Part Three: First Hive Inspection

Misty really wants to put on the veil and meet her new sisters and brothers.

Five days after putting our package into its hive (check out this video of the process to see me talk to our bees and never sit still), we quickly checked on the colony’s status. Kha-bee-si, our Queen of Bees, was free! She was laying. The field bees were hard at work bringing in pollen and nectar, and building comb. All was well with the world. We carefully removed the queen cage and its rubber band, eyed all the beautiful hexagonal comb that our bees had created from scratch, then closed it all up for the night.

First real inspection and treating early for Varroa destructor mites

The main reason we chose a screened bottom board was to monitor the serious threat of the Varroa destructor mite, responsible for spreading deadly viruses such as Sacbrood, Deformed Wing Virus, Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus, and more throughout a hive. I learned a lot in my first days of research, but I’m learning more every single day about how these little fat suckers can quickly multiply and take down even the strongest hive.

I spy two varroa mites. Do you?

Nancy, our mentor (I highly recommend having a seasoned beekeeper show you how they do things: it’ll clear up a lot of confusion and help you feel more at ease), Tim, and I trekked out to the riverside hive on the one nice-ish day of the week. We planned to do our first real hive inspection, then apply a treatment of oxalic acid, to destroy much of the varroa threat before new brood was capped. Our queen was looking big and strong, five frames were drawn out with fresh wax, and we saw eggs as well as about five-day-old larvae in some cells. Everyone looked happy and healthy!

We removed the corrugated plastic board from our screened bottom board to check out the debris: just a lot of wax remnants and dropped pollen pieces. We cleared off the board, oiled it up, and replaced it. We then got to work performing an oxalic acid vaporization treatment (read these instructions to learn more about the process). Be sure to wear a half-face respirator when doing this, because the acid can seriously damage throat, lung, and other soft tissue in humans. Bees don’t have this soft tissue, so they are not affected.

Sticky board mite check

We could hardly wait to see how many mites we destroyed with the oxalic acid treatment, while simultaneously hoping we found none in our hive at all. We removed the greased-up board 72 hours after treatment. With a magnifying glass and some good lighting, we found only five varroa mites. What a win! Our hive is now down five mites to start off the year.

Since this treatment and hive inspection, we’ve let them bee, but I continually visit the hive and just watch them fly in and out. My favorite thing is seeing the ladies entering with their “pollen pants” on, what I affectionately call the full pollen baskets on their hind legs. I’ve also been adding sugar syrup as needed, since the weather in Upstate New York has been cold, dreary, and not very conducive to foraging.

Things I’ve learned this month and final thoughts

1. You shouldn’t add too much sugar syrup to a hive-top feeder at one time because it will likely cause additional condensation that will lead to mold both inside the feeder and on the bottom of the outer cover.
2. You can clean out, or prevent, this mold by adding apple cider vinegar to the syrup. Some even use a little Clorox bleach (bees love chlorinated water and cleaning with bleach does not seem to affect them much).
3. Ants are always going to find a way to the sugar syrup, but there are methods of limiting them: adding cinnamon or cayenne pepper to the base of your hive stand are a couple of options. It looked like most of the ants drowned before they could go back and tell their colony about our stash.
4. Swarms happen! About the coolest thing I’ve experienced thus far in life is placing my hand on a 10lb swarm that took to the trees near the Betterbee apiary in mid-May. You’ll never be afraid of a few bees on a frame again once you place your finger INSIDE of a swarm and feel its reverberations and warmth. I’m afraid nothing will be as cool as that experience. I also hope I never have the opportunity to feel my own hive’s “swarm pulse,” as I hope it never, ever swarms! Check out this post for pictures and videos of the 10lb-er (she was a biggun!).
5. As I read The Secret Life of Bees, I reflect on a concept stated many times: “Send the bees your love and everything will be fine.” There really is something to your state of mind when you’re in your bee yard. If you feel nervous, jittery, and uncomfortable, it won’t be a pleasant experience for you or your bees, and they’ll sense that and act accordingly. However, if you go in happy, confident, and careful, they will go about their business caring little to not at all about your presence.

At this point, I have no idea what next month will bring, but I look forward to telling you all about it!

Your Betterbee-ginner Beekeeper,
Quinn

A Year in the Life of a Beginner Beekeeper Series

Part One: Tackle Your Fear by Experiencing the Wonder of the Honey Bee
Part Two: Plan and Prepare for Your Bees
Part Four: Ask Experienced Beekeepers Questions, Get Helpful Answers 
Part Five: The Beekeeping Journey has Many Twists and Turns, Surprises and Regrets
Part Six: Newspaper Combining, Drone Culling, and Honey Harvesting, Oh My!
Part Seven: Preparing for Winter 
Part Eight: Lessons in Mites and Moisture
Part Nine: The End of a Decade, The Beginning of Something New
Part Ten: Winter Feeding & a Heart-Wrenching Loss
Part Eleven: Eagerly Awaiting Spring
Part Twelve: Exiting Winter Isolation & Kicking Off Mite Management