Scroll down to the bottom of the page for the same photo but with the queen marked.

How to Find Her

There is a knack to finding the queen and nothing but practice will allow you to master that. However there are things to do, things not to do and things to look for that will increase your chances.

Things to do and things not to do

• Go quietly and gently – avoid crushing bees. Apart from the alarm pheromone any one of them could be the queen!
• Blowing smoke into the entrance or under the crownboard will set the bees running;
• Use little smoke and only when you have to;
• Use a water spray to calm the bees instead;
• Choose a day as early in the season as possible, the longer you leave it, the more crowded the hive will become – needle and haystack time. However, do be aware that if you damage the queen before there are drones on the wing it will be difficult to replace her;
• Choose a day when the bees are flying freely – there will be fewer of them sitting at home waiting to ‘help’ you.

Now…

• Carefully remove the roof then quietly crack the crownboard – more difficult if the day is cold and propolis is brittle.  Wait a minute for the bees to calm before lifting it.
• Check she isn’t on the crownboard then set it aside preferably on the upturned roof – just in case.
• Look down into the broodbox and locate the area where there are most bees – this is where the brood nest is and – as long as you’ve been gentle so far – this is where the queen will be.
• If the bees start to come up at you – spray them with water.
• Find a frame, away from the brood nest, which looks like  it will come out easily and gently remove it without rolling bees. If it turns out to have a bulge and you are rolling bees put it back and choose another;
• Make your way as quickly and quietly as possible towards the broodnest examining each frame as you go;
• When you find the pollen frame you will know that the next frame will have brood and possibly the queen so keep your eyes peeled;
• Look out for eggs – she is often on this frame;
• Look for young and emerging brood – she is often on such a frame – laying into vacant cells as the brood hatches and the bees clean the cells;
• Watch also for a frame where the bees are very quiet – there will be a high concentration of calming queen substance close to the queen;
• When lifting the frames – look first on the ‘dark’ side of the frame; the queen will instinctively move away from the light. Imagine yourself into that frame lifting situation and apply brainpower here because – words fail me.

Things to look for…

• The queen has rather different legs to the other bees – they tend to be reddish and ‘spider-like’.
• She is of course bigger than the workers – but not that much.
• Her abdomen is longer and more pointed with a swollen look.
• She moves differently to the other bees

 Marking the Queen

To mark the queen, you will need either nerves of steel or a crown of thorns to temporarily cage her.

Press it down carefully so her thorax is held within one of the squares of mesh in the cage and she is unable to move.

Do not squeeze her abdomen – that is the ‘business end’ of your queen; it is where she keeps the eggs and is very delicate and easily damaged so only press down on her thorax.

Dab a mark of the appropriate colour on her thorax then ease the cage up to let her stand up and walk about without smudging the paint on the mesh but keep her inside it for a couple of minutes while the paint dries. Click here for more on queen marking colours

 Clipping the Queen

There are many ways to clip the queen and which method you choose depends on your confidence, your manual dexterity and the steadiness of your hand – in fact this will have to be the subject of a different post.

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Take a look at this frame of bees above – yes there are several things there that should put you on alert!

What you do, or don’t do, in response is the essence of beekeeping.

Click here for more on Colony Assessment and a downloadable sheet.

Hooper’s Five Questions:

1.  Does the colony have enough space?

2.  Is the queen present and laying properly?

3.  Development:

   Is the colony building up in size as fast as the others?

   Are there any queen cells?

4.  Are there any signs of disease?

5.  Have they got enough stores to carry them through to your next visit?

Does the colony have enough room?

Sometimes, the bees can pull in a super-abundance of ivy honey late in the year which far exceeds what they need to come through the winter.  Come spring when the queen needs space to lay – there simply isn’t any. This situation is termed – ‘honey-bound’.  If your bees are honey-bound you need to do something about it.

• If you have spare drawn frames you can remove a couple of the fullest frames of stores from the outsides and add the drawn frames to either side of the brood nest.
• If you don’t – then you will have to add foundation and – as long as they are strong enough – the bees will draw it as they need it. You could even feed them at this point if you think they need help.

The other reason for lack of space is when they have become so strong they have filled the box!

You should begin to add supers as soon as you find your bees covering the top frames when you remove the crownboard. Give supers early rather than late. If it is still chilly you can put a sheet of newspaper between the brood box and the queen excluder. This will keep them warm and give them options – if they need the space they will chew their way through and if they don’t they won’t.

You need to make a note of what you did/ need to do/ equipment to bring next time etc.

Is the queen present and is she laying properly?

I’m not going to tell you how to find your queen here. It is a knack and if you can’t find her then practice, practice, practice.

If you still can’t find her, then you must look for eggs. Once you find them, look for a nice even pattern with no few gaps. Eggs should be plumb centre of the cell and there should be only one per cell. Sometimes a new queen takes a little time to get the hang of this but a queen that has overwintered should know what she is doing.

If there is a paucity of eggs, a ragged scatter, or cells with lots of eggs sprinkled about in them there is probably something wrong. The first two would be signs of a failing queen – she could be a drone layer or just plain ‘old’. The last is a sign of laying workers.

• If you see her – note ‘Q’
• If you see her but there are no eggs – note ‘QP’
• If you see her and she is laying well – note ‘QPL’

What you do about these predicaments is the subject of another post. But you should know when you need to do something.

Development

Is the colony building up as fast as, or faster than, the others?

If you record the number of frames with brood present at each visit you can see how each colony is progressing week on week. If you have more than one colony you can compare them – a weak one will stick out like a sore thumb and so will a strong one. Early in the season it is a good idea to equalise. The aim of this is to slow down a very strong colony and build up a weak one.

Equalising

Take a frame or even two frames of brood from a very strong colony and put it into a weak colony. Give the strong colony empty frames or stores in exchange.

Be careful:

• Only give sealed brood to a weak colony because they will not be strong enough to rear larvae;
• Don’t give more brood than they weak colony can keep warm.

Take a nuc

Another option when bees are too strong is to take a nuc.

Are there any queen cells?

Record whether or not there are queen cells and at what stage.

1. Play cells – small empty cups;
2. Queen cells with eggs in them;
3. Queen cells with larvae.

Once you have play cells you must make sure your bees have plenty of space.

When you have queen cells with eggs in them you should know that the next time you come – or perhaps the time after that – there will be queen cells with larvae.

When you find these you are into swarm control and that is not the subject of this post.

Are there any signs of disease?

At each visit remember remember remember to keep an eye out for signs of disease. If you catch it early you can control it. If you don’t… you can’t.

Record what you see. Devise a shorthand. One that makes sense to you.

More on bee diseases here.

Have they got enough stores?

This one’s easy – just record the number of frames of stores and keep an eye on the weather forecast and the available sources of nectar and pollen.

You may need to think about feeding – even in the midst of the Irish summer. Bear it in mind and consider your options.

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Includes talks, hands-on practical sessions, honey extraction and SKBA membership.

For further details:

• http://southkildarebeekeepers.org/beginners.html
• https://www.facebook.com/SouthKildareBeekeepers

The smoker works by diverting the bees’ attention from one perceived threat – you – to a greater fear – fire. However, there are ways of going through your bees without them even noticing you are there at all, let alone a threat. If you can master the following techniques you will be able tip-toe through your bees and observe them behaving naturally and enjoy your beekeeping much more.

However, things do go wrong so always have your smoker with you just in case, especially later in the year when your bees are feeling their own strength and have honey to defend.

• Light your smoker. Click here for more about that dark art;
• Get yourself a water sprayer and make sure it’s only got water in it – not insecticide;
• Have an empty nuc box close by;
• Wear lightweight rubber gloves – Marigolds are the best. Bees sting quite easily through them but they will allow you to be more dextrous and polite;
• Never allow yourself to get into the habit of crushing bees, if you do they will notice you and they will attack you and one day it will be the queen you crush;
• Pretend you are a bomb disposal expert and approach your hives with the respect you would give to a row of ticking bombs;
• Do not smoke the entrance but do make sure your smoker is still alight and give it a few puffs now and then to keep it going;
• Gently remove the roof and set it upside down on the ground by your side;
• Insert your hive tool under the crown board, place your other hand above it and prise it free all the way round, as gently and quietly as possible – twist it a bit if need be but do not lift it straight off;
• Once it’s free, rest a short while till you hear the stroppy buzzing die down;
• Hum a little tune;
• Now slowly lift off the crown board – do not shake off the bees, just place it bee side down on the upturned roof.  As long as you didn’t smoke the entrance it is unlikely your queen will be on the crownboard;
• Do not start scraping at the brace comb yet;
• Look into the top of your hive and note where the centre of the cluster is then locate a frame which looks like it might come free without a fight preferably well away from the broodnest;
• If your bees are coming up at you a bit spray them with a little water. This will prevent them from flying but will not divert them in the way smoke would so continue not to annoy them;
• Slow your movements;
• On no account crush bees. If you do, they will be after you and they will sting you and when they begin to sting you – you have begun to lose;
• Now start to free that frame. There is a way of doing this with the minimum of noise and vibration – use your loaf because words fail me here;
• Gently lift the frame out trying not to roll bees. Do not shake it. Make sure the queen is not on it and place it in the empty nuc.  If you need more space lift out another and place it in the nuc. No shaking!
• Alternatively, you can put the frame with the queen on it in the nuc for safe keeping.
• Proceed now to work your way through the hive frame by frame till you find the first frame with brood then start to look for the queen;
• Always check the dark side of the frame first as the queen will move away from the light;
• Unless you have disturbed the bees she will almost certainly be on a frame with eggs and you may even catch her in the act of laying. Let her finish before you mark her;
• Once you have found the queen and established that all is well, you can put the hive back together again.  This is where the smoker does come in really handy – blow a few puffs across the top bars, not down into the hive, just enough to send the bees down. Now you can scrape the top bars without chopping their heads off;
• If you need to shake bees – spray them a little to wet their wings first then shake away – the water will stop them flying back up at you.

There now – wasn’t that better?

If not – Click here for more about the beekeepers smoker!

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Assemble everything you might need and have it close by:

• Spare brood box and floor;
• Spare frames – drawn and undrawn and a bucket to put your wax scrapings into;
• Spare crown board;
• Queen marking and clipping gear;
• Water sprayer, smoker or both.

1. Remember the primary aim of these first inspections is to establish all is well ie that the queen is laying normally and the bees have sufficient stores and space.
2. Secondarily and only if the bees (and the weather) are calm, you can look to replace old or broken frames and perhaps remove dead bees and detritus from the hive floor. The easiest way to do this is place the spare floor next to your victim and put the spare brood box on it then, one by one, gently lift each frame – checking for the queen as you go and place it into the fresh box. When all are transferred, move the fresh box and floor into the old position and close the hive with the fresh crownboard. You can now get scraping without upsetting too many bees. Aim to remove and replace two old black frames per year but remember, bees will not draw wax unless there is a flow  so if there isn’t – put frames with new foundation in at the back and move them in when there is.
3. Thirdly, if you find the queen – mark her but you could leave the clipping till later in the year.

You will be looking to make sure the bees have stores although you will have been regularly hefting the hive through the winter and should already have a good idea as to the status of the stores. This year things are looking good and they almost have too much stores so if they appear to be honey-bound with no space to lay then remove a couple of frames of stores and replace with drawn comb or foundation if a flow is probable.

If you are a gentle beekeeper with plenty of time and good native bees you should be able to go through your hives without smoke at this time of the year. If you can, so much the better especially if you are looking for the queen.

As an interesting alternative to lighting the blithering smoker, try a water sprayer instead, imagine you are on a bomb disposal mission and crush not one bee. Creeping through the hive this way you will hardly disturb the colony at all and the queen will be right where you expect her to be – on a frame of eggs and very young brood.

A word of caution though –  make sure there’s only water and not insecticide in that sprayer. Beware – it can happen!

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Here’s a hectic picture of lots of pollen hurtling into the scale hive today.

• The yellow pollen loads are willow.
• The brown pollen loads are gorse.

Click the photo for a better view.

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The sequence is easily remembered with the following mnemonic ‘Will You Rear Good Bees‘.

• White – years ending 1 or 6
• Yellow – years ending in 2 or 7
• Red – years ending in 3 or 8
• Green – years ending in 4 or 9
• Blue – years ending in 5 or 0

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There are several species of wild garlic all of which are closely related to the garlic we buy in the shops (Allium sativum).  Only 3 members of the garlic family are resident in Ireland, only two are of interest to the bees and only one is a true native but all of them are edible.

• Ramsons or Allium ursinum or ‘Bear garlic’- native Irish plant (see header photo above)
• Three Cornered Leek or Allium triquetrum – probably introduced from Europe 3 hundred years ago (photo below)

The bees visit both species although it’s nothing they’ll ever get a crop from, which is probably just as well.

Pollen loads are yellow as displayed by this very obliging, if slightly fuzzy, bumble bee seen here on some Three Cornered Leek or Allium triquetrum. Click it for a better view.

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Usually this means constructing a special stand which will accommodate the scales upside-down over a series of mirrors set like a periscope so the daily change of weight can be read from above. If you are manually inept or technologically minded or both, it is possible to buy a special solar-powered, digital scale hive which will allow you to monitor your bees from a distance – probably via a satellite – the mind boggles!

Below is a graph of the data collected from my scale hive over the past 8 years – click it for a better view:

As you can see, 2013 was an extraordinary year when everything went right – it’s the year we will all look back on with misty eyes. I’m doing it already!

But I digress, here are four reasons why you would set up a scale hive:

1. Interest;
2. To detect and record the date and magnitude of a honey flow;
3. To keep an eye on the rate of development and the state of the stores in spring;
4. To see when that swarm left – a great big prime swarm might weigh 5lbs!

During a flow it is interesting to compare an evening reading with the following morning to see just how much water the bees have managed to evaporate overnight.

If you want to set one up – now is the time!

Click here for how to make your own scale hive

Click here for Remote Hive Monitoring

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Well, the first thing to do is find out why they died because whatever killed them could still be lurking in there; if you can pin down the cause of death then you will know what to do with the hive.

Look for the two most obvious things first:

• Starvation
• Poor queen
  

Much will depend on the time of year they died…

Starvation

This happens particularly in winter but if spring is cold and endless or summer is unusually shitty and you forget to feed them, they could have starved – so the first thing to check is have they got any stores?

Nucs are particularly vulnerable to starvation – they can be robbed out by strong neighbours or be simply not strong enough to sustain themselves.

Are there any stores?

No…

If there are no stores it will be likely they starved. If so, there will be a pile of dead bees on the floor and on the frames there will be clusters of dead bees with their heads at the bottom of the cells where they died trying to find the last little bit of food. If they are mouldy it’s because they starved some time ago and moulds moved in because that’s what moulds do.

However, bear in mind that they could have died of something else and bees from other hives came and robbed the stores later.

Yes…

If there are plenty of stores, they may still have starved. If the cluster of bees is too small and the weather is too cold for too long they will lose contact with their stores and ‘starve in the midst of plenty’. Otherwise the symptoms will be the same.

In either case, there will be no brood.

Poor queens

Another common cause of winter mortality is poor queens. Since the import of Varroa and the extinction of all the wild bees, the associated problems with drones and not to mention the weather – there have been problems with queen mating. Sometimes a poorly mated queen will make it into the winter but she won’t make it out the other side.

What happens is that she will lay what she thinks are worker eggs in worker comb but because she has run out of the store of sperm in her spermatheca, the eggs are not fertilised and are therefore drones. Because drone larvae are much bigger than workers, their growth and development in worker cells pushes the cells out of shape and the comb is distorted and ugly.

The remaining adult workers wear themselves out rearing the drones and there are no young workers to take their place. The colony fizzles out during winter.

Also, when a queen is unable to lay fertilised eggs, the colony is unable to replace the queen and is doomed.

Distorted comb?

If you had a drone layer, there could still be that lump of dead bees on the floor and the mats of dead bees with their heads in the cells. In addition there will be distorted comb and in amongst it will probably be a few unhatched pupae. Despite being worker cells they will have the domed cappings of drone cells.

Queen present?

Sometimes a colony like this can still be found limping along in the early spring. There will be a little cluster of bees with what looks like a fine strong queen but if you see that misshapen comb and domed cappings you will have to harden your heart and knock her on the head. Unite the remaining bees with a stronger neighbour.

Disease

If there are no bees left in the hive but there is capped, pepperpot brood and the combs are dark and there is an old fashioned gluey smell – beware. Do the matchstick test. It might not have been American Foul Brood (AFB)  but if it was me I’d burn all those combs even if I did the matchstick test and couldn’t find a gooey cell  – it might be that they just dried up. The procedure for disposing of a colony with AFB is outlined here.

Checklist

• Are there any stores left?
• Are there any dead bees left – if so, how many are there and what do they look like?
• Are they in a lump of bees on the floor or have they all got their little dead heads buried in the cells?

If so they probably starved.

• Look at the comb. Is there any capped brood left?
• If so is it ragged and domed?

If the answer to the last two is yes, the bees probably went into the winter with a poor queen.

• Or is it gappy and are the cappings perforated?
• Is the comb old and black?

If the answer to the last two is yes – this could be American Foul Brood. Do the matchstick test or send for analysis. If so burn it.

• Are there signs of dysentery in the hive?

This could be Nosema or stress from something else – such as loss of the queen.

• Take a close look into the debris on the hive floor – are there a lot of Varroa about the place?
• Take a closer look at the dead bees, are there a lot of shrivelled wings?

If the answer to the last two is yes, your colony could have died of Varroaosis.

• Is there a big pile of dead and dying bees below the entrance – all about dead about the same time? If so suspect pesticide poisoning – but this is only really a summer problem.
• Are there lots of dead bees outside the entrance, crawlers on the floor and K wings? This could be Acarine.

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