have a couple of frames of uncapped honey in the new super I put on. They still seem to be building to the right. When I went to Super1, I saw pollen, capped honey and capped and uncapped brood--they still seem to have a preference to make the center of their nursery on that one frame in the middle that has no foundation, the one they made themselves. I saw no drones, no mites, but I might have seen the queen on that nursery frame I was talking about. But they are still building toward the right. Wonder what that's about?

San Queens: The top super (Super4) has bees passing through it to hang out in the feeder/attic, but there is nothing built that I can see. The only thing they have done is to propolis together all the frames--I seem to remember that this means something about upcoming weather, but I don't remember what.

In Super3, they have 4 of the 7 frames filled and capped with honey. one of them I swear must weigh 10 pounds. The only thing wrong here is that they are building comb and filling it w/ honey between Supers 3 and 2. When I pull Super3 frames there's a mess underneath--are they getting congested in there?

San Queens & the Drones

Got back from the East Coast today and was in my office, where I can see San Queens out the window. I noticed a blue jay we call Blue Max hanging out on the fence by the hive as if he was expecting something. I've seen him doing that before and wondered, but never saw why.

I keep a pair of binoculars by the window to watch the action on the landingboard. I started checking out the hive entrance because I wasn't seeing any pollen going in. I noticed an odd uniform line of bees ABOVE the entrance and looking down toward it. I had just thought, "Are they bigger than the others? Are they drones who are trying to get back in?" when I saw a flash of blue across the lens.

This is what I think is going on. Nectar flow is finally done and they're kicking the drones out. Blue Max has caught on to this action, knows the drones don't sting, and is eating his fill of the big boys. I'll check it out some more tomorrow.

I have to get a camera.