Modomnoc Hive - 2 weeks from Bee day

Well since this is the continuance of the previous post it seems fitting to start the same so here goes...........


The day dawned warm and calm. We awoke with anticipation and excitement to go and see our colonies. It had been pretty much 2 weeks since we had seen the inside of the hives and are really curious about what is happening, did the bees accept the syrup? did the capped brood emerge? did the queen lay a bunch of new eggs? did the hive build more comb? Today is when we find out

The first thing we have been doing when we go to our hives is stand to the side and watch the incoming traffic to see what's happening. At Modomnoc the first thing we noticed was that the incoming bees were quite different than the bees at the Ambrose hive Having pretty sketchy mental notes of how each colony's bees looked we started thinking the worst. Were these robber bees? Crazy how when we recognize our 20/20 hindsight it usually shows we've done things...most likely sub-consciencely.... that we can use for future reference. I say this because I had just recently been reading about identifying robbing activity and robbing bees. Drawing on this newly acquired knowledge I watch the incoming bees and the entrance guard bees and determine that this are likely not robbers.


These bees are simply a different type of bee, darker & slightly larger. Our impression of this hive is that it is slightly "behind" the Ambrose hive in be numbers & comb building.
This is only an impression since there are so many variables that could cause this. Not as many bees in the nuc to start with. More exposure to the cool spring winds. Different genetic behaviour. A little later season in general in Winfield 14 or 15 miles farther north.
But in no way is this a fault of the bees they are working hard only doing what they need to, collecting pollen & nectar, building comb and raising a new generation. Building their hive to the point were they feel they can split and send forth another pollinating power house.


If you look closely at the photo just above you can see the bee responsible for this entire's colony's continued growth She's the one with the blue dot. The blue signifies that she was from the year ending with a 0


Unlike the Ambrose hive we noticed that these ladies are building comb on the bottom of the medium frames. This is what Vic said would likely happen & we could then use this comb for Varroa mite control. Varroa mites are nasty little critters that prey on the developing larva. I'll have to post more on them later.
I forgot to mention in the previous post that we seen our first drone. We wondered if we would recognize one when we seen it but make no mistake, they're hard to miss. Chubby, hairy bees with larger than normal eyes. They sort of look like bumble bees in shape. I mention this because the Modomnoc hive didn't appear to have made any drones yet but on the bottom of this frame there were a few capped cells that were slight taller then the rest and we were wondering if they were drone cells.


This inspection has raised our confidence that our bees will do fine provided we let them do what they need to. This hive has not drawn out the 4 medium frames we started with the same as the other hive but they have started drawing more comb on the deep frames on both sides in order to expand the brood chamber. As you can see in the photo they have covered a good portion cross the top of the frame and on closer observation we can see the small, tiny in fact, bits of bee's wax on the bottom rail of the frame. Millions of these tiny jewels are excreted from the bees bodies, chewed, massaged, manipulated and fashioned into perfect hexagons; filling all the frames and being filled with everything the colony needs to flourish. Bee's wax seals all their food and their most precious: the next generation.

This day started with many questions and may be a little apprehension and in hindsight all for not.

We re-assembled the hive box with feeder, even though they aren't taking too much yet, then we just had to take picture of their cute, sweet little faces all lined up around the access hole to the feeder box. Like the Ambrose hive we had scraped the brace comb off of the top board to keep from crushing any bees.....another small gift...the first from this hive and a true treasure from our wonderful group of elegant ladies.