Backyard Apiary

Me sporting my UltraBreeze Jacket and holding a frame with an unmarked queen (on the back)

For the first time in my life, I opened a hive to do an inspection. A local beekeeper, Bob, was kind enough to let me join him for hive inspections. We opened a total of 5 hives. The first two were strong and doing well. Each was a single 10-frame deep.

Beekeeping Tip: Label all of your frames in a consistent fashion so that you can replace them in the same orientation. E.g. mark one end of each frame and make sure all of them in a hive box are along the same side.

The first had a queen marked with a red dot. The second hive’s queen was not marked. We found her on the 3rd frame and gave her a red dot. Each year Bob uses a different colored, water soluble  marker. Tagging all of his queens to a specific year lets him know the age of the queen and if a queen has been superseded. He lets the colonies decide when the queen needs to be replaced. Some beekeepers and books will state that you should replace your queen every year. From what I’ve read, queens will remain productive for several years. The only time I plan on purchasing a queen is if my hives face an emergency.

The third hive we opened was devoid of live. The bees had most likely froze to death. It was really sad to see a few workers who survived trying their best to remove the bodies of their dead sisters. We cleared out the hive of all bees (live and dead) before closing up the entrance. This was done to keep wax moths out of the hive while it is unoccupied. Hopefully the survivors join another colony.

The fourth hive consisted of a medium super on top of two deeps. This hive had a little bit of bee traffic at the entrance, but it turned out to be bees from other colonies. They were robbing out the honey and pollen. It seems that these bees froze to death also. The bees were covering the brood trying to keep it warm, instead of clustering to keep themselves warm.

The fifth and last hive was the same as the fourth. All of the bees died covering brood. After having the hive open for a few minutes, the stronger hives start to rob it. This hive had the most capped honey of the other hives we opened. Bob decided to leave it open to help feed the other colonies.