I am questioning if I am a bee keeper or bee haver or maybe even if I am a Wannabee.  I have had 6 nucs (splits, swarms, etc) and one swarm that had moved into one of my honey supers to be cleaned. All these were in my back yard (I use the back yard as a first aid station). My friend, Doug, and I had clipped and marked each of the queens. They were all queenright and growing. This was about 2 1/2 weeks ago.

Today, I went outside to check and clean them up, you know, burr comb, add frames to the ones that were short and get them ready to go to the field apiaries. Well, I checked the first one and all I could see was some honey and no worker brood, but spotty drone brood. No queen and just a few, 1000-2000 bees. There should have been 5000 + bees. Oh well, maybe the next one.

That was a disaster. Only honey and mostly burr comb, but lots of bees and no brood or queen. The same was true for the next 3, no difference. The 6th nuc was the strongest and it was in a brood box ready for a super, I thought. When I looked in, I found lots of beetle larvae and shiny, wet looking top bars. This one had been slimmed and again no queen.

Surely the swarm in the hive out in the back of the yard would need a super and I got a brood box ready to put on top so the bees would move up and start laying in it and I could then remove the honey super and get it ready to put on the top to be a honey super. Slimmed again.

Summary: What I did was neglect the bees. They were just outside my kitchen door and I could look in on them anytime, so I just procrastinated and didn’t take the time “right now” and it turned into two and a half weeks, giving the beetles a chance to decimate the hives and not checking on the queen helped the bees to start a slow and deadly decline. I am now reaping what I sowed (indifference) and have lost 7 colonies of bees. I could try combining all the different colonial bees into one hive using minted sugar water, but that would be more trouble than it would be worth to me. I would still have to come up with a queen and I couldn’t get one in the mail in time to save them. Remember the jungle? “A swarm in May is worth a Bale of Hay. A swarm in June is worth a Silver Spoon. A swarm in July ain’t worth a fly.” I would spend too much money, sugar, and time trying to keep the bee alive and I would still have to feed them through the winter.

Conclusion: What I should have done, and this I will do in the future, was check the swarms and splits every 3-5 days until they are strong with at least 3 frames of brood, some pollen, and honey. Then I would let them alone for 7-10 days at a time. When they are ready , I would put them in a brood box and move them to the field. That would make me a bee keeper taking care of my livestock.

Remember, just because a person has kept bees longer than you, doesn’t mean he is infallible. Even the “Oldtimers” make mistakes and shows poor judgment at times.

Get ready to enjoy the Forth Of July and read some in the Bee Culture, I got mine today, and make plans to visit your bees soon. Did you check to see if they needed a super yet? Give them room to put up honey and you might keep them from swarming especially this late in the year.

Happy 4th of July!!