Second Queen Installed in Shakopee

Second MN Hygienic queen

I drove back home from work on Wednesday May 18, 2011with my little wooden insect box in the front seat. As soon as I pulled into the driveway, Ben and I jumped into our bee suits and drove to Shakopee to installed the rescued queen. We placed her in the Shakopee divide a day earlier than anticipated because we wanted her to be safe and cared for right away... enough adventures already. We used the same procedure  as in Chanhassen; removing the cork and replacing it with a candy plug.

We will check on her, if she has been accepted by her new family Monday, May 23 or Tuesday May 24,  2011. I am hopeful but still a little worried about the queen. It is never a sure thing, acceptance is left to nature and waiting is difficult to do.

From this mishap I have learned that sugary water can only be used when there are a lot of bees, hundreds not only a handful. So few bees could not clean themselves so fast, and soon the sugar dried off, preventing the workers to feed and groom the queen. A hard lesson to learn.

To the Rescue!

May 17-18, 2011

One queen was then left with few attendants. This one was for the divide in Shakopee. We put her with her attendants in an insect cage, thinking that they would have more room to move around. We had to put the queen in Shakopee on Thursday May 19... a long time to stay in a plastic box.

I decided to give those bees a "little" squirt of sugary water to feed them. I had the best of intentions, and wanted them to feel happy.  A few hours later the poor bees were actually coated with sugar, and could barely move because of the stickiness. Few died almost right away. We were very desperate... we then wet them to remove the excess sugar. But I did not understand why they were not cleaning each other like in a hive. And clearly could not feed the queen...they were busy trying to survive.  I learned later my grave mistake.

Queen Bank at the University of MN

I went to work the next day, and told my frantic story to Judy  a friend and grad student who is working in the entomology department at the U and is a honeybee specialist!  After thinking, she suggested to bring my frail  and  weak queen, and then she would put her in her queen bank so the honeybees could help her regain strength by grooming and feeding her. Far fetch? No Judy was very confident that this could work. Julie my daughter and Stephanie her friend, drove 20 miles with the queen,  delivering her to the U apiary!

One of the University's apiary

Judy smoking the bees

I had never heard of a queen bank before, and learned that  it is a hive where only new queen are kept separately, waiting for a new  hive to be ready for them. This bank is a  hive consisting of one deep box of capped brood, honey and pollen. No one is laying eggs, and every queen is in a queen cage, and the honeybees take care for their favorite queen! 

Metal plate frame: queen bank

The frame with the metal plate is the spot where the queens are placed, and cared for. Amazingly, no fights were seen, and everyone was busy tending a queen.
      

Judy pulling the queen cage frame

The frame has 2 "racks" where the little queens'
cages can fit nicely. Judy wrote my name on my cage, placed it among the other queen cages;  we saw right away that few bees came  flying  on my queen cage. Now I had to have faith in those honeybees, and walk away. There was nothing else I could do, except to give her 24 hours of TLC at the University of Minnesota.

The next day, we had a picnic by the U's apiary. Now it was the moment of truth...Did my queen survive my inexperience? I was very nervous, I did not want to lose her.  Judy kept repeating "Oh, she is going to be fine, she is going to be fine!" We opened the hive and oh miracle my queen was alive and very well. Judy concluded that she must have been dehydrated and hot. Adding that her sugary soaked  attendants could not care for her because they were fighting themselves to stay alive;  the queen must not have drank  or eaten for few hours, and became lethargic, and weak.

I was elated and gave Judy a super big hug! she said: "I did not do anything for your queen ... my honeybees did!"  I don't care what you are saying.... I know that  YOU save my queen and I am very grateful, thank you.  Judy and I  left the University's apiary side by side happy; myself holding  my little insect cage like a precious cargo, delighted to have saved a queen! What a day!

The Queen in Chanhassen

May 16, 2011

Since both queens are in the same plastic box with their attendants, Ben had to separate the queens cages using a french wooden pickle tongs!

Now we were ready to put the new queen in Chanhassen, in our divide. This queen is a MN hygienic which has been bred at the University of Minnesota by Dr. Marla Spivak and her team.

 I placed the queen in my bee suit pocket to keep her warm until we can put her in her new hive. We have removed the little cork plug, and inserted a candy plug instead. Ben pierced a little hole in the candy so the bees have the "idea" to eat the candy to release their queen. This method is called the  slow release: it takes few days for the bees to go through the candy plug and in the meantime the queen is fed by them. During those  few days, the queen  gives away her pheromone scent to the colony and thus has a better chance to be accepted by all.

                                                                               

When we got to the apiary, we could hear the bees buzzing loudly...a sign that there is no queen present at the moment. We placed the queen on top of the frames, and right away some curious bees cam to investigate.

Then the queen cage was inserted between 2 frames. Now we let Nature takes its course. We will come back to check on her release in 5 to 7 days.

The Queens are Here

2 MN hygienic Queens

May 15, 2011

Ben went to Stillwater to purchase 2 Mn hygienic queens today. Look, they are lovely. They are in their own little cages and the attendants are feeding them. They will stay warm and in the dark in our basement until we bring them to their new respective homes: one in Chanhassen on Monday May, 16; the other one in Shakopee on Thursday May, 19. It is really fascinating to watch the attendants around the queen, they bring her some sugar syrup that has been sprayed in the plastic container. 

 Later in the afternoon, Ben and I went to Chanhassen and we took the top deep box and moved it to the 4th. hive location. So now it has 2 deep boxes, and we added 1 gallon of sugary syrup. Now few bees from hive #1 will have a new home, and tomorrow they will have a new young queen.

A gallon of 1:1 sugar:water syrup

4th. hive in Chanhassen where we placed the second box, and the white pail of syrup.

      

This frog must have known that something was brewing...it patiently observed us  moving things around without a croak!

Getting Ready for the Divide

May 12, 2011


Chanhassen Apiary: 

Ben smoking the bees before opening hive #1 in Chanhassen

Since our hive #1 was strong and healthy, we got ready for the divide. It means that we will take some of the bees from that colony and start a new one. We will take one box (deep) with brood and no eggs and move it to where we want to have a new colony. To make sure that we take the box without the queen,we added a queen excluder between the 2 top boxes. Here on the picture, it is between the top deep white and deep green. A queen excluder  is a screen that is placed over a box  preventing the "fatter" queen to go into the top box.

Hive #2: Ben did a reversal again to give room for the queen to lay her eggs. He noted 6+ frames of brood. However, not much activity yet in the supers.

Hive #3: The combs are being drawn in the 2 deep boxes, which is fantastic for a new package of bees. Ben saw a beautiful brood pattern developing. It seems that the honeybees have a lot to eat because they had consumed only 1/2 the syrup given.

Hive #4: will be created with the help of hive #1 our strongest Italian colony.

May 13,2011


Shakopee Apiary:

Hive #1: Ben did the same thing. He prepared the hive to be divided using a queen excluder. Here between the 2 top deep boxes.

Hive #1 in Shakopee

Hiving a New Package of Honeybees

Nicolas (with gloves) and Karine getting ready for the new bees

It is always exciting for a beekeeper to have new bees. This technique of hiving a package as it is called, is wonderful experience.
Nicolas and I hived our package on April 22, 2011. We were waiting for a bit of sunshine among the rain showers that seemed to fill the sky for many days.
Finally the sky cleared and we jumped in the car with all our gear and equipment. It was still gray but the rain had stopped. As we arrive at our destination in Chanhassen...it started to drizzle!
But we were there and our bees had been in the garage for 24 hours confined in a box. They needed to be released.

Spreading the bees

Ben had prepared the hive ahead of time, so we just had to place the bees inside. This year we had an observer, Liz who took all the pictures. I opened the package and took the queen cage and put it in my pocket to keep the queen warm. Nicolas shook the bees into the box. You can see the thousand of bees at the bottom. Now I am trying to "spread" them around with my hive tool in a thinner layer so I can replace the frames I had removed previously.

The Queen is in her own cage

Now that the honeybees were in place, I opened the screen from the little queen cage. I lowered my hand into the box among the humming honeybees, and let the queen crawled by herself onto the foundation. What a Grand Entrance for a Queen! Then I replaced the 4 frames carefully, keeping an eye on the queen making sure I did not injured her.

Nicolas and the pollen patties

 Before closing the hive, Nicolas place a few pieces of pollen patties on top of the frames for the honeybees. This will be their proteins for few weeks as we wait for the nectar flow. We also gave them 2 gallons of sugar syrup.

We the closed up the colony, the box has a cork plug and little pieces of grass block their main entrance. This is to make sure that the group of bees stay in this new dwelling with their queen. They don't know yet that it is their new home.

Honeybees in their new purple hive in Chanhassen