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 […]
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 […]
Well I’m bummed. I decided to pull my supers today. The process went fine. The fume board worked like a charm even though the juice is about three years old. I removed the third super which I put on about a month ago to be sure the hive wouldn’t swarm. […]
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.
Today I added a second honey super. The first box felt pretty heavy (guessing 80% full), so I under-supered (or should that be sub-supered). It was a box of comb from last year’s hive 3. The Black Locust trees just bloomed yesterday in the area, so I think the timing […]
My lone survivor was hive 4 from last year, but I think I will re-label it as hive 1 for 2015. The queen is Sally 2c, but for simplicity sake I will just call her Sally. She is doing fine and seems to be off to a good start. I […]
Last night I went to a talk by Dr. Dewey Caron presented by the Carroll County Beekeepers Association. It was held at the Carroll Community College library. It was a great location and a nice room for a presentation. It was also a regular monthly meeting for the CCBA, but […]
I checked my hives yesterday. It was the first nice day in three or four weeks. The sun was out and it was in the mid forties – maybe warmer. I was walking the dogs and noticed that there were lots of bees flying around the front of hive 4. […]
