I dropped by the farm today to see how things are going. Not so hot really. The last time I was here it seemed the nuc was ready to swarm so I split it. I took the queen and some capped brood and moved them to a new spot on […]
The colony from Todd’s swarm that I requeened with a Carniolan from Eversweet is doing well. They have drawn out all the frames and had 8 frames of brood, worker and drone. I added a box that is checker boarded drawn comb with foundationless. The remnants of the Cleopatra colony […]
So Todd had swarms #8, 9 and 10! He can tell that story but somehow in the aftermath there was a homeless virgin queen. So we decided to put her in the laying worker colony and see if she could turn them around. When I got home with the queen, […]
Swarms 5, 6, and 7 occurred on Sat, Sun, and Mon, April 23, 24, and 25, from hives 3, 1, and 3. Hive 3 was obtained from a swarm from Liz’s observation hive last year and hive 1 was a swarm from hive 3 last year. So all three of […]
Just did a quick peek at all 4 colonies this evening around 5:00. The swarm from Todd which was requeened with a Carniolian queen from Eversweet Apiaries seems to be doing well. Calm and focused on business. The remnants of the Cleopatra colony that provided 3 boxes of honey last […]
I got a call from Todd this afternoon about an after-swarm. After discussion, we decided it would be fine to experiment with these. I have a laying worker hive. At least 4 frames of brood. The population in the colony is at least 80% drone. They haven’t gotten mean…yet. I’m […]
Last fall I purchased a device to monitor the temperature and relative humidity inside one of my hives. It is in hive 2 which has overwintered the past two years. This is a new product and still a bit buggy, but it is beginning to provide some interesting data. I […]
This has been quite the week. Yesterday, I watched as the fourth swarm left it’s home (hive 3), and eventually gathered on a cedar tree branch. These videos tell the story. After losing the two swarms on Monday, I didn’t waste any time in collecting this bunch. I only observed […]
[Show slideshow] On Monday I observed a swarm collect on a nearby tree trunk. I think it was from hive 3. Liz came over to help collect the swarm. We basically scraped them gently down off the trunk and into a cardboard nuc box and in a few minutes it […]
A few weeks ago I determined that one colony was not thriving due to the unusual bees flying between the screened inner cover and the upturned feeder. I figured they were robber bees that couldn’t figure out how to get out. I haven’t seen any pollen going in and very […]
