keljonma
Epicurean Goddess
valmom, these are my opinions, and maybe someone else will jump in here.
An agressive hive is sometimes an indication that your colony is not queenright.
You have a lot of burr comb on the sides, tops and bottoms of the frames. This should be removed on all the frames in the hive. All the honeycomb cells should be on the foundation, not any of the woodenware.
1st pic... looks like a queen supercedure cell in the middle of the frame. A supercedure cell (looks like a small peanut) is an indication that your queen is dead or not putting out enough pheronome. So the colony is replacing her.
Also 1st pic... down on the bottom, those look like queen swarm cells to me, not drone. Peanut-shaped are queen. Drone cells look like worker cells but are deeper/larger to cover the larger larvae of the drone.
3rd pic... I can see brood, drone brood wouldn't be in the center of the frame if your colony is queenright.
last frame....looks like honey to me too
I talked about your colony at our beek association meeting today. You can save this hive, but quick action is required so that the colony can have a chance at overwintering successfully.
With only 6 frames in the bottom hive body filled and only 3 to 4 frames in the top hive body filled it is too soon to put queen excluder and honey supers on this hive. You need to concentrate on getting colony healthy and growing first. More than likely, you will not get any honey this year from this colony.
This procedure comes from Earl in our beek association, who has been beeking for 66 years. I have not had to do this myself, so I can only pass along Earl's recommendations.
First you need a beek friend with a strong hive ...
Make the bees a 4 cups sugar:1 gallon water syrup mixture. Add a Tablespoon of food grade wintergreen or spearmint oil or Honey-B-Healthy mixture. Let it cool to room temperature before using.
Get 3 to 4 frames of uncapped and capped brood and 1 frame full of capped honey from your beek friend. Take 3 to 4 frames out of your hive just to the right or left of center. Spray the frames from beek friend heavily with the pre-made and cooled sugar syrup. Put them next to the center frame in your hive body. Take out 1 more of your frames and replace it with honey frame from beek friend.
Spraying both sides of each of the frames from friend just before inserting into your hive body will keep the bees interested in cleaning themselves and eating the syrup and will help prevent any clash between any bees still on friend's frames and your frames.
Once the bees are in your hive body, the workers will feed royal jelly to one or two of the uncapped cells. A queen bee only eats the royal jelly; this is how a queen is produced for your colony.
Set up a feeder (Earl uses a Miller Feeder, which sits on top of the hive and looks like a shallow honey super from the front of the hive after the hive is closed up). He hasn't used baggie feeders and refuses to use Boardman feeders at all (the mason jar that sits at the entrance of the hive).
Feed the rest of the pre-made and cooled sugar syrup to the bees. Keep feeding.
Check the hive 1 week after addition of frames. See if there is any improvement in hive strength and numbers. See if you can find evidence of queen cell on new frames. Keep feeding.
Check the hive at 2nd week after addition of frames and you should see marked improvement. Keep feeding the heavy syrup. Earl says a pollen patty would provide protein for the bees incase you are in a dearth and no pollen/nectar is available locally for the bees.
My mid-September here in NE OH, we have golden rod and aster in bloom that the bees will work. Check in your area for dates. Earl suggests that once the lower and top hive bodies show growth and the frames of both hive bodies have 7 to 8 frames full, then you can add queen excluder and medium super. But at the minimum this super will be needed by the bees in the winter. It would be better to have at least another medium super filled with honey since this colony experienced slow start.
Good luck and please keep us posted.
An agressive hive is sometimes an indication that your colony is not queenright.
You have a lot of burr comb on the sides, tops and bottoms of the frames. This should be removed on all the frames in the hive. All the honeycomb cells should be on the foundation, not any of the woodenware.
1st pic... looks like a queen supercedure cell in the middle of the frame. A supercedure cell (looks like a small peanut) is an indication that your queen is dead or not putting out enough pheronome. So the colony is replacing her.
Also 1st pic... down on the bottom, those look like queen swarm cells to me, not drone. Peanut-shaped are queen. Drone cells look like worker cells but are deeper/larger to cover the larger larvae of the drone.
3rd pic... I can see brood, drone brood wouldn't be in the center of the frame if your colony is queenright.
last frame....looks like honey to me too
I talked about your colony at our beek association meeting today. You can save this hive, but quick action is required so that the colony can have a chance at overwintering successfully.
With only 6 frames in the bottom hive body filled and only 3 to 4 frames in the top hive body filled it is too soon to put queen excluder and honey supers on this hive. You need to concentrate on getting colony healthy and growing first. More than likely, you will not get any honey this year from this colony.
This procedure comes from Earl in our beek association, who has been beeking for 66 years. I have not had to do this myself, so I can only pass along Earl's recommendations.
First you need a beek friend with a strong hive ...
Make the bees a 4 cups sugar:1 gallon water syrup mixture. Add a Tablespoon of food grade wintergreen or spearmint oil or Honey-B-Healthy mixture. Let it cool to room temperature before using.
Get 3 to 4 frames of uncapped and capped brood and 1 frame full of capped honey from your beek friend. Take 3 to 4 frames out of your hive just to the right or left of center. Spray the frames from beek friend heavily with the pre-made and cooled sugar syrup. Put them next to the center frame in your hive body. Take out 1 more of your frames and replace it with honey frame from beek friend.
Spraying both sides of each of the frames from friend just before inserting into your hive body will keep the bees interested in cleaning themselves and eating the syrup and will help prevent any clash between any bees still on friend's frames and your frames.
Once the bees are in your hive body, the workers will feed royal jelly to one or two of the uncapped cells. A queen bee only eats the royal jelly; this is how a queen is produced for your colony.
Set up a feeder (Earl uses a Miller Feeder, which sits on top of the hive and looks like a shallow honey super from the front of the hive after the hive is closed up). He hasn't used baggie feeders and refuses to use Boardman feeders at all (the mason jar that sits at the entrance of the hive).
Feed the rest of the pre-made and cooled sugar syrup to the bees. Keep feeding.
Check the hive 1 week after addition of frames. See if there is any improvement in hive strength and numbers. See if you can find evidence of queen cell on new frames. Keep feeding.
Check the hive at 2nd week after addition of frames and you should see marked improvement. Keep feeding the heavy syrup. Earl says a pollen patty would provide protein for the bees incase you are in a dearth and no pollen/nectar is available locally for the bees.
My mid-September here in NE OH, we have golden rod and aster in bloom that the bees will work. Check in your area for dates. Earl suggests that once the lower and top hive bodies show growth and the frames of both hive bodies have 7 to 8 frames full, then you can add queen excluder and medium super. But at the minimum this super will be needed by the bees in the winter. It would be better to have at least another medium super filled with honey since this colony experienced slow start.
Good luck and please keep us posted.
The bees will build the burr comb back, just keep removing it. If you are interested in melting beeswax for candles/crafts, save it in a zip bag or canning jar and freeze after collecting it each time you are in the hive. After a while, you will have enough to actually do something with it. 
