white or clear dead bees

[Perry]

I think your last post is what I would do.

[efmesch]

VV, I can't give you any better advice than   you've already received, but there is one comment I can't refrain from making:  You write about feeding your bees with syrup and talk about your stores of "honey".  Maybe I didn't follow you  correctly, but my  impression is that you are calling stored sugar syrup by the name "honey".
Beekeepers must always remember that the two terms can not be used interchangeably.  Stored syrup is not honey.  Though the bees may not care about the difference, we must always keep in mind that even when thick and stiff ,stored syrup is only syrup and not honey.  If it is extracted, for what ever reason, it can't be sold or given away under the name of honey. 
That's one of the bad aspects of feeding bees with sugar syrup--we have to be sure that when we extract our HONEY, it really came only from flowers and the stores of    sugar syrup must have either been consumed (not saved as stores) by the bees or removed from the hives by the beekeeper and kept separately.

[LazyBkpr]

   Don't worry about leaving me out of anything Buddy.  As Mrs. River said, ask advice and we will give it, and usually in several different versions. SO... your JOB as a Beekeeper is to determine how best to use said advice.. Mix and match ideas, Use the best idea, or modify the best ideas to your own preferred method.
   Eventually, you WILL get good at modifying the ideas we throw at you!   

[vvand111]

Well I went into hive this morning at light. About 58 degrees, no wind.

Pulled super, set off to side.

Top deep. Went into frame by frame. Had six frames with 3/4 pretty capped brood and 1/4 honey at top. This honey at top is what made me think just by looking before this box was full of honey. 2 of the other 4 were packed with capped honey. The remaining 2, (outer edges) were half honey capped and half not capped. I pulled 2 frames and replaces with undrawn foundation as I have no extra drawn comb.

Pick above was burr comb scrapped from bottom and top of frames. This is not all of it but a representation of what was there. The girls were getting very upset by this time and because of the burr comb on top of these frames I decided to inspect the super frames.

 All frames were not completely capped honey but I pulled  3 fully capped honey frames and replaces with undrawn foundation frames. 3 frames on the very bottom row had larva and what appeared to be drone cells. Just at the possibly 2 bottom row. all other frames were capped and uncapped honey over a majority of the frame.

At this point I had an all out war going on. only 1 sting but it was getting wild to me. I am disappointed , but I put the hive back together and left.

I hate that I could not have gone in the bottom box and I know by looking down thru 2ed deep that there is a mess between the two not a whole lot different that what was between deep and medium

[Perry]

Now that we know that the top deep is not solid honey, It would be nice to know what is going on in the bottom deep. Do you know if the brood extends down below into the lower deep? If not, you could always reverse. Waiting till later in the day (noon) would help as there would be fewer bees to deal with as they would be foraging.
6 frames with 3/4 capped brood tells me your queen is ramping up, make sure she has room enough to keep laying. Many folks don't reverse in the spring, but if I find no brood at all in the lower deep I usually reverse.

[Lburou]

Perry mentioned inspecting later in the day when it is warmer.  Here are Jerry Freeman's rules of thumb for inspecting at different temperatures:

Temperature (These are general guidelines and not necessarily exact facts.)

Below 30 F

Open the hive only in emergency: To feed or remove chemicals. If
feeding is necessary below 30 F, use dry sugar so the feed won’t freeze.

Below 40 F

Open the hive only in emergency, such as to feed or remove chemicals. Bees
cannot get far from the warmth of the cluster at below 40 F so feed must be
placed directly above the cluster.

Below 50 F

At 50 F, the bees are loosely clustered. The hive can be opened but brood combs should NOT be removed. Side combs can be removed to look at brood combs, but must be replaced quickly to avoid letting the brood get chilled.

55 F

Bees begin to fly at 55 F, especially for cleansing flights. Honey bees will not defecate inside the hive unless they have Nosema – Honey Bee diarrhea. They will also begin flying to collect nectar and pollen if it is available. Hives can be opened, but care must be taken to avoid chilling the brood.

60 F

Complete hive inspection can be made, but brood combs should be returned
to the hive quickly.

70 F

70 F is warm enough to completely disassemble the hive and frames for a
thorough inspection

[vvand111]

Thanks Perry and L.  When I went in this morning it was 57 and when I left it had warmed up above 60.

We had a pollen count yesterday of 1239 the earliest it has been over 1000 is 6 years or more. (Usually not that high until April here)

The bees are wide open with pollen coming in for several weeks now.  The bees are covering every frame I looked at today and r using both top and bottom entrances.  I have bottom entrance opened to 1/4 width of front and it is so congested.

It looks like to me we are 1 month ahead and I worry with so much brood in top deep that they may be swarming early.  I see no signs yet of queen cells but have not gotten into bottom box yet.  Maybe tomorrow. Over 70 tomorrow. The pure numbers of bees is wowing me right now. 

I am thinking that I can go into bottom box tomorrow and check it out for what we have been discussing. I will post accordingly.  I also plan on going into hive # 2 that is giving me the same concerns.

Bees  Bees Bees--- plenty more honey but not what I thought I was seeing last week. That's fine.

What an adventure.  Trying to learn enough to get in a groove.  Planning on having 4 more this year but I may be rethinking that.  Maybe just 2 more.

[Perry]

Again, wait till mid day when most of the foragers are gone.
Must be nice to have a problem like too many bees!

[vvand111]

I am a little overwhelmed Perry.  I am scared to death that I have a really good thing going on and because of fantastic weather I am not responding appropriately.

That is why I am posting several times a day.  I know L is in Texas but I do not see anybody in my close area saying anything.  I kind of feel isolated. I hear nothing from GA, SC, NC, AL, or Tenn. Its weird down here this year,  I THINK?? Mikey has responded but he is still 5 hours north and east of me.

I realize I have to do my own thing. Thanks to what I hear from you guys I am doing that. Most of you are giving me the best of what you have for the best practice for me but I am having over the top success at this point from the number of bees and I am not sure with confidence that I am managing very well. 

I will continue to listen and continue to work at it. 

I cannot take credit for a great early spring. I can be wrong on how I manage it.

[Wandering Man]

Vvand11,

I've been in the same boat. There are bee clubs all around me, but every one is two hours away.

The folks on this forum have been, and continue to be, a God send.

I've only had my two hives for 9 months, but I've been thinking bees for over a year. I've been meeting local beeks one at a time, and discovering there are more in the area than I thought. There just isn't a good means to talk on a regular basis.

Finally a man 3Reds met asked me for the names of beeks I knew. He was going to a beek group South of Houston and get help organizing a group.

By the time he told me he wasn't interested in running the group, I had already arranged a room at a local restaurant, emailed everyone I knew, invited the local ag agent, started a Facebook page, and notified the surrounding groups of our first meeting (a week from Wednesday).

Iguess I'm in charge, which is fine with me. I'm tired of being a lonely beek, and am going to change the situation.

I was expecting 5 or 6. I think the number may be closer to 15.

The point is, vvand, beeks are out there, you just have to look and listen.

[Lburou]

vvand111, I was rereading your posts #6 & #23 above and saw something I had missed.  Do I read your concern correctly that you might have done something bad by removing that burr comb and the brood it contained? 

In early spring or summer, during a honey flow, bees build ladder or burr comb between supers.  Sometimes the burr comb contains brood.  Removing that burr comb during an inspection is what I do.  If you plop that super back down on a hive without removing the burr comb, you will squash a lot of bees in a crowded hive.  We can avoid killing bees as we reassemble the hive by removing the burr comb.

Let's assume you are correct that your hive is still full of honey and bees are looking for a place to put nectar.  One conservative manipulation is called 'opening the sides of the brood nest', (OSB).  You can read about it here.  But I'd want to be sure the hive was honey bound before I did this.  If you have the flow you describe, this OSB would be a temporary fix for a honeybound hive where the brood nest is shrinking just prior a commitment to swarm has occurred.

The other thing I would probably do is checkerboard the second super (leaving the bottom brood nest untouched).  Meaning:  Alternate frames of foundation and capped honey in that second super.  It would be preferable to use drawn comb instead of just foundation, but you may not have that available to you now.

I'm leaving on a long road trip tomorrow (860 miles) and won't be able to get back here for a few days, I hope this is helpful to you.  A family funeral.

[Perry]

Sorry to hear that Lee, safe travels.

The main thing Vandy, is to get in there and find out what's going on. Sometimes what I do to a populous hive is wait until mid-day, then set a second bottom board right next to the hive, and simply remove the upper deep and set it on the new bottom board, leaving the inner on with something covering the hole. Most of the bees in that upper deep are nurse bees (foragers are gone) and will not be all that disturbed by what is going on as they can still do their work uninterrupted. This leaves you with just the bees in the bottom deep to deal with, and a lot of them will be out (foragers) as well.
Whenever I do a thorough inspection (first one in spring) I almost always just remove the upper deep first thing and go through the bottom deep first. Often times I don't even remove the inner cover at all until I start to go through the upper deep. This is also a preferred (for me) way of finding the queen if I really need to. Nothing worse than chasing a queen from one box into the next, having her go back and forth to avoid me. With the boxes separate she can't.

Take your time and be deliberate in your moves and you'll be fine. Keep your smoker lit!

[vvand111]

Perry, you sound so confident. This is exactly what I will do.

Thank you for the specifics to the process.