Two top bar hive inspections - bees now 6weeks in the hives

So time to inspect the topbar hives I have at home - one other hive (kitchen cupboard hive) still on the farm 20 minutes up the road. Inspecting it next week

The home bees have been in the hives 6 weeks now - originally sourced from swarm capture.

Last inspections found comb cells with honey, a touch of pollen but no brood and no queen spotted.

That last inspection was also when my largest hive took a tumble and crushed all the comb, brood and countless bees. a day or so later the rest took off. 

So here we are two weeks later - will there be brood? is a queen present?

Well plenty of brood in both hives but almost no honey and zero pollen

Great to see brood of all sizes and plenty of comb 

But will need to do some substitute feeding

Find below a 5min video clip on the events of the inspection - enjoy

Kitchen Cupboard Hive Transfer

So finally got the time and situation to start working on the Kitchen Cupboard hive
More than a year ago a swarm took up residence in an old kitchen cupboard thrown onto the farm junk pile
My in-laws who own the farm suggested I add the hive to my top bar hives - Yes please!!

Had to delay the transfer of this bee hive to a top bar hive due to picking of melons and so many workers going past the hive all day long

With the picking done and only two workers cleaning up the paddocks - my time had come
So with a very early start, I set up the bee vacuum connecting a couple of extension cords back along the farm road to the main shed. I stoked the smoker and then got into my bee suit.

I was going to go through the cupboard doors, but the top drawer the hive had started in wouldn't budge
Taking off the top of cupboard an old tyre and a box of junk I noticed the plywood that made up the top was separating. - awesome another access point. Worked out wonderfully (see video link below)

I started with the drawer, the comb would have been 10cm or so deep. Old comb, very dark comb from many uses by brood.

My style of holding the comb was different to most methods I researched - zip tied hair clips the most common.
Instead I added a wooden frame then a few strategically placed small nails and would hold the comb in place with rubber bands

Will it work?? Time will tell. These cheap rubber bands don't weather well but hopefully last long enough until the bees secure the comb to the frames

The comb from the drawer were not deep enough

So I put two into a frame but each was only caught by one set of rubber bands and was too loose.

So put the drawer combs on an angle which was more secure - but would the bees like it??????

The larger comb from the middle of the cupboard fit much better

Every comb removed revealled more bees which I vacuumed up hoping I got the queen and she was not damaged in any way

Once all the comb removed I placed the best pieces of comb into the frames previously made for the top bar hive

I them made sure the opening for the top bar hive was in a position as close as possible to the kitchen cupboards main entrance point. I secured the top bar hive to the pallets under it with a few screws and eventually a tie down.

I removed half the top bars so the bee vacuum box base would fit into the far end of the top bar hive, with all the supported comb towards the front of the hive box
As soon as I switched off the vacuum, I removed the vacuum pipe and taped over the input hole so the bees could not escape.  Then placed it in the hive and removed the tape over the prime hole so bees could move into the area with the combs. I taped up an holes and gapes around the vacuum box

I had taped over the entrance holes of the hive proper but there were so many bees flying about I took it off. A few bees inspected the top bar hive entrances. So removed the tape hoping the bees would stay - I feel my chances of success are high, but.............

So started about 7:30am and was done by 9am - except for a bit of clean up
Popping back tomorrow to check on the hive - update to follow soon.

Here is a video of the key bits of today's efforts

And the hive was empty!

So yesterday, sadly, one lot of bees went elsewhere - leaving only an empty hive
This was the hive that fell over in a gust of wind earlier this week - bees absolutely gone as if they never were!

And I got to watch it! (sorry no video)

I was checking my other two hives for brood (none still!) and it was like someone had thrown a switch as the hive bees began to just pour out of the three entrance holes like their lives depended on it and all took flight   (still not sure if queen survived the fall but maybe so given this action)

The now swarm circled the area like a tornado and moved off toward the bush area at the back of my rural block, so very cool to watch but terrible at same time knowing I was losing a hive

Bugger! 

I followed them as they moved away, they landed in a tall cycad tree - out of access and reach

I placed a scented hive box/swarm trap near them but next morning they were gone to parts unknown.

So now down to two hives
In the afternoon I popped down to in-laws farm and dived into their junk pile hoping for some items to build a hive stand for my remaining two hives

Found a suitable steel frame, that I levelled out as much as possible and tied my hives to this to ensure no more falling hives.

Lesson learned!

Tomorrow I will be starting my relocation of the farm's kitchen cupboard hive
However, my bee keeping confidence is shallowishly low given the last few negative bee incidents

Still jumping in the deep end of pool to learn swimming is what i have done since a kid.
Here we go!

Brood showing - but only through disaster!!!!!!!

Some background first - before brood and disaster details

So the in-laws had a couple of weak Langstroth NUCs they wanted me to look after
The father-in-law was worried about ants attacking the weak hive/NUCs
So he phoned me to take them to my place to see if I could help them
There was a lot of dead bees around the NUCs when I arrived - (maybe too much ant poison)

Once entrances taped up after dark, placed in the back of my ute, it was back to my place 20 minutes up the road. The next morning I removed the tape over the entrances and placed them for the day near my other bee hives as despite it being school holidays I had to pop into school for day to catch up on some ordering for my materials Design  and digital design subjects I teach
but only a few bees exited the entrances once opened.

All day while doing paperwork - I was working out how to help the hives and incorporate them into the Top Bar style hive system

I decided to make a cradle to sit on top of the top bar hive to allow the NUC bees to incorporate into the top bar hive.


My youngest daughter helped me make it and a few lids for some medium sized top bar hives I have been making.





















I added a feeder to the following board. Blogged about this previously how my feeder stations was made and why.
The four frames from the NUCs would fit into this cradle and be sealed in. See images hereabouts

Anyway - get home in afternoon - and the 8yr old daughter and I get into our beekeeping suits and start the process of transferring the NUC frames. We stoke our smoker and get it lighted. keen to help the NUCs

But no one home in either NUC but dead flies.

Found an empty queen cell, a couple of capped brood, and there was one frame of capped honey untouched

Very sad!
Why all the dead bees? - most likely the ant poison wafting into the NUCs

But then the real Disaster  !!!!!!!

There was a bit of wind gusting about and all of sudden our best hive about 4 meters away with the most bees and comb - falls off its perch with another gust of wind - see video at end for consequences

Bugger to say the least!

I righted the hive and tried to save some comb but it was all too fresh (i.e. not hardened wax comb) and the jolt when the hive hit the ground damaged the comb and crushed countless bees
Hopefully not the queen - could not see it amongst the crushed comb but not holding my breathe either

I found heaps of brood that I didn't see during the first hive inspection. so the queen was there before the fall.

Feeling quite upset at the whole thing - devastated. My 8 yr old more so.
I had been slowly re-orientating the hive to face the north so I could transfer the top bars to a large hive box.

Normally I would rest it against the crate it is near for extra support but it wasn't today - bugger!

Hopefully the queen survived and the hive recovers quickly
 Updates soon!

This would not occur later as I was planning to place a steel post in the ground with a plate on top of it to screw the hive to. Much more secure but that is spilled milk now! No getting it back.