First full Hive Inspection

With 11 days having elapsed since the bees' arrival and the weather tolerable, I thought I would take the opportunity and look into the hives. Originally I had planned the inspection for tomorrow, but with the weather being what it is, I thought go for it while there's sun and heat. Once again I had three willing helpers from among the pupils, which is good. Interest in the hives is still strong. Trying to fit a full hive inspection into a school day is not easy and I don't have a lot of opportunities for this, so I am not only weather-, but also timetable-dependent (as I also need another member of staff with me if I have the pupils). Luckily all worked out well for the first inspection.

Suiting up

After suiting up (the pupils again in far too large suits) and lighting the smoker (which worked a treat first time), we walked to the moon hive to take a closer look. I explained to the pupils the importance of not standing in front of the entrance. Approaching from behind and detailing every step to the pupils, I first blew some smoke into the entrance and also into the back of the hive, where the boards slit in and waited a minute. I then took the roof, feeder and super off, so that only the brood chamber with the crown board on was left. I wasn't quite sure what to do with the feeder, as it was full of bees and if I put it down onto the roof, the bees would be trapped. Eventually I decided being trapped with a banquet is not the worst that can happen and put the feeders onto the roof, temporarily trapping the bees in it. It's quite nerve-wracking working on a full hive manipulation for the first time with three pupils, who all believe you know what you're doing, watching. And then those suits are so hot...
I smoked the brood chamber again through the holes in the crown board. Getting somewhat over excited I made the mistake of pointing the snout down onto the hive and some wood pellets fell out. Oh well...
Smoking the bees calms them a bit (allegedly because it masks panic pheromones) and also leads to a very funny reaction: the bees all dip their heads in honey and try to gorge themselves. So if you look at a frame shortly after smoking the hive you can see a lot of bee-bottoms staring at you from the comb. The pupils loved that part and seeing the bees actually holed up, bottom-upped, so to speak.

Make sure to check wind direction before smoking

In order to be able to work with the frames, I first took the dummy board out. This makes the frames easier to take out and put back, as it makes space in the brood chamber.

The hive open - going for the dummy board

I then worked my way through each frame, checking for the following: laying pattern, larvae or eggs, queen and anything suspicious. As expected, the outside frames were not even drawn out yet (i.e. the bees had not started to build their comb on the foundation provided in the frames). The one you can see on the picture just has bees on the foundation and some honey right at the top. I showed the pupils each frame as I took it out and told them what the state of each meant. The pupils were very interested and asked lots of questions about the various things they saw. Turns out the pupils are really good at spotting the queen.

As the bees often stick the frames together with a special glue they make from tree sap (called propolis), you sometimes have to wedge frames apart with the hive tool. When so doing, it is good to be as careful as possible, so as not to cause to much noise or vibrations as the wood cracks apart. The gentler you are with the bees, the gentler they will be with you - apparently. Being that careful, together with my nerves, took its toll and I was soon sweating.

An outer frame with just a bit of honey

When checking the frames I tried to keep them over the hive, so in case any bees fell off it they would land in the hive. Of course, if any bees fell off, this would not be a catastrophe, but if that bee happens to be a sleepy queen, who drops off away from the hive, you have a problem.

Prising frames apart with the hive tool

On the following pictures of the frames you can see 'wild' comb, where the bees have started to build comb underneath the short frames that were erroneously delivered. This is not a problem, but usually messy and can (as it did in the star hive) stick together two frames, which is not good for manipulations. When pulling out a frame with such 'wild' brace comb beneath, I tore through some cells and we saw some sealed brood exposed. The children were fascinated by these white phantoms (that were then, unfortunately dead).

After checking a frame, it is slotted back into the hive and carefully pressed against the ones already checked to make space to take out the next frame.

Checking for eggs and larvae

So, what did I see?
In both hives I saw the queen, who is laying nicely - the brood pattern is good and regular. Although I didn't see eggs (I would have had to shake the bees off the frames to have a better chance of seeing eggs), I did see larvae in various stages of development. The pupils were fascinated by the various stages of larval development.
I saw lots of bees with their heads in honey. One pupil drew my attention to a bee chewing her way out of a cell: we saw the jaws at work, the eyes beneath and a bit of antennae. I didn't wait for her to emerge, as I didn't want to keep the hive open for too long. The bees have good stores and the pollen they've collected is bright red, orange, yellow and grey - very interesting.

Slotting the frame back into the hive

Both hives had a bit of brace comb; in the star hive the wild comb at the bottom was drawn out in whirls that stuck two frames together. I removed some of the offending wild comb to ensure a smooth manipulation. I feel this will be a constant annoyance, which makes me more cross about the wrong frame size delivery.

Another frame with 'wild' comb stuck on underneath

The 'wild' comb drawn out was not solely drone cone - probably because there is too much space underneath. Some of it is honey stores, some of it worker bee cells and some drone cells. Drone trapping will be such fun with such a mix. Ugh!