On Sunday June 28, Kristien set up the colony at the farm with the cloak board. Special attention was paid to have only capped brood in the cell finishing box and make sure all the open brood was in the bottom box. On June 30th, we met a Kristien’s and […]
On May 31st we met at Allen’s outyard, selected our queen rearing colony and set it up with the cloak board. On June 3rd, we grafted from the tailgate of Allen’s truck. Allen practiced on 5 cups and grafted 5 cups, Kristien grafted 15 and Liz grafted 10 […]
So this time the primary swarm from the observation hive cast an after swarm. Hopefully this won’t be a daily occurrence! Meanwhile, back at the observation hive the congestion builds. I haven’t seen any queen cells yet, though.
There is a simple calendar generator for queen rearing that lets you put in a start date and then generates a full calendar for grafting and moving capped cells right through to mating flights and egg laying.
I’ve known she was in there due to the increased foraging of pollen and the general calm of the colony and the wonderful full smell of the hive. Today I got visual verification! Laying and everything!
Today it was the primary swarm from the nuc I got from Allen last year. This is the nuc that had a queen from his nuc yard rather than the purchased California queen. Kristien and I attempted to box the swarm twice but because they had clustered under the pallet […]
Yesterday evening I saw a virgin queen in the observation hive for the first time since this craziness began. She was running like a wild thing! The reason soon became apparent. The bees balled her! Note the condensation on the hive glass. This point on the glass was considerably hotter […]
Today may I present AfterSwarm D Here it is boxed up and ready to head to Kristien’s to live out it’s life in her top bar hive.
When Todd and I put AfterSwarm B in the box, I thought it would be a good idea to add a frame of brood to make sure they stay. I’ve read that’s advisable with virgin swarms. So down to the bee yard we went. I figured I would take the […]
So on May 10th I thought the congestion had increased to the point the bees may swarm again. Well swarm they did! On May 12th the bees produced what has come to be known as AfterSwarm A. They congregated on the window. I dutifully swept them into […]
