Brood!!

I inspected the hives for the third time today. I've been out of town for a week and it had been rainy and cold before I left, so it has been longer than I would have liked. I was worried that the queens might not be laying since I didn't see any capped brood during my last inspection. However, this time both of the hives have lovely capped brood in the bottom hive body. It appears to be mostly worker brood. Neither hive seems very interested in the second hive body that I put on last time, although Droogie 2 has drawn out a couple frames in it.

It was also interesting to see some burr comb in between the two supers in Droogie 2, which has foundation. I haven't seen any burr comb in Droogie 1, which is using foundationless frames. I wonder if the bees in Droogie 2 need someplace to put drone comb because the foundation isn't the right size for it? Or maybe they just inspired to make some comb from scratch.

Because both hives have begun building comb in the second hive body but I did not see evidence of the queen having moved up there, I moved a couple frames of brood up into that chamber. Hopefully this will signal to the queen that she has free reign in the second level as well. I'm not sure if moving brood frames is a good idea, but I read on one of the forums that this might be helpful. It seems that for everyone who says something is a good idea, there are 10 other beekeepers who will disagree with them for one reason or another.

Second Hive inspection

It has been 12 days since the packages were installed and time for another inspection. This time I brought along the video camera so that I could show Ellie what the Droogies have been up to, and it also allows me to share it with you (warning: it is long and potentially boring)

Both hives are still taking lots of syrup. I didn't see any capped brood in either hive and had a hard time seeing eggs because the comb is so white. I'm a bit nervous that the queens are not laying, but it is potentially too early to see capped brood. I did see the queen in Droogie 2, so I am at least relieved that she's there. Both boxes have drawn out 7/10 of the frames and filled them with lots of nectar (probably mostly just the sugar water I've been feeding them) and pollen. I decided to add a second hive body on each of the hives for brood, just in case they need the extra space.

The Bee Yard

So this is where the Droogies reside. I've been given a bit of space by a scientist at Stanford who keeps about six hives. It seems to be a decent spot with lots of afternoon sun, and it will be very easy for me to check on them periodically when I'm leaving work or on my lunch break.

First Hive Inspection

The Droogies had been in their new joints for 4 days and so it was time to take a look to see if the queens had been released. Both of them had consumed all of the sugar syrup within the first 24 hours, and so I had replenished the feeders to give them more for the weekend. Both jars were completely empty when I went back on Monday- those are some hungry bees!

The queens had been released in both hives. Both hives have drawn out wax on about 6 of the frames. The comb in Droogie 1 was especially beautiful in its natural shape.

Installation

Installing the bees was very exciting. I had watched several instructional videos showing how to install a package so I knew the steps involved. However, the videos did not prepare me for the feeling of dumping thousands of bees from one box into another. It was almost like pouring liquid bees into the hive.

I have decided to try Droogie 1 with foundationless frames, also a recommendation from Michael Bush. For these frames, I've glued Popsicle sticks into the top groove. I also put in one frame of foundation in the middle of the hive body to act as a guide and hopefully prevent them from drawing the comb crosswise. Droogie 2 has normal wired wax foundation. It will be fun to see how they do.

I'm feeding both hives with recycled pasta sauce jars and a 1:1 sugar/water solution. I've punched holes in the top of the jar and have placed them over inner covers so the bees have easy access. The jar is within an empty hive body and topped off with my migratory covers.

The Droogies

Today I received two 3lb packages of Russian Bees from Noble Apiaries, which is located in Dixon, CA. The UPS man seemed a little shocked that he was actually delivering live bees to my doorstep. The package was physically vibrating with all 20,000 bees in the package buzzing in unison.

After letting Ellie and Emerson listen to their music, I brought them into the kitchen and tried calming them down by spraying the cages with water, which was recommended by Noble Apiaries.


They seemed to enjoy the shower and relaxed. I then loaded them up in the trunk with my gear and brought them down the peninsula to their new homes. Since these bees are Russians, I've decided to name the hives Droogie 1 and Droogie 2, which is a Nasdat word for "friends."

Supplies!

After deciding that I would like to have a couple hives, the next step was to figure out what equipment I would need. I spent many hours pouring over the bee blogs and forums to see what others recommended. After much consideration, I decided to take Michael Bush's advice to go with all medium hive bodies. I ordered almost everything from Mann Lake and saved a bundle on shipping by driving up to their CA location to pick it up. Here is what I bought: