Checking on the Top Bar Hive

Yesterday I went through all my hives to see how things were going. I drove to Valerie and Jeff's house to check on the top bar which I haven't looked at in 10 days.

They were doing really well for the most part. They were building comb on about eight of the top bars. The comb is beautiful for the most part. Here's an example:



The queen is wasting no time in laying eggs. You can easily see eggs in almost all of the cells on the left of this picture. Isn't the new wax lovely? I love letting bees build their own foundation - it's always beautiful.



Where I had tied in old comb to welcome them to the hive, they are doing interesting things. Below you'll see an old comb I tied in. It had large cells so they are using it (the old comb) for nectar storage and have attached brood comb to either side. They definitely don't like the string in their hive and have made each piece I looked at fuzzy by picking at it with their mandibles.



Early in the hive there were a few examples of cross comb. I hadn't interrupted this the last time I went in, so this time I worked on it to give them the idea that they are to build their comb straight. I exposed brood in this process and hated doing that but these bees need to build comb in parallel with the top bars.

If you'll look closely at this picture, you can see the each bee in the line extending her proboscis to collect the fluid leaking from the broken cells.



I'm still using the two empty packages to prop up top bars to look at them.  Setting the crooked comb top bar on them, I tied the now-broken comb onto the bar, pulling it more in line.

This is an interesting picture to look at because Don's bees are small-cell bees.  You can see the contrast between the cell size on the old comb and the cell size of the brood comb that the bees have built next to it.

Here are some of the other combs - notice the string and how they have managed it.  And notice how they have built around the tied-in-comb.  If you click on these pictures, you can view them larger.:

   

  

My daughter Valerie took all of these pictures.  I was so proud of her.  She threw on a veil and a pair of gloves but even though I brought a bee suit for her, she didn't wear it and wasn't worried.  I wish I had taken a picture of her - I will the next time.

I think this hive is going really well now.  It certainly has been a learning curve.  I am going to name the hive Topsy for Topsy Turvy - which is certainly the way it has gotten started in a topsy turvy way!

Drones and Drips

I checked on all of my own hives today to see if I needed to add a box to any of them. All of the hives were working in the box below the most recent addition, so I'm leaving them alone for another week.

In Bermuda, there was an opportunity to photograph a great drone. They look sort of like cigars - blunt on the end. Their eyes are huge compared to the workers in the picture. I saw drones walking around in every hive.


In Bermuda, the box below the top box is a shallow that I stuck on for honey production while I was not bee-ing and was away at my daughter's wedding. The queen is laying in two frames of the shallow. Here is a good shot that shows eggs in the early stages as well as very young larvae. There is also another good big-eyed drone photo op at the upper left corner.



In Mellona, one frame of honey was attached to the frame next to it. When I removed it, comb broke off creating a huges honey drip. The bees immediately marshall forces to repair the problem. I hate creating the drip, but watching the bees circle the edge of the honey puddle and work their way to the middle is fascinating. The ones in the circle around the comb are collecting the spilled honey.



In Aristaeus2, the queen has also been very active. She has also been laying in the third box. It is only an 8 frame box so brood in the third box is to be expected.

The best laid plans of bee and me....

If you've been reading this blog, you know that I have been using foundationless frames for a while. The idea of the foundationless frame is to let the bee choose what size cell to build. Michael Bush, one of my beekeeping heroes, is a big promoter of this concept of giving the bees the opportunity to build their own cell size. (If you follow the link, be sure to scroll down to read all the quotes about giving the bees the opportunity to build their own comb, from Rev. Langstroth to Richard Taylor)

Often when they are storing honey, they build very large wax cells. When they are raising brood in a frame, they build smaller cells than the commercial foundation. It seems democratic, organic, and caring to allow the bees the freedom to decide.

However, sometimes they run rampant with their creativity. It doesn't happen a lot, but when it does, the beekeeper has a problem, just as a beekeeper has a problem when the bees build strange comb on foundation, as they sometimes do. I try to always have at least one sheet of full foundation in each super or a fully drawn out comb in each super. I believe it's Don at Dixie Bee Supply who says that crazy comb building is a sign of a bad queen. I can't find that quote on Beemaster, though, so don't hold me to it.

When I was in my hives over the weekend, I discovered this interesting comb. The bees had only the small line of cells at the top of the frame as a starter. They apparently couldn't make up their minds about how to fill this frame with comb. The comb at the left was attached to the frame next to it (I clearly ripped it when I removed the frame).



Toward the right you'll see a two layer comb arrangement. The larger piece has capped honey in it.






In order to clear this up, I substituted a new frame in this space in the hive and brought this one inside to eat the honey, cut the wax off for melting or showing to children when I give talks, and to make the frame ready to reuse. If a hive has a lot of crazy comb, rather than just one frame, the solution is to cut out the crazy comb and to rubber band it into the frame as it should be. Then return the frame to the hive and they'll make it right.