The Bee Log

What I started with:

In 2024, I knew I was going to be getting bees in 2025. My neighbor and I went in on a preowned lot of bee equipment, including frames, deep and medium boxes, hive stands, bottom board, top board, and so much more. Basically everything we needed to get going. Most importantly, we had so many frames of prebuilt comb. This ended up being a blessing, because our bees now had a leg up. They didn't need to build copious amounts of comb from bare frames. They just needed to get in there and clean everything, then begin the process of raising brood and storing pollen and nectar. So, that explains why my bee log starts not with the building of comb, but rather the laying of eggs.

April 2025

April 15, 2025 

-Weather was overcast and about 42°F.

Released both packages into their hives. Hives are named Nefertiti and Cleopatra. Queens were left in their cage but I removed the cork and put in a marshmallow. I had been alerted that bees and queen had been together for 4 days already, so I did not feel the need to wait 2 more days. Gave each hive a full jar of sugar syrup with some HoneyB healthy in it.

April 16, 2025

-Weather was rainy and in the high 30s. My partner held a large umbrella over the hives so I could open them quickly.

I removed the queen cages. Both queens had been successfully released. Gave them each 1 pollen pattie. Syrup jar had already been consumed half way.

April 17, 2025

-Weather was warm and beautiful (Sunny!)

Only opened top to check on syrup. Both had about 1/4 a jar left. Refilled all jars to the top. Bees were calm and quiet.

April 18, 2025

Only opened Cleopatra to check on syrup (she is going through the syrup faster). It was a little more than 1/2 full, so did not refill. Did not open Nefertiti.

April 19, 2025

-Weather was sunny and nice.

Both syrup jars were a little less than 1/2 full, so I refilled them. Both hives were active as it was a nice day.

April 22, 2025

Both syrup jars were almost empty, so refilled them. Cleopatra is feisty, while Nefertiti is very calm. A few bees were bringing in some pollen, so we should have brood.

April 23, 2025

-Weather was sunny and in the high 40°. A little windy.

Both hives received OA treatments. Saw many bees from each hive bringing in pollen, which means we have brood!

April 25, 2025

Checked on syrup. Both hives were about half full. Weather has been nice the last few days and they have been out foraging. Probably mainly Alder and Birch.

April 26, 2025

-Weather was overcast with sun and in the low 50°.

Today was the first hive inspection for both hives. 

Nefertiti: Currently has 6 frames and poly follower boards. I saw larva, capped brood, and the queen. No sign of stored pollen. About 1/2 the pollen patty is gone. All frames had signs or sugar syrup in them. On the sticky board (beneath the screened bottom board), there were about 2-4 mites found.

Cleopatra: Currently has 6 frames and follower boards. I saw larva, capped brood, and the queen. No stored pollen. It seems that there was more capped brood than Nefertiti.

Both hives had their syrup topped off.

April 28, 2025

Refilled sugar syrup, but not all the way. Gave Cleo about a 1/2 jar and gave Nefi about 3/4 jar. 

April 30, 2025

-Last couple of days have been cold. Weather is turning a bit chilly from where it had been a few days ago.

Refilled sugar syrup all the way for both, as they had gone through almost all of their jars.

May 2025

May 2, 2025

-Weather was sunny with a slight wind. High 50°

Hive Inspection:

Gave both hives a fresh pollen patty, as they were almost gone. Sugar syrup for both were about 1/2 full. 

Nefertiti: 3-4 frames had their centers filled with capped brood and even some capped funny honey. Saw fresh larva. This is the smaller hive, but still very active. Found the queen.

Cleopatra: 4-5 frames had centers full of capped brood and also capped funny honey. A much larger and active hive. Very spunky today.

NOTE: After this date I stopped recording when I was refilling sugar syrup. I checked on the sugar syrup every 4-5 days and refilled as needed. As they were starting to cap the store funny honey and the dandelions had just started to bloom, I began backing off of the sugar syrup.

May 10, 2025

-Weather was sunny and warm.

Noticed there was syrup leaking from Nefi's hive. I had to take apart her top box multiple times to get it to fix itself. Refilled the syrup as well. The lid of the feeder was getting clogged up and the syrup would not stop dripping.

May 11, 2025

-Weather was sunny and beautiful! Temps were reaching the 60°s

Hive Inspection:

Nefertiti: Showing great signs and improvement. Actually saw a baby bee chewing it's way out of the capped brood. Took out 2 follower boards and added 2 frames. They have 8 frames now. Still have about 1/2 a pollen patty.

Cleopatra: A little further along than Nefi, however almost all their 2nd pollen patty was gone. I added 3 frames and removed all but 1 follower board.

May 14, 2025

-Weather was overcast and in the mid 50°s

After talking with people at the bee club meeting, I decided to quickly open Cleopatra and take two of the frames out and readd 2 follower boards, so she has 8 frames now. I am worried it is a bit too cold to not have any follower boards right now. Will probably add a second box to this hive in about a week as long as the weather is good and the resources keep coming.

May 19, 2025

-Weather was overcast and sunny. Temps got into the 60°s. There was some wind too.

Cleopatra had shown signs of outgrowing her current setup (8 frames with poly followers on the sides). As the nights are still chilly, I decided to add a top box with 6 frames and 4 followers on the outside (2 on each side). I took out one brood frame from the bottom box and put it into the top box surrounded by empty frames with built comb (2 of which were drone frames). I put a new empty in place of the brood frame in the lower box. The bees were very agitated and head-butting me. I got stung on the arm (first sting of the year). Within a few hours they seemed to be moving more freely around the box and I saw signs of them starting to clean the new top box.

May 24, 2025

-Weather was sunny and warm. Temps got into the low 80s in the sun (really!). There was some very light wind. Perfect weather for a hive inspection.

Cleopatra is filling in the top frames and starting to build comb in them. In the lower box there had been a lot of new comb build on the bottom of the hives that is being filled with brood. I saw lots of stores of pollen and some honey. They were not overly agitated. I saw the queen actively laying.

Nefertiti had filled in most of their frames. It is time to give her 2 final frames to make her box 10 frames, but I will do that when I move them into their new poly hives (they just come in). She has still about 1 frames worth of space in her current area, and will have new bees being born this week. A few drone brood were seen, but not much. I also saw this queen laying as well.

*A note on both queens: It seems both have "grown" larger in the last week. I think they are starting to fully develop now that they are getting older and the weather is getting nicer. It is making them much easier to find.

*Another note: I have received the poly hives I ordered and I am prepping them for a change over to be done in the next week when the weather is nicer.

May 28, 2025

We are supposed to have a cooler, windy and wet week so I decided to give both bees sugar syrup again. As I was dealing with some leaking issues, I gave them each a glass pint jar with a new lid and set of feeding holes to help prevent syrup leaking into the hive. I noticed there was some condensation above the syrup jars.

June 2025

June 1, 2025

-Weather was cooler and windy. Maybe about 55°. I waited until the warmest part of the day and the wind had calmed down.

Both hives were trasfered into their new poly hives.

Cleopatra was very angry with me. I had to smoke them hard. I did find the queen and also saw they had built a lot of comb and had a lot of new capped brood. There was a lot of capped drone brood (maybe half a frames worth) and two new empty queen cups. I decided to expand them fully into 2 boxes of 10 frames each (20 frames total). I also removed the drone burl comb on the bottom of the frames as most of them were capped and I was hoping to remove them for cleanliness and for mite prevention. I got the bees all moved in and they seem to take to the new hive well. They had already consumed all her sugar syrup so I filled it back up. Very little pollen patty left.

Nefertiti was not as agitated. She has outgrown her 8 frames so I added 2 more, but did not giver her a new box. I think that will come next week though, as she had lots of new capped brood. She quickly took to the new boxes. I did find 1 cell that looked like it could be a practice queen cup, so I may need to split her (I wasn't sure they had it in them). I considered giving her a frame from Cleo, but with the weather being so bad I wanted to get them moved and closed up. If I add a new box next week, I may give her a frame of brood from Cleo at that time to help her numbers, and to help slow down Cleo a bit. They had gone through about 1/2 their pint of syrup so I did not refill it. Almost no pollen patty was left. 

June 2, 2025

-Weather has been cool, rainy and windy. 

I began to start feeding them sugar syrup again. They are going through a pint every day or so.

June 6, 2025

-Weather has continued to be cold, rainy and windy. 

Nefi was crowding her entrance. Checking below the frames showed they are very pressed for space. I added a second box for them

Both hives are still getting a pint of sugar water a day due to the crappy weather.

June 9, 2025

-Weather has continued being cold and rainy.

I gave both hives a 1/4 of a pollen patty, as they have not had much chance to forage lately. Nefi seems to have taken well to her new box, and both hives seem to be keeping warm. Internal temp checks at the entrances have the hives reading around 80°.

June 11, 2025

-A glorious day! Highs in the 60s with lots of bright and warm sun.

I did a full hive inspection.

Cleopatra has 20 boxes at this time. The top box of 10 frames is about 1/3 filled out with brood and resources. They still have some frame building to do. The bottom box had about 8 frames filled with brood and resources and the queen was actively filling drone comb in the drone frames when I checked on her. I will probably need to add another box soon, and I did spot 4 queen cups. During the inspection they were pretty calm. There were a lot of bees below the screened bottom board. I ended up having to disassemble the whole hive later in the evening to fix the problem, and they were not happy when I did that. I got stung on the hand.

Nefertiti has started building out the comb in the top box, but I didn't see much brood action up there. However, a totally different story in the bottom box! About 8 frames filled beautifully, with resaurces, brood, larva and even some drone comb.  I spotted 2 queen cups, but nothing in them. I wasn't sure if we would, but I am thinking we will do a split for Nefi, which is good. Their temperament is good and the queen is beautiful and strong!

June 14, 2025

-A fair day. Highs in the low 60s with clouds and sun.

I purchased two new queens, coming in next week. So I will go ahead and split Cleo now, as she is the largest and showing signs of swarming. I will split Nefertiti on Wednesday when the new queen arrives. This will let me observe which type of split is best for the future. 

I took 3 frames of capped brood from Cleo, as well as 1 hefty frame of honey and pollen. I tried to take frames that did not have much uncapped brood, so they would not form a queen cell. I put them in there own box with 2 empty frames and gave them a few shakes of nursing bees as well, then closed them back up.

I did also check through Cleo thoroughly to makes sure I did not accidentally move the existing queen. They have been very busy foraging and bringing in resources. The drone brood frames are still filling out. I also added another box to Cleo, as they are getting big. 

June 18, 2025

-A beautiful day. Started off a bit cool and cloudy, but the sun came out and it warmed up nicely.

I picked up my two queens. One is a Western Caucasian and the other is a Carniolan.

When I got home I went through the green hive that I had split on Sunday (from Cleo). This hive had a few queens cells started, so I knocked them down and then install the queen. They were a bit feisty but ok for the most part. They did swarm the queen, but she will stay in her cage with the cap on for the next 3 days. This hive will now be called Tiye.

I opened Nefertiti up and inspected them. I found the queen after having already separated out a few frames of capped brood and resources, so I moved the separated frames into the purple hive. Overall, Nefertiti looked good, but she is not yet ready for a third box. She still has some room to grow.

I added the queen to the purple hive, and they were very excited, but they seemed to be less aggressive compared to Cleo. Nefi is always less aggressive. I closed up the purple hive and left them to get aquatinted with their new queen. This hive will now be known as Hatshepsut, of Hattie for short.

June 21,  2025

-A beautiful day. Highs in the low 70s and lots of sun. Very warm!

I opened up the new hives today to remove the caps covering the sugar so that the bees can begin releasing their queens. 

I started with Tiye and checked to make sure they had no queen cells first. A quick look showed me they actually built a supersedure cell that I had missed. Luckily I found it and knocked it down (whew!). Then I checked on the queen. She was still alive and doing well. The bees seemed to have accepted her, as they were much more calm around her. I removed the cover and put her back in so they could start to easting the candy and release her. I also gave them a few sprays of sugar water, just in case. I also noticed that some baby bees had begun to be born, which was exciting.

Next I opened Hattie. They were much more calm, it seems. I scrapped out some of the sugar candy from the queen cage so they could get to her faster, as they seem to be the slightly weaker hive (because they are the youngest).

Most of the week these two hives have been very inactive, with minimal activity around the entrance. However, later in the day, I noticed that Tiye was showing a lot more activity. It seems that many bees were coming out to start to do orientation flights. This was exciting to see.

I also started the process of slowly moving their hives into the place. I will scooch each hive by about 3 feet a day until I have them in th place I want them to be for the rest of the year.

June 22,  2025

-A nice day. Highs in the mid 60s with clouds and sun. A few short bursts of rain as well.

I opened up the new hives again to check on the queens.

Tiye was about halfway released. The bees seemed pretty good around her with no aggression. I put her back in to let them finish their work, after carving out a little bit of the candy plug.

Hattie was almost released, and they were very calm around her. I carved out a bit more candy plug for them so they could get her free. They seem much more accepting of their queen, so I feel better about that choice.

Later in the day, the sun came out and I noticed that Hattie and Tiye were starting to get a bit more active at their entrance and were starting to do more orientation flights. Hattie is still behind, but I think they will both make it.

June 23,  2025

-Overcast but humid with temps around 60°s.

I opened up the new hives again to check on the queens.

Tiye was still not released, but she had been chewed free except for a little bit of candy. I checked the hive to find out why she had not come out fully yet. I found two capped supersedure cells. I removed them and then removed the small amount of remaining candy and watched the queen come out. She was rushed by the hive, but they were feeding her and being calm, so I returned her to the hive and closed them up.

Hattie had been released and was moving freely around the hive. They have accepted her completely.

June 25,  2025

-Sunny when I went into the hive, but overcast most of the day. Highs in the mid 60°s.

I only inspected Cleo and Nefi.

Cleo was doing very well. I was worried I may find charged queen cells, but she only had practice cups. She was running out of space, so I finally added a queen excluder and the first honey box! I moved some brood up to the honey box and gave them some empty frames to work on. I also removed a full frame of capped drone to put into the freezer. I will give it back to them when I go into the new hives on Sunday. I spotted eggs, larva and capped brood, as well as the queen. They seem to be getting back on track after the split. 

Nefi is doing well, but is still slow. I was hoping to giver her a third box, but she wasn't ready for it. I thin the split slowed her down a bit. I found the queen, fresh eggs and larva, and capped brood, so I hope they will start growing again soon. The drone comb in this hive has been slowly built out, but almost non is filled with eggs or larva. Nefi shows very little interest in swarming, and has only built one or two queen cups. I closed them back up quickly and will not open them again for a week.

*NOTE: It is obvious the split caused a slow down in both hives. That makes sense, as I took thousands of bees from them when I split them. Cleo was faster to bounce back, but that is OK. I think I will see an increase in activity in the coming month before we need to start winter prepping.

June 28,  2025

-Sunny when I went into the hive, but overcast most of the day. Highs in the mid 60°s.

I only inspected Tiye and Hattie.

In Tiye I found the queen and no signs of queen cells. They have been bringing in pollen, so while I did not see any eggs or larva, I do believe the queen has just begun to lay. I gave them one more frame and closed them back up. They still had some capped honey and pollen as well from the transfer, so hopefully they will be more active next time I open them. It is also obvious the capped brood I gave them has begun to be born, as there was a lot less brood and more bees.

Hattie is slow like her predecessor, Nefi. They also are showing signs of having some varroa mite issues (mainly on the drones). I have seen very little to no pollen coming in. When I checked I saw no eggs and no larva, but I did actively see the queen going around and it looked like she was trying to find places to lay. I closed her back up and left them to it. The next day, I saw them bringing in pollen.

July 2025

July 2,  2025

-Sunny and warm with bright sun (some clouds). Temps in the high 60s.

Cleopatra - Fresh eggs and larva, with new capped brood. They have cleaned out most of the frozen drone frame. They are starting to bring in honey, but not building comb as much. Did not add another box.

Nefertiti - She seemed to be on a laying hiatus but she is back now. I gave her another box to start working on. Lots of brood and some larva. 

Tiye - I gave them a new frame and removed another follower board. Found larva, but no capped brood yet.

Hatshepsut - Also had a follower board removed and was given an extra frame to start working on. They are not as far along as Tiye. However, some good stores of honey and some larva. 

July 9,  2025

-Warm but windy. Sun was coming and going . Temps in the mid 60s.

Cleopatra - Holy Moly! She is in honey mode! I ended up pushing the queen into the bottom two boxes, put on an excluder, chimney piped all the brood and filled the brood boxes with frames for laying, then moved all empty and honey frames up to start filling. I also ended up giving them 2 more boxes. She is now 6 mediums tall. There was fresh larva and eggs.

Nefertiti - She has officially entered honey mode! Just like Cleo, I moved the queen down, put on an excluder and chimney piped the brood. There was fresh capped brood and eggs. Queen went into the brood nest and honey went up. They now have 2 brood mediums and 2 honey boxes (4 boxes tall)

Tiye & Hatshepsut - The last follower boards were removed and they were given frames to fill a whole box. Tiye had built a lot of comb on the bottom of the frames which I cleaned off. Tiye also had some drone comb! In both,  there are eggs, larva and 2-3 frames of capped brood, as well as resources. I think I should add a second box for them this weekend, as they are showing signs of needing more space.

July 13,  2025

-Day started overcast, but we had full sun and warmth by noon. Highs in the low to mid 70s.

I gave both Hattie and Tiye second boxes. I moved capped brood up into the new boxes and sandwiched in some built comb frames then put unbuilt comb frames in the outside of the boxes. I sprayed the unbuilt frames with some sugar syrup to encourage them to go to them and start builting them out (don'tknow if this wil actually work). They were looking good with lots of new brood that should be coming out soon. Saw fresh larva in both hives and saw the queens (Hattie was on the actually box, so it took a few minutes to find her!)

I did not open Cleo or Nefi, but they are bringing in lots of pollen and were very active in the sun.

July 16,  2025

-Day started overcast and windy but calmed down and got sunny in the evening. Highs in the upper 60s.

I opened Cleo to check on her honey progress. They are looking good. I took 2 frames that were almost fully capped because they had wonky comb. I then moved on the Nefi and took another two frames that looked good but a little wonky. I am not worried about swarming anymore. They seem to have moved past that. I will not open them again until the end of July/beginning of August when I take everything.

July 20,  2025

-Overcast and humid. Rain off and on. Highs in the mid 60s.

I opened Hattie to check on how they were doing. I found the queen quickly, she was checking out frames to lay out. They have not built out the new frames I gave them yet, but there were bees on them eating some of the sugar syrup I had put on them. Since Hattie was still working on her frames, I decided to leave Tiye alone as well. I will next check them when I go in for the honey.

July 24,  2025

-Sunny with clouds. Warm temps in the mid to high 60s.

I opened both Cleo and Nefi to rearrange their honeboxes only. I think I gave them too much space too fast for their honey boxes. Cleo went down to 2 brood boxes and 2 honey boxes (each honey box had 9 frames). I also took 2 more frames from her that were ready to be harvested and gave her 2 empty frames to fill out.

I moved all of Nefis honey frames into one box of 9 frames, but I took 2 more frames of honey from her, so she has some empty frames to start filling up.

July 25,  2025

-Sunny with clouds. Warm temps in the mid to high 60s.

I harvested the 8 frames of honey I had (more like 7 as 2 frames were only half full). I them gave Tiye and Hattie the empty wet frames so they could have more room to lay more brood and try to get their numbers up for winter.

July 27,  2025

-Sunny. Temps in the low 70s.

I put triangle bee escapes on Cleo and Nefi between their honey and brood boxes. I plan on taking their honey soon, as it seems the nectar flow is ending. They are bringing in a lot less pollen and they are not on the flowers the way they had been.

July 28,  2025

-Cloudy and muggy. Temps in the low 70s.

I removed the honey boxes from Cleo and Nefi. I ended up pulling out 23 frames and leaving everything else for them. I decided that when I removed the honey boxes I will have Celo and Nefi in 3 medium boxes, but I am putting follower boards in the top box with unbuilt frames to try and get them to build them out before winter, and also to give them a little more room while their numbers are still high. I plan on overwintering them in 2 mediums.

I also put all the hives back on sugar since the flow seems to be over. They did not seem interested in the sugar syrup yet, but I will keep an eye on them. They have lots of resources in the brood boxes, but there is also lots of brood too. This weekend I will do a very thorough hive inspection if the weather permits.