2017 04 Apr 09 Highs in the 70s bright and sun shine

Interesting  happenings

It started with the splits I wanted to expand. I could not locate the queen so I made sure I had eggs everywhere. I had two colonies in 3 deep box configuration which may have been the smartest thing I EVER did  this season in January. The bees filled the boxes and in Virginia I simply moved that box to an empty setup. It turns out the queen was in that box as I did an inspection saw eggs, capped and uncapped brood in that box and more importantly saw almost completed queen cells on two frames in the now two deep configuration. so that may work out.

In Florida I split that top box into two double nuke setups (Sanford & Culpeper) with Sanford showing signs of the queen  with eggs and capped and uncapped brood. Then the other double nuc having a queen cell and capped larva. Then the mother colony also having queen cells with and capped brood.

Another 12 days for all the queens to develop and an inspection planned for this Saturday before Easter. This set of inspections is looking specifically whether the queen cells are going to produce queens. If so then I may make more nucs or diversify queens over ones that may not have queens. If I don't have enough then simply combine queen deficient hives.

Also a side story, I gentlemen stopped by who is interested in acquiring a hive. He kept bees in his earlier years and asked if I could part with a hive. I advised I'd be thrilled if I could give him a hive with a new queen. He asked what would I charge and I told him if it works he can have one. He is full of stories and at 88 years old reminds me of my grandfather.... I'd love to give him five frames for his setup and see how he does. Turns out I may end up with a constant supply of eggs for that colony.... seems bartering isn't dead and it saves me learning how to raise chickens..... which my wife and I thought about.

Small world and God does work in mysterious ways and I get to listen to some wild stories too. I think I come out way ahead on this one.

If you enjoy the blog please let me know and certainly if you have questions...I'd love to hear them.

2017 04 APR 03 Highs in the 60s

So this took place on the 1st and the 3rd.

I have two hives coming out of winter...... Obviously I want more bees and just success.... so what did I do...

I have two 3-deep box configurations. I put the third box and feeder on in Feb as I recall.

So for Florida I broke that top deep up and put it into two nuc boxes. and on each of those I put an empty box with 5 frames of foundation. so two - double decker nuc boxes. That was from Florida. and blocked off the entrance to both for a day.

Then from Virginia I just took off the top box and started South Carolina up again.

Then I placed a medium and queen excluder on both Florida and Virginia.

My goal is to have at least three hives by the end of the year and some honey.

What I don't know is where are the queens?
They could be in the nuc setups or in South Carolina. and Florida, or some combination of either.

Now since I did Florida on the 1st, I thought I might see some defensiveness from that hive today, but I didn't. This may indicate that the queen is in Florida and nuc setups (Sanford and Culpeper) are queenless.

I know Culpeper has eggs and maybe a queen. so I may be looking for queens shortly but I'll let the colonies stay as they are for a few days. Allo of them have bees and brood so they should be fine.

I may have to either combine Culpeper and Sanford or mix them with South Carolina... I just don't know.

Now another challenge I have to work with is wax moths and small hive beetles in Virginia. So this weekend I'll take pictures and look for queen cells in both Florida and Virginia. Virginia will also get a dose of OAd.