And there was much rejoicing! Today we saw the young queen that the hive made last summer. She is fat and happy and laying like gangbusters, so though there was still only about 4 frames of bees, we expect an explosion of bees at the next check. The colony had also taken down about 2 full quarts of 1:1 sugar syrup this time, so we refilled those feeders and left them with 3 full quarts.

Another interesting thing we did was to move the deep box with all the bees in it above the one with just comb so that the bees are closer to the sugar syrup. Normally in the spring you would make sure that a growing hive had plenty of space above it to expand and even take empty boxes from the bottom of the hive (left empty when the bees moved upwards during the winter), and place them above the top boxes where the bee cluster moved to (called a reverse). However, when a hive has very few bees in it to keep the brood warm, you don't want those bees to have to travel through an entire empty box to get to their sugar syrup on top of the top frames. When the colony is a little more robust, we'll see if we have to move that box of empty comb back to the top to give them more space or if the queen found her way down into that empty box all on her own.

No Varroa mite check today because there just weren't enough bees.

The next official Flow Hive Team check will be on Saturday, May 21st at 10am in the A2B2 Teaching Apiary at Matthaei Botanical Gardens. Hope you can bee there!

Plan for Next Check:
1. Make sure hive is still queenright.
2. Check for signs of crowding/swarming cues.
3. Check for signs of disease.
4. If enough bees, perform a Varroa mite check.
5. Refill syrup if still taking it, if not, remove feeders and add queen excluder and Flow Hive Honey Super.

Even though the official 1st check of the A2B2 Flow Hive team is still a week away, yesterday I went for a run and saw the official sign of honey bee spring, dandelions! Dandelions are usually the first sign that swarm season has officially began, so I got nervous and headed over to the teaching apiary to clean up my mess from last check and make sure our hive wasn't bursting at the seams.

The good news is that I easily fixed what I had done last time, removed the dry sugar and the wrapping from winter, removed the wonky medium with some shallow frames in it, and added a deep box of drawn comb with one wax foundation frame.

The bad news is that I was able to do this because despite pollen going in, there were only 2.5 frames of bees in the hive. Not exactly the type of spring build up we were hoping for.

I also added 3 quarts of 1:1 syrup (I'd left syrup last time, but it doesn't look like they got past the dry sugar to find it), and reduced the entrance because of the low numbers of bees.

I didn't dig into the hive to see if there were eggs or brood ready to hatch out, so we'll just have to wait and see what things look like at the next check.

The 1st official Flow Hive Team check will be Saturday, May 7th at 10am at the A2B2 Teaching Apiary at Matthaei Botanical Gardens.

P.S. So I spoke to several experts about the drones in the split hive dead-out and they said that probably the hive was in the process of dying in the fall and didn't kick out the drones like they should have for the winter. Sad, but interesting.

Notes: We have 9 deep, crumby all plastic comb frames and 4 okay deep comb frames, around 14 okay, medium comb frames, and around 14 shallow comb frames in the storage trailer (except for the 4 okay deeps which are in my chest freezer).

Welcome to the A2B2 Flow Hive Team blog. If you are looking for the general A2B2 blog, please click on the blog tab at the top of the page.

So a little bit of sad news today. The split hive, as I suspected, has died. I'm still working on a hive autopsy as it was not starvation (plenty of honey and sugar left), nor was it freezing (there was a fairly large cluster and tons of dead bees on the bottom board.

Since this hive had high mite counts in the fall (10 mites/100 bees or 10%), I suspect high viral loads contributed to the colony loss. This is despite the fact that an alcohol wash on the dead bees revealed very few mites. Just goes to show how devastating Varroa mites can be. Even when you get their numbers down, they carry and can activate a host of bee viruses.

However, did see something pretty weird. In the dead hive were a lot of dead drones. This is strange because all of the old drones should've been kicked out for the winter and it is too early for a hive to be producing new, spring drones. So, there may also have been an issue with the queen failing and producing only drone brood? Additionally, one of the dead drones had his endophallus everted (his male reproductive organ hanging out). Going to ask an expert and get back to you.

Good news is that the Flow Hive itself had a ton of activity and foragers bringing in pollen! This is a great sign that there is a healthy, laying queen present. They also had plenty of sugar stores present even though the hive was really light when we moved it to its new location in the full sun. The lack of weight means that they are out of liquid honey stores.

The next hive check may be a team effort (weather depending) and involve adding a box of comb to give the colony more space and possibly adding sugar syrup feed.

What could we have done to save the split hive? It may have been a better idea to combine the two hives in the fall and overwinter one strong hive instead of two weaker hives. That being said, if the split hive did have a high viral load, we may have ended up with no hives this spring, so hard to say what the "best" plan might have been.

That being said, I am super excited about the Flow Hive overwintering and the Flow Hive Team's year to come!

Welcome to the A2B2 Flow Hive Team blog. If you are looking for the general A2B2 blog, please click on the blog tab at the top of the page.

So, we did, in fact, have some warm winter days these past few weeks and I wanted to give a quick update on the Flow Hive.

The Good: I saw live bees up in the sugar stores of the Flow Hive and there was some activity.

The Bad: The wind keeps blowing the cardboard insert out of the Flow Hive's screened bottom board.

The Ugly: The wrapping of the split hive had come loose, and I didn't see any bees in the sugar or any signs of life from the split hive.

What I Did: Gave the Flow Hive a little more sugar and wrapped them back up safe and snug. Restapled the split hive wrapping.

Future Plans: Try to remember to take out the FLIR camera as well as a stethoscope to better check the split hive for signs of life next time the weather breaks. We are also moving the Flow Hive out into full sun next to the split hive.

Welcome to the A2B2 Flow Hive Team blog. If you are looking for the general A2B2 blog, please click on the blog tab at the top of the page.

On Sunday, we checked the Flow Hive and the split hive in preparation for winter preparation. What does that mean?

Well, first since both hives were looking a little weak at our last check (likely due to high mite counts - Please see our last post entitled This is How You Lose the Mite War), we wanted to make sure they were both queenright. If one didn't have a queen, then we could combine the two weak hives into one strong hive for the winter. Good news, both hives were queenright, so no combining needed.

Second, we fed both hives 3 quart jars of 2:1 sugar syrup to fatten up their winter stores of honey. We also made sure that frames of honey in the mediums were in the middle of the box and removed some shallow frames from the medium super of the split hive (oops!). These short frames would've made it almost impossible for the bees to reach the honey stored in them over the winter.

Third, we placed mouse guard over the entrances of the hives because this is the time of year that mice are looking for a nice, warm, dark place with plenty of food to spend the winter (i.e. your hive). We also replaced one of the split hive's boxes with a nicer one that had fewer holes for mice to get into and that would let out heat in the winter.

At our next check we will be winterizing the hives. This means wrapping them with roofing felt, placing quilt boxes on top of the hives to help insulate and absorb moisture, treating the hives with an Oxalic Acid dribble to kill any adult mites left in the hive, placing a foam board under the outer cover for insulation, and stocking the hives with dry sugar (as temperatures drop, the bees aren't able to take in the sugar syrup anymore).

The last check of the season is on Saturday, October 30th, 2021 at 11am.

Hope you can bee there! :)

Well folks, after having only seen 1 mite on our previous mite counts, our last mite test on Saturday revealed 20 mites per 300 bees in the Flow Hive and 30 mites per 300 bees in the split hive!!!

Sad, sad news friends, and a warning to all! YOU MUST CONTINUE TO MITE CHECK THROUGHOUT THE FALL!!!

Why? This is the time of the year when 2 things happen: 1. Mite levels are peaking whilst bee numbers are declining, and 2. Other hives overrun with mites (not yours I'm sure), that are owned by beekeepers who have done nothing for or about mites other than "let the strong, mite resistant hives survive and the mite susceptible hives die," have become mite bombs.

What is a mite bomb? When a hive succumbs to Varroa destructor infection, it does not go quietly and take the mites down with it. Oh no. It explodes and bees carrying multiple mites fly to all the surrounding hives and infect them.

So? So, this means that your hives, which you have been diligently testing all summer and have had low mite counts, will now have skyrocketing mite levels that will weaken and perhaps kill them if you don't catch it and treat.

Also, you are running out of time to use many mite treatments which require certain temperatures to work properly.

What can you do? Keep checking and treat with the appropriate mite treatments as dictated by the weather, amount of brood present, and whether or not you still have honey supers on.

We treated both hives with FormicPro strips and will treat again in a few weeks with an Oxalic Acid drip, still I worry that the damage from the mites (weakening the bees physically, viruses, etc.) may already have been done.

Our next check will be this Sunday, October 10th at 11:00am.

Hope you can bee there!

Welcome to the A2B2 Flow Hive Team blog. If you are looking for the general A2B2 blog, please click on the blog tab at the top of the page.

This labor day weekend we had good news and bad news for the Flow Hive. The good new is that a mite check revealed only 1 mite/300 bees (alcohol wash)! So, no treatment needed. Whew!

The bad news is that we didn't get any honey this year. Even though there is a goldenrod honey flow on, the hive had very little honey stored for the winter, so we just left on the normal medium super and will probably have to feed 2:1 sugar syrup at the next check to make sure the hive has enough honey to get it through the winter.

It's a little sad that we didn't get any honey this year, but not surprising considering we had to split the hive to prevent a swarm and lost 1/2 our bees to the split hive and a lot of time and resources on the Flow Hive making a new queen. The Flow Hive was also from a late split off another club hive, so was a brand new hive this year.

Other good news is that we spotted the Flow Hive queen (a nice and plump golden girl) and that she is laying like crazy!

The sister split also had only 1 mite/300 bees (alcohol wash), so no treatment required there either. What was required was another box as this queen was also laying like mad and running out of space.

So, to sum up:
1. Mite levels are below the treatment threshold on both hives.
2. Both queens are still laying like gangbusters.
3. We removed the Flow Super to facilitate winter honey stores.
4. The sister split hive needed more space.

Thank you to everyone who was able to come and help out yesterday! I appreciate you all so much!

Plan for next check:
1. Check both hives are queenright (i.e. have a laying queen).
2. Mite check both hives. (Mite counts can skyrocket unexpectedly in the fall!)
3. Start feeding 2:1 sugar syrup. (In the fall, you should feed 2:1 syrup instead of 1:1 to make it easier for the bees to dehydrate and cap the honey.)

The next check is tentatively scheduled for SUNDAY, September 19th, 2021 at 10:30am at the A2B2 teaching apiary at Matthaei Botanical Gardens. (*Please note the day and time changes!*)

Welcome to the Flow Hive Team Blog! If you are looking for the general A2B2 Club Blog, please click the "blog" tab at the top of the page.

Hello all! This last check was just a quick peek into the hives because I was on my own and due for an allergy shot for my bee venom allergy!

Flow Hive: Observing the front entrance showed bees returning with pollen (a good indication of a laying queen). When I opened up the hive, the bees were a bit defensive and immediate flew right at me to let me know they weren't in a great mood.

I saw a little activity in the Flow Hive Super, but overall it doesn't look like we'll be getting a honey harvest from the frames this year. :( Not unexpected since these bees are from a split made this spring, but still a little disappointing.

Getting into the brood chamber, I was able to pull up one frame and see that it, and the next frame had worker brood on them. Since we only put in one frame of brood last time, math and logic say that the queen we spotted last visit is now laying! Hooray!

But all that brood means that next time we really need to do a Varroa mite check. This is the time of the year that Varroa bombs are exploding and colonies that have had low mite counts all spring and summer may start getting overrun. Another hive checked this past weekend had around 12 mites or 4% and yet another hive had a mite load of 12%!!! That's 36 mites/300 bees!!! Ouch! Hopefully the Flow Hive won't have that many mites, but we won't know until we test.

Split Hive: Plenty of pollen going in here and they are starting to fill the honey super (see above pics). I also was able to spot some eggs as this hive was a bit friendlier, but still didn't push my luck with a mite check, even though it also needs one.

Next Flow Hive Check is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, September 4th, 2021 at 10:00a.m. at the A2B2 apiary at Matthaei Botanical Gardens.

Plan for Next Check:
Mite Checks +/- Treatment for Both Hives***
Place Regular Super Under Flow Hive Super for Winter Honey Stores

Welcome to the A2B2 Flow Hive Blog. For the A2B2 General Blog please click on the blog tab at the top of the page.

Another successful check! I wore a GoPro today, so you can watch all the highlights on the video below.

The biggest news is that a new queen was seen, though she isn't laying yet and almost made a great escape! The hive looked a little stressed as we saw signs of chewed off brood caps and what appeared to be sacbrood. Sacbrood is a viral brood disease where the larvae are standing straight up in their cells, are pointy, and are brown. This is not a virus carried by Varroa mites and often symptoms disappear when the hive regains its strength. To bolster the new queen, we added a frame of brood from her mother's colony which is doing well after the split. Hopefully at the next check we will see the new queen laying and no signs of brood disease.

Unfortunately, the Flow Hive Super was still pretty dry though there were some bees working on the bottom of the frames, so no harvest today.

We did not perform a mite check today because there was almost no brood in the hive and it had just had a brood break while making their new queen.

We spotted a worker bee with deformed wing virus. This is a virus carried by Varroa mite. Not sure if this gal came from the Flow Hive, but it is a sign of a high Varroa load somewhere in the bee yard. :(

The next check is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, August 14th at 10:00am at the A2B2 Club Apiary at Matthaei Botanical Gardens.

Plan:
1. Check new queen is laying.
2. Mite Check +/- Treatment
3. Harvest Honey?

P.S. Saw bees with huge, white pollen baskets. White pollen possibilities in July: Lima Beans, Lemon Mint, Globe Thistle, Magnolia, Angelica, Rose-of-Sharon (Hibiscus), Plantain Lily, Cardinal Flower, Mallow, Sweet Bergamot, Sourwood, Balloon Flower, Mountain Mint, St. Mary's Thistle [Source: Garden Plants for Honey Bees by Peter Lindtner]

Hello! Welcome to the new Flow Hive Team blog for A2B2! If you want the A2B2 general blog, just click on the "blog" tab at the top of the page.

The word of the day is "SWARM." When we arrived at the hive today, there was a suspicious abundance of bees congregated on the outside of the hive despite the cloudy skies and chilly weather (65 F).

Good News: The bees had, in fact, taken the hint (the honey frame we placed up in the Flow Hive super) and were finally filling up the plastic Flow Hive frames with nectar. Yay! We replaced that honey frame with the previously removed plastic Flow Frame and are really hoping for a harvest in mid-July.

Bad News: The two deeps were filled with capped brood and one frame was sporting some swarmy queen cups on the bottom of the frame with larvae inside, so after a frantic search for both the queen and for some equipment to make a new hive, we split the hive and placed the old queen in a new location and the swarm cells in the old location.

I'm so glad we did this check today, because in another couple days we would've had no queen and about 60% less bees. Hopefully the Flow Hive colony will make a great new queen and make a ton of honey in the meantime, but this means that we may have to wait 3 weeks for our next check to give that new queen time to take her mating flights and start laying. The good news is that this break in the brood cycle meant that we didn't have to perform a mite check today.

In brief: We split the Flow Hive and moved the old queen to a new location to prevent swarming, leaving swarm cells in the old hive. We did not perform a mite check. Though the bees were beginning to put honey in the Flow frames, we did not harvest any honey today.

Thank you so much to Clay for helping me out today! I wouldn't have been able to split the hive and find that wily queen on my own! Also, thanks for taking that sting for me!

Plans for next check [tentatively scheduled for Saturday, July 24th at 10:00am at Matthaei Botanical Gardens]:
1. Check the hive has a new, laying queen.
2. Mite Check +/- treatment if enough brood present
3. Harvest honey