1.Allen’s nuc: died (I think this queen was not very suited for this area, there was never a good buildup of brood and the nectar collections was not robust)

2. Split from Mel, created before we started any of our queen rearing: doing well. Living in a deep.

3. Hive with Lisa, used for queen rearing round 3, wintered with Bill last year. Doing well. Feels heavy. 3 mediums.

4. Topbar hive, dark green: alive, but very light (swarm from Allen).

5. Topbar hive, light green: alive, but very light (swarm from Allen).

6. George hive, from split from uniontown. doing well, good stores. 3 mediums.

7. Q3 George: 2 deep 5 frame nuc boxes stacked. Very active, not a lot of stores.

8. Q3 George: 2 deep 5 frame nuc boxes stacked. Very active, not a lot of stores.

at the farm:

9 lost Q1 to a late season swarm

10. lost Q2 early december, was without any activity today.

11. Hive with Cleopathra, early spring split from Mel. Living in single deep. Active, but not a lot of honey stores.

It looks like none of us have any of the q1 or q2 queens left. Those must not have been reared well. Let’s hope for better for next year!

ps. Liz’ hive at the farm was very busy!.

Nuc with white dots: nice queen, one of the ones that Andrew grafted from George. Plenty of brood. I gave that hive a spare comb of honey from one of the deserted boxes.

Nuc with white square: nice orange queen, a Lisa. Lots of brood and bees. Some nectar.

Nuc with yellow triangle: big dark queen, George decendent. Lots of brood, bees, and nectar/pollen.

Amazingly, the nuc that started as the nurse hive and had most bees and brood when it received a queen, is now not the strongest hive. The most activity is at the Lisa hive.

About two days ago I started observing the hives more closely to see who was bringing in pollen. And that was these three. The nuc with the blue triangle was deserted long ago. The left compartment of the queen castle was also deserted early on. The other compartment still had a 100 bees, lots of honey but no brood or queen. And no pollen coming in. Quite telling thus.

I need some help catching and marking these queens if anyone has time. I am also in need of some deep boxes. Anyone has some that I can borrow?

George started as a swarm in the same year, but was a bit more bland looking. Very productive though, filling boxes rapidly with brood. I gave George to a friend in Uniontown later that summer. He did not do much with the hive but observe it. I kept adding boxes. George wintered with him and I brought some swarm cells from George back to our yard in 2013 for some splits, but that failed. George wintered again with my friend and this spring, I made another split, taking the mother with me rather than eggs. She came home to Liberty in early april. Neither hive has ever been fed or treated.

Meet Lisa  and George: