These are the weirdest bees…
The hive is in full south facing sun all day and protected from wind. They took 6 weeks to draw out the 2-3 new frames in a 10-frame super even with me feeding syrup and when I put the second super on in July not a single frame has been drawn out, even with two lower frames put up top. The frames have plastic foundation, so maybe they hate it. No burr comb either. Weird.They are super protective – not African-ized, but pretty damn mean. I wrote the keeper that I got the nuc from and he sent me a note in return saying that this is “normal behavior” for his survivor bees. It is not a lack of resources or the queen: she is a brood making machine with very few drone cells. They are just kind of mean.
After three months I should have 20 frames covered with drawn comb, pollen, brood, honey, the works. I didn’t think I would pull any honey from them this year and planned to get them strong for a spring split in 2019. The no honey thing was a correct estimation, but not just for me, there is very little honey or pollen in the hive – maybe a frame and a half a frame of capped honey the rest is currently uncapped and capped brood. Instead of 20+ drawn frames, I have 9.5. It is like they did not have enough pollen or nectar, which is no where near the case: They were all over the blackberries, our 40’ of lavender, flower garden, and 70+ sunflowers, so I know they had plenty of the flow this year. I am going to have to feed them with fondant over winter and am condensing the hive into a single super for winter.
The source of the original nuc doesn’t treat at all, so I am finding that they have a pretty high mite count with some wing deformation (DWV?). No AFB or chalk brood though. No robbing or ant issues. The aggression and the possible DWV may be linked and may be the issue with comb drawing and honey production.
There is a hive of Italians right next to the new bees that was an early spring package. Same type of frames and two westerns of honey were taken off them, though am not happy with mite count and will definitely treat them as well over winter. I blame the new bees for the high mite count this year.
I think that I will see how the new hive does come spring with the Apivar, beetle treatment, and all-winter feeding. If they haven’t calmed down or if they show any sign of weakness, that hive will be getting a new certified Russian queen.
Any bee keepers out there have any thoughts or comments?