So at about 8:30 on the morning of June 18th we checked to see how many nucs we needed to prepare for the soon-to-be emerging queens. We counted 7 capped cells. They seemed a little short and we detected movement of the queens within the cells. Off we went to prepare […]
This morning we inspected the nurse hive and found seven queen cells that were capped. It appeared to all of us that they were rather small/short and not obviously filled with royal jelly as we saw with some of the cells in Q1. We decided to prepare places for all […]
Here is a paper from a research group that tested if different shapes and colors help bees recognize their own hive in a grouping of hives. I know this is a unique shape that they can see: My nucs are ready with these shapes/colors to help our bees:
In preparation for determining how many queen cells might be viable, I built a queen castle from medium equipment. I put it together using old equipment and excess lumber and coroplast laying around the house. I was lucky enough to find a piece of molding exactly the width I needed […]
Two days ago when I looked at my hives my main focus was on see how the two swapped queens were doing. Today I wanted to take another look at hive 3 and swap wood for cardboard in hive 5. The swap was no problem but I was reminded that […]
Today was the first day with some sun in about three days. I have been concerned about one of my new queens and I wanted to take a look. Just to review, hive 1 was the only hive to overwinter. I lost two others. We took bees from this hive […]
I had a quick look outside our nurse hive this early evening and there were bees flying in and out. There were also some bees just hanging out. They must have enough bodies to make our queen cells. Today is day 8. Our cells should be practically capped. Did not […]
I am painting 4 new nuc boxes, sanding, priming, etc. They are white now, hopefully green by this weekend. Each will have a distinctive front. I hope we have a lot of plump queen cells so that these nucs will have occupants. I can’t wait.
June 6, 2012 Nurse hive set up: [Show slideshow] Bees from 3 frames of capped brood shaken into a deep. Transported to Mel and Dawn’s yard. Additional nurse bees added by shaking all the bees from my Q1 queen hive (deep, 10 frames) into the new nurse hive. Q1 queen […]
Irvin Martin, Carlisle, Pa Liz discovered a new woodenware supplier recently and made a trip up to Carlisle, PA to check him out and buy some stuff. Several people gave Liz a list and she came home with lots of goodies. My stuff was even delivered! Thank you, Liz! I […]
