August is almost here. The blackberries are gone in some areas and waning in others. Where my hives are in Graham, we are about 3 weeks behind where the club apiary is in Puyallup. The blackberries are still flowering but will be gone by August. I finally got to do inspections on all of my hives, in one day!!! You should be doing an inspection soon to see how your hives are faring going into the dearth. Check their stores of honey. Stand behind your hive and from the bottom, give it a little lift. Is it heavy or light? Watch your entrance. How many bees are there? Does there seem to be fighting? Do you see wasps? Are there orientation flights going on? Do the bees look generally healthy and are they bringing in pollen? What do you see on the ground in front of the hive? Do the dead bees on the ground have evidence of disease? Does the amount of dead bees seem excessive? Are there ants or evidence of other pests or predators?  You can learn so much about the health of your hive before even cracking the top! Once you open the hive, what do you see? How many bees? How does it smell? Are they calm or aggressive? How many frames of resources do they have? Do you see capped brood, eggs, larvae? Is there evidence of pests like ants or wax moths?

On my last inspection, I found several hives that were weak and not going to survive the winter, so I combined them. I found 2 queenless hives and re-queened them. I noticed one hive was being robbed so I decreased the entrance and fixed the lid that had gotten askew. Because I’m still in the middle of the flow, I decided not to do a deep inspection on most of the hives. I want the bees to be making honey and not spending their time repairing all the damage I’ve done just by opening the hive. It can take them up to a week to repair all the comb, mop up all the honey and nectar, clean up and restore the hive back to the right temperature. 

On my inspection this week, I found most of my hives doing well and some are definitely overachievers. In one hive, I found lots of rogue comb (beekeeper error), but because it was so full and heavy with nectar, I decided to leave it so as not to lose the honey. I’ll fix it later.  On the hive that was being robbed, I found not very many bees but a laying queen, eggs, larvae and capped comb, although spotty. I also found wax moths. I wasn’t sure what to do with that one, so I texted my mentor. I want to try to save them so I will be adding a few frames of bees with brood and I will add sugar water and a pollen patty. I found another hive with about half the bees I thought should be there. I also found older capped brood, no eggs or larvae, backfilling of cells with nectar, lots of drones and no queen. My 1st thought was they had swarmed and I missed it. But as I inspected the frames, I found 3 newly hatched supersedure queen cells. So swarm or supersedure, I decided to close them up and wait. I’m thinking the queen is probably on her mating flight. I’ll check again in 2 weeks. That should give her enough time to sort herself out and start laying. I will requeen if she doesn’t. My third and last problem hive (child…lol) was one of the hives I requeened. As I watched the entrance, one bee then another came out. Then one went in. Compared to the hive next to it where there were hundreds of bees flying in and out told the story. So I decided to do a full on inspection. The queen is in there and laying but there are only 3 frames of bees. I use Layens hives and my thriving hives have 11-13 frames so that tells me they will not survive. I haven’t decided what I am going to do with that one. I don’t want to lose the queen by combining and I  don’t want to waste resources by adding frames and bees to a dying hive. Maybe overwinter as a nuc? I have to do a little research on the best options. I just can’t wait very long. The rest of the hives I looked enough to see brood, eggs and that there didn’t seem to be any urgent issues. I added more frames
(same as adding a super for langstroth) for the hives that were filling up their last frames and closed them up.

 I was a nurse for a very long time. We would be given our assignment for the day. The first thing I did was assess each patient and then develop a “plan of care” for each of them. As I cared for  them, I would give them what they needed: food, water, medications, treatments and made sure their environment was safe, secure and comfortable. I do the same with my colonies. 

So, what should you be doing now? You have your assignment. Do your assessments and decide on a plan of care for each colony according to what you see and what they need. If you are unsure, ask for advice and help. Take a little time to just sit and enjoy the bees doing their thing and have fun!!!

Mary Dempsey