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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
December 11, 2015 On November 7th, we had the candy party (details and pictures to come in a post from someone else — hint, hint Todd). I used about 100 lbs of sugar to make candy for 4 full colonies, 1 2-medium-box colony and 1 nuc. I filled 1/2 of […]
8/9 what’s difference a week makes! The queen castle is robbed out and the observation hive is well provisioned! 8/11 made a nuc from the orange hive to mate queen from Q7. To Mel’s to pick up queen — she’s dead. 8/13 Observation hive – Small hive beetle! Argh! […]
On August 11, I was expecting to house a queen from the Q7 round of queen rearing. I made up a 4 frame medium nuc from my orange colony (the primary swarm from the observation hive). When I went to pick up the queen, she was dead. Darn. The nuc […]
7/17 Pink – 5 frames drawn; 3 frames brood; queen with red mark seen Green – 7 frames drawn; 5 frames brood; queen with red mark seen Orange – 27 frames drawn; top box empty – removed; middle box 3 frames stores 5 frames brood and eggs; bottom box mostly […]
