Nuc to Hive – Building a Strong Honey Bee Colony

Hive Problems – Year 1

Will Nucs or New Hives Swarm?

Yes. If your hive swarms then you will go into the fall with a weakened hive. Even if it is your first year, make sure that you are preventing a swarm in July and August.

June is swarming season in our area of Ontario. But we have had bees swarm as late as the end of August. The interesting thing is that we have seen weak hives swarm. This is always a problem with new queens. They are most likely to swarm.

Overwintered queens are less likely to swarm, but they also have been laying for a few months. A queen has only so many eggs. If you bought a post solstice, overwintered queen, you can expect to get one year out of her, but I would requeen her in year two.

Why do Worker Bees Supersede New Queens?

This is something that I am just learning. I see far less supersedure cells in hives that are fed and warm than I do in hives that are just left to ‘go their own.’

If I do see supersedure cells, I look for a few things:
Did I kill the queen in the last inspection?
Are the nurse bees cannibalizing the brood, and then blaming the failing hive on the queen?
Is this a true supersedure cell, or is the hive thinking of swarming?
Has the hive already swarmed?
If none of the above, I will requeen the hive.

It is impossible for me to tell you exactly why a new hive will superceed a queen, or why a hive that isn’t strong will feel the urge to swarm. What I have learned is that if I go through the above check list, I have more hives build out in the summer, and survive the winter.

A. Queen Cup
B. Drone Comb – Drone Cell
C. Poor quality Queen Cell
D. Supercedure Cells – Harvest Queen Cells

Can a Hive look strong in the summer but not survive the winter?

Yes. First, let’s take varroa out of the equation. Let’s assume that you treated aggressively all year.

Can a Bees Abscond or Fade in the first year?

Yes. Absconding is different than swarming. When you have a swarm there may be a virgin queen and a few bees left behind. When a hive absconds the entire hive flys away.

We have never had a hive abscond in the true sense of the term. We have had hives ‘fade in the fall.’ But we have never opened a hive and see everything gone.

Why do bees abscond? There are a few theories.

The #1 theory is that the mite load was so bad they abandoned the hive. Some say that they use the brood break to control mites.

I am not sure if I agree with this theory because many of the mother mites will move with the hive to the new location. Second, in a brood break the mites are not reproducing, but that doesn’t mean they are dying.

A mother mite can last an entire winter with the host hive and start laying next spring. She will die faster if she is laying.

Another theory is that the bees are diseased or have some other factor that they know they will die, so they leave the hive full of resources. The hive will freeze, killing of everything from viruses and microbes to fungus and other pathogens. Next June a new swarm will move into the hive, with the remaining winter stores, and have a greater chance of success.

When you ask a beekeeper why a hive absconds the most common answer is, ‘no one knows.’ Because in truth, no one really understands why a hive will abscond.

Fading Hives

We have seen hives fade. This is the results of mites, disease, bad gut health, etc. The bees know they are dying, so they will fly away from the hive so their sisters do not need to deal with their bodies and risk being infected.

When this happens, you will see the hive slowly dwindle over a few weeks. I have tried to save these hives. I now just remove the hive, scorch the woodenware, freeze the frames, scrape the wax off the frames, and either use the wax for non-bee purposes, or heat the wax to over 119C.

My goal is to prevent whatever is wrong with that hive from spreading to other hives.

Small Black Bees

One thing that we have seen in conjunction with fading is that small black bees. This means that the entire hive is sick. If I see this I will cover the whole hive with a plastic bag. In the past I have seen this without understanding why. The infection never spread to other hives, but the hive never survived more than two weeks.

And the infection never spread to other hives. That said, I no longer risk. If I do not smell a foul stench coming out of the hive (American Foul Brood) I will eliminate the hive to protect the other hives.

The Story of Queens and Queen Cells

Swarm cells – found in strong, healthy hives. Are usually a good size, and there are a lot of them.

Emergency cells – found in weaker hives. They just don’t ‘look right.’ Often smaller and crowded together. Never harvest these.

Supercedure cells – Longer, laying flat against the comb, lots of nurse bees hovering around.

Very long cell – sometimes there is a very long cell. You may be excited thinking it is a huge queen bee, but sadly, it is probably already dead. This larva fell off out of the royal jelly and is in the lower cup of the cell.

Empty cell – this can be a) an emerged virgin, or b) the nurse bees removed the larva, or c) a virgin queen uncapped and killed the larva and then the nurse bees removed the larva.

Dead queens in their cells. There is often a little hole in the side of the cell. This means that a virgin has stung the developing queen and killed it.

Empty queen cup . Do not panic when you see these. They are made, just in case. Look carefully inside for a very small larva. If there is nothing in the cell then do not worry. If we see a larva then we remove the cell, and we will divide that hive into three.

Knowing when to kill cells, when to harvest them, and when to leave the hive alone is a talent you will develope while traveling your journey as a beekeeper.

Live and Learn

You will make mistakes. Beekeeping is a journey, not a destination. Each year you will learn and do better. Each year you will grow. The bees will change from something you get as YOUR HOBBY, and become something you share a symbiotic relationship with. They will give you as much as you give them.

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