Newbee Inspection-- Is everything correct here? Advice? (video)

[Kazzandra]

Hey guys! I've been blessed with bees for all of six days and I did my first inspection of a hive after waiting three days. *pauses to scratch some stings from nuc installation without smoke and with a bee brush* I'm a teacher, but not a social learner, so that was my first encounter with bees. I'd never been stung by a honey bee before-- there are simply none around.

There are great nucs of Revis Russians, but we have a weaker hive and we wanted to see what was going on with it. I was hoping to see some eggs, thus the waiting for three days.

Luckily, we had a camera person, so I can ask you all what you see and think, both about the hive and our techniques. It's taken in 1080 full HD, so in the lower right side of where the video is running, you can up it from its lower default so you can really see it as if you with us. I'm particularly amused that we missed looking at frame three. :P

Anyway, because of quality, we ran out of memory card four or five frames in, but hopefully you all can help me see if there's any uncapped brood or eggs here.

I also snuck a peak at the first few frames of the strong hive, and I immediately saw lots of uncapped brood. I'll wait to do a full inspection of it and see if I can see any eggs.

I'm especially wondering if a frame of brood from the strong hive would be of help? And are there emergency supersedures on frame five? Do you see evidence of a queen? Oh, and it's 12:15 when this video was shot-- do we have enough sun for the hives? If you hear me say anything wrong, in the video, let me know.

Frame One: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ3n-WDnrUk&t=4m40s
Frame Two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ3n-WDnrUk&t=5m53s
Frame Four: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ3n-WDnrUk&t=8m15s
Frame Five: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ3n-WDnrUk&t=9m25s

Also, I did add a hivetop feeder instead of those gosh-awful front porch feeders, with half syrup and a pollen patty in the other side, with a queen excluder at the bottom. I put in entrance reducers, because someone got some bees about three miles from us up the road and wanted to give the guard bees a chance. I wanted to put them in at installation, but I had some mad bees that day on the strong hive. *pauses to rub comfrey gel on a few stings*

For the strong hive, I added another brood box-- everything was drawn out and filling fast and they were rocking out in there, so with these record highs that we've been having, I thought they might need a little extra room. Frames 2 and 7 have foundation starter strips, and the rest has standard foundation. We'll see how that goes.

But it's already been such a blessing to see honey bees on the plants again.

Speaking of stings, is it normal after being stung 14 times to have a spell of shaking about 12 hours afterwards and to still have swelling/bruising six days after? I have been and will continue to be much more careful, taking precautions before and during my encounters with my friends, but should I invest in more than just the veil, or is that a potential allergic reaction rearing its head?

[Ravenseye]

Couldn't really see if there were eggs but I'd still wait a few days and check. uncapped brood is easier to see than eggs. Eggs and larvae are always good evidence of a queen. I'd say you have enough sun although more wouldn't hurt. You should scrape off some of that errant comb before things get really difficult to put together with the right spacing. You shouldn't be shaking 12 hours after getting stung but you also shouldn't be getting stung 14 times. The swelling, etc., is pretty normal. Everyone is different. I think using a little more smoke would help you inspect and keep the stinging down. If you had a big, defensive hive you wouldn't be able to do such a leisurely inspection, at least not without smoke!

[Kazzandra]

Thanks for the advice, Ravenseye. I didn't want to spoke them at installation, but I should have had the smoker lit just in case. And I was stubborn-- I was GOING to get those feeders in-- they had had a long drive and wanted them to have some refreshment, so though I was being stung, I just kept plowing along. Newbee mistakes, I know.

During this observation, we did use smoke, and I felt like we oversmoked, but really? Not enough?

[Michael Bush]

If the smoker is lit well, IMO, it's hard to use too little smoke. A puff or two is all it takes with a well lit smoker. Of course if it's not lit well...