The saga of bad bees turned good

Let us know how it goes.

The queen is risen...literally. I found her in the honey super above three deeps. Of course the last place I looked. I took off the lid and laid it on the ground, then the super, then the 2 deeps and started looking in the bottommost box...no queen. So put next box on and looked through that...no queen; same for the third deep. I was sure she was not there. I put the honey super on and noticed that there were a lot of bees clustered in one area on top of the frames so I investigated. And what to my wondering eyes should appear, a beautiful bee with a bright blue dot on her.

But what pray tell is she doing in the top box? The bottom box has lots of room, a few capped brood, and some honey on the outside frames. The second box is all honey. The third is honey and empty frames, the super is about 1/2 full. So why did she move through all those boxes to go up?

I am just so glad that she is back that I didn't disturb her at all, just gently put the hive lid on and left.

Glad to hear that she is back

Maybe she was recently returned from her hussy ways and was checking out all the rooms in her new residence? I think I would have tapped her (along with her cohorts and enablers) off the frame she was on, back down into the lower deep, then put everything back together. Then if she was serious about checking out the penthouse, she would have to go back up all those stairs. I probably would have swapped the 2nd and 3rd boxes as well so that most of the honey was up in the 3rd deep rather than the 2nd.

Glad you found her and that she returned, that's the most important thing.

She was supposed to be a mated queen but anything is possible. She traveled through those boxes to get where she is so she can just as easily go back down.

I thought about moving her but that meant that I had to take the hive apart again and the thought of taking the box she was in a putting in on the ground made me a little nervous. I didn't know she was there when I did it the first time so I figured I got lucky I didn't lose her the first go around, didn't want to risk that.

As far as the honey...I lost a hive to starvation once and they had plenty of honey in a super I left. But in order to get to that honey they had to go through a more or less empty deep. I was told by an old time beekeeper that the bees won't break the cluster to get the honey so the honey needs to be as close to the winter brood nest as possible. That is why I left the second deep full and on the bottom. Now if she lays all the brood in the honey super all bets are off. I really planned on taking that honey in a few weeks and just leaving them the deeps.

I am going to buy some pollen patties this week and go and put one in the hive; hoping I can convince the queen that she has what she needs and to start laying. Our first frost is still about a month or more away so I am hoping the hive will get a few more bees before winter. Assuming of course that CA has a winter this year. I bet last year I had 3 days of frost total; I was worried that my fruit trees wouldn't have enough chill hours. Makes for a good peach crop though, no late frosts. Also easy on the bees.

Yay! I'm glad you found her!

I just added pollen patties to my hives as well. Not much pollen coming in with them now. It went from tons coming in, to nothing. They have quite a bit stored up when I checked yesterday, but I added it anyway. I checked my main hive to make sure they weren't too full with syrup, and they have quite a bit, but they still have room, and I was surprised to see that they were drawing comb on a couple of frames I put in when I robbed them of brood frames. It's packed with bees, so much so, that I was looking for queen cells. Thankfully, there weren't any.

I hear ya on the winter. My fingers are crossed big time! I see rain in the forecast, and I hope they are right! Last "winter", I was also concerned with the lack of chilling hours. Everything produced great, except for the 2nd year apricot, it didn't even flower.

Yay! I'm glad you found her. Interesting that she is in the top box. You would think with this heat she would be lower.

Rain in the forecast for Thursday, gosh I hope they are right.

Hope you gals get the rain you need. We could sure use some as well. Been very dry here since about June, after a very wet spring. Hope you have a gentle winter too, but cold enough to make the fruit trees productive. Keeping bees has made me much more aware of the natural surroundings and weather.

@Latestarter...I get you on the awareness thing. For me it is not just the bees but the orchard and a late frost and the big one...relying on a well for my water. Living in a city I was always careful with water as I had to pay the bill but I never worried about running out.

I will say that the bees have made me aware of what blooms when and definitely what kinds of chemicals (NONE) that I can use in my garden.

It is certainly all a woven interrelated web.

I checked on the bees today and what was supposed to be a quick "here's some food...how are you" visit turned in to 2 hours. First thing I discovered is that the queen is still in the honey super and there is brood, not a lot, but some. So why is she in the super on top of 3 deeps. I thought about moving her but before I did that I wanted to look at the rest of the boxes and remove the Hopguard. I wonder if she was up top because the hopguard wasn't. As I went through the boxes I was not thrilled with what I found. Wax moths. And some dead bees. The bees were stuck to the sides of the frames, almost as if they got trapped in their own honey, very strange. Again, was it the hopguard? I had already pulled out the strips so can't say if they were right near the strips or under them, don't know, but the dead bees were in vertical row, really makes me wonder.

I went all the way to the bottom and removed the bottom board and under that were black widows and many dead bees encased in the webs. I have the hive sitting on cinder blocks, I will be changing that design...no open cavities under the hive. I also found a black widow under the lid of the hive. I hate those things.

So I was faced with three deeps full of some honey, some pollen, a few brood, and the beginnings of wax moths. I took the frames out one at a time and scraped out the moths and webs the best I could and I decided to reduce this to two deeps and the super with the brood nest. I took the frames that had the most damage and removed them, fortunately they were not the ones with the most honey. When I put this back together I put a deep on the bottom, then the super, and then another deep. I also fed them two pollen patties, hoping the queen will keep laying for a while. It has been fairly nice here and the bees are still working what they can.

I have no idea if I did the right thing or not. I didn't want the brood on top as it will be harder to keep it warm, but I didn't want it on the bottom near the spider habitat. I don't need them to catch my queen. Maybe there is a reason that she was at the top.

I will go back in a few weeks to check. I might have to bring home some of the frames and freeze them and then return them. I can't take all their stores but the moths will destroy the hive if I don't do something. The hive is fairly small, but they were very easy to work. The smoker went out after about 10 minutes and they were fine the entire time I was there. I will have to feed heavily if they are to survive the winter. And I'm not sure if the black widows and these other other fuzzy black spiders can be a real predator or not.

I also installed a slatted bottom rack last time I was there. I have never used them before but they get good reviews and I figure I need all the help I can get.