Todays inspection 6/24

[saltybluegrass]

Very excited on the health of the hive - I found a few beetles but no varroa.
Some of you asked what the plastic was on top of my hive. It was a queen excluder under the inner cover.
Essentially it allowed the queen the run of both boxes.
I found 3 frames with brood in the top. I finished my inspection and set that box aside.
I then inspected the bottom/first box and found good amount of brood on 4 frames and honey / nectar/ pollen on the outside frames 2-4 and 7-9.
The outer frames were being worked but no substantial comb or anything else.
I decided to move the upper brood to the lower box and unproductive frames from lower to the upper.
I moved the QE IN BETWEEN the upper and lower.
I noticed a ton of outside activity and worried I trapped the queen upstairs.
So I slid the QE out leaving the boxes open for business.

I?m concerned with this outside activity as I?ve never seen this hive do this.
The frames inside were very healthy with brood nectar and pollen. Now there are a lot of dead bees out front.
https://youtu.be/mIdFOTxgz9U

[Donovan J]

Probably just hot bees wanting to cool off.

[Oldbeavo]

When you want to go and rearrange the hive it is best to find the queen and set her aside so you know what is going on.
Or if you can't find her shift the QX and then in a few days go back and look for eggs. It really doesn't matter a lot where she is as the bees will sort things out for her to keep laying.

[saltybluegrass]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmDuL4LrLCA
This was this morning showing a lot of dead/wilting bees out front
Was wondering if there were 2 queens? One in upper and one in lower to cause this killing?

[saltybluegrass]

When you want to go and rearrange the hive it is best to find the queen and set her aside so you know what is going on.
Or if you can't find her shift the QX and then in a few days go back and look for eggs. It really doesn't matter a lot where she is as the bees will sort things out for her to keep laying.

I was actually pretty proud that I had enough energy and withstood the heat to give a real good look for her. Just couldn?t find her. They started getting pretty agitated so I transferred the frames hastily and closed it up.

[BeeMaster2]

Salty,
There is a good chance the bees on the ground are just bees that got rolled during your inspection due to pulling frames out. This is why we say to pull an end frame out first and then leave it out to provide space to separate the frames and then pull them. If the queen is one of the rolled bees they have to make a new one. Even the first frame can damage a bunch of bees. Usually the mated queen does not go on the end frames.
Did you do this?
Jim Altmiller

[incognito]

Salty,
There is a good chance the bees on the ground are just bees that got rolled during your inspection due to pulling frames out. This is why we say to pull an end frame out first and then leave it out to provide space to separate the frames and then pull them.
Jim Altmiller

What else helps to minimize the loss, smoking the end frame before pulling it, sliding the frame towards the side of the box before pulling it, shaking the bees off before reinserting?
I hate the sound of bees crushing when I push the frames together. Is there a technique to minimize that?

[saltybluegrass]

Funny you say that Jim,
On the lower box
I actually did take the second frame from end to be my spacer. I sat it outside and went about frame pulling. Yes I rolled a lot of bees - they were very heavy on the bottoms of frames and I lost a few on the ground as I sat frames out.
So if I?ve replaced the upper super that had 4-5 frames of brood to the bottom and the brood box bottom unworked frames to the top.
The upper box I went by the book on inspection. Removed #1 and slid the rest towards that gap.
Is that why they are hanging outside like bearding since the work got redistributed?

[BeeMaster2]

Salty,
If you look closely at my avatar picture, you will see the bottom board covered with bees. This was either my first or second year of Beekeeping. It is covered because I did a full inspection on this hive and really disturbed the bees. The nurse bees had to fix everything that I messed up and I suspect the field bees were waiting around for them to finish before they could off load there stores and get back to work.
Jim Altmiller

[Bob Wilson]

I see that too. I didn't realize how a hive slows down the rest of the day after an inspection. I guess they are re-propilizing everything and repairing any torn comb... maybe rounding up any stray SHB that I missed.

[saltybluegrass]

Jim,
The majority/ most have gone in. Last night was a huge beard. What would you think about the added lower box heat or increased  labor by putting the upper brood frames into the bottom- thus leaving bee wildered bees

[BeeMaster2]

I see that too. I didn't realize how a hive slows down the rest of the day after an inspection. I guess they are re-propilizing everything and repairing any torn comb... maybe rounding up any stray SHB that I missed.

The Everything except the last. Right after you are done, and while you are inspecting, the beetles own the hive and are running around undisturbed and laying thousands of eggs. In my observation hive I have seen them in full control until the third day, especially when I totally rearranged the hive.
Jim Altmiller