several questions

[mike s]

Hey everyone! I have several questions that I would love to be answered:

1. My beekeeper that I purchased my bees from (nuc w/ new red dot queen and golden in color) in mid May. The bees in the nuc were mostly darker, and he mentioned that they would over time all become golden yellow like her - which they did. Now they seem to look darker again, although some seem to be her golden color. I opened up the hive today, and she is still alive and strong. What gives? Is this because she mated with different drones?

2. I noticed today that I have quite a bit of honey, (I have a shallow super and a deep super, both 10 frames). Looks like all the frames are getting full (even the end frames) with less brood being produced. Is this due to the amount of honey, or does she slow down producing brood after a big nectar flow?

3. The beekeeper I recieved my bees from said that a good sign to look for is to watch the bees returning from foraging - and if pollen is coming in, then things are good. I am seeing few bees returning with pollen. Does pollen become unavailable or decline at the same time as nectar? Does not seem like there is as much pollen in the frames as I would think there should be. Do I need to feed them a pollen supplement?

4. When you harvest honey from hive - does all of the frame need to be capped, or a percentage that I should be looking for?

5. After all of these questions - does it seem like it is time to add another super, or harvest a few frames of honey and add back a few empty frames for the queen to stay happy? I thought I was supposed to not take honey the first year to leave them plenty, but I do live in Southern California (inland), where we probably have longer nectar seasons?

I have more questions - but will stop here for now. Thanks in advance!
Mike

[mtman1849]

1. yes it is possible she mated with a different breed of drone

5. when your super is 70% full add another

[sc-bee]

If possible find a beekeeper that is in your area ---- to base flows and time line of bees:

With that being said-

If you still have a flow you could be on the way to a congested brood nest and a swarm. Ost definitely add another super --- if based on local information and you still have more flow to go , you may want to open up the brood nest if congested. Queen needs room to lay.

Depending on your area, timing different for different areas, during fall the bees will backfill a large part of the brood nest area in preparation of winter.

I would not concern myself too much w/the color of my bees---alot of folks like lots different color bees in their hives --- genetic diversity :-D!

Nectar and pollen do not necessarily come in together-- you may have each by themselves or together. Pollen coming in is a good sign but do not strightly depend on it. A queenless hive will store pollen!

[mike s]

Thanks guys! I will get a new super asap!

[Card]

This is completely unscientific and unverified, but my worker bees (Italians) seem to be a bright yellow/gold when they're young, and then it appears that their coloration steadily darkens over their lifespan. Early on when the hive (and the queen) was new, I could get a pretty decent idea of which generation I was looking at from the color alone. Now that the queen has been steadily producing eggs and therefore new bees all summer, there's a mix of darker and lighter bees at any given time, but I can still get a decent idea of an individual worker's age - and from that I can usually make an educated guess as to what that bee is doing. (cleaning, babysitting, fanning, guarding, foraging, scouting, etc.)

[Irwin]

Card same with my hive :-D

[Understudy]

Hey everyone! I have several questions that I would love to be answered:

1. My beekeeper that I purchased my bees from (nuc w/ new red dot queen and golden in color) in mid May. The bees in the nuc were mostly darker, and he mentioned that they would over time all become golden yellow like her - which they did. Now they seem to look darker again, although some seem to be her golden color. I opened up the hive today, and she is still alive and strong. What gives? Is this because she mated with different drones?

1. Your queen is a hussy. Which for a queen is a good thing. She probably mated with a bunch of drones. With several different genetic traits. You can watch the bees changes as she chooses which sperm sac to use.

2. I noticed today that I have quite a bit of honey, (I have a shallow super and a deep super, both 10 frames). Looks like all the frames are getting full (even the end frames) with less brood being produced. Is this due to the amount of honey, or does she slow down producing brood after a big nectar flow?

My bees slow down brood production in August and gather more honey. For beekeepers up north this is a fall flow. For me this is just a good month. I will have to see how my bees are doing when I get home.

3. The beekeeper I recieved my bees from said that a good sign to look for is to watch the bees returning from foraging - and if pollen is coming in, then things are good. I am seeing few bees returning with pollen. Does pollen become unavailable or decline at the same time as nectar? Does not seem like there is as much pollen in the frames as I would think there should be. Do I need to feed them a pollen supplement?

Pollen coming in is a good sign. You can usually associate nectar with it in most cases(not all). You are in Redlands I don't think you get a harsh winter. So you probably do not need a pollen substitute. Check what blooms in your area. That is the factor.

4. When you harvest honey from hive - does all of the frame need to be capped, or a percentage that I should be looking for?

You would expect the vast majority to be capped. If not the honey has to much water content and will ferment on you.

5. After all of these questions - does it seem like it is time to add another super, or harvest a few frames of honey and add back a few empty frames for the queen to stay happy? I thought I was supposed to not take honey the first year to leave them plenty, but I do live in Southern California (inland), where we probably have longer nectar seasons?

I have more questions - but will stop here for now. Thanks in advance!
Mike

Rule of thumb on adding is 8/10. If 80% of the frames are built out and full and there are bees on all ten frames you should add. Provided you are not going into winter. Since you are SoCal I would tell you to take a maybe three frames (alternating positions). and replace with new frames. Also check for brood the one thing you didn't mention was brood. While brood production may be slower it is not nonexistent. So Check brood if there are some eggs and young larva you should be good.

I will pass along a bit a warning. If you have a good first year it can raise you expectations bit high and you will get knocked for a loop if your second year goes bad.

Not that anything like that ever happened to anyone here.

//Looks around quickly and slowly shuffles away. Mumbling about SHB and wax moth.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[mike s]

Thanks for all the advice. I think I have these things worked out a little better now, with the advice. I have to say I am a big dummy - and mistakenly thought that the capped brood was capped honey (just older -so darker than the whitter capped actual honey), so I do not have as much as I thought. (I took off one frame and was trying to decide what to do with it, when bees started hatching out inside my living room!)

 And yes, they were the lighter color than some of the forager bees. My concern is AHB, so I got a little nervous when I started seeing darker bees.

So - I will still get another super to relieve congestion, and heat issues, and keep honey for the hive as originally planned. I will put on a large super with a queen excluder next spring before orange trees bloom, and that will be mostly mine!

[Understudy]

As someone who lives in Florida and deals with AHB. The only sure way to tell the difference is with a DNA test.

A hive can be hot for a variety of reasons only one of which would be AHB. The simple thing is if a hive is Hot on a constant basis you need to requeen.

Do not buy into the media hype that AHB are these awful bees that only want to kill. It complete BS.
AHB can be more aggressive if provoked but drop a hive of Europeans and 300 + stings later you won't care what kind of bees they were and you will still have to deal with angry bees that aren't AHB.

Sincerely,
Brendhan