Milkweed Hive and Spot the Queen I finally got around to naming one of my swarm hives. Actually a reader and fellow beekeeper, Mary Lou Chase, suggested the name because her bees were foraging on the blossoms at the time. She even sent me this beautiful picture she took of […]
Queen Bees
Requeening – When A Queen Stops Laying
Requeening – When A Queen Stops Laying Brian’s hive Squill has been having Queen related issues from the get-go. After installing the bees from a package, they did not accept their queen immediately. Then finally caved and set her free. The queen started laying with a beautiful brood pattern. […]
Extracting Brood Frames In A Honey Bound Hive
Extracting Brood Frames In A Honey Bound Hive Brian’s hive Squill recently became honey bound when a second super was not added to the hive in time and the nectar flow hit. To help prevent this hive from swarming, three days prior, I exchanged four of Squill’s honey bound frames […]
Queen Cups With Eggs! – Crocus Hive Inspection 5-26-12
Queen Cups With Eggs! Crocus spent the end of April and beginning of May ditching and evicting drones when they reared new bees faster than they could feed them. Then we were hit with cold rainy weather which prevented the field bees from foraging. I was worried this hive may […]
First Hive Inspection Of Squill 5-6-12
First hive inspection reveals Squill is off to a good start! Three weeks after installing his bee package, Brian finally got to inspect his hive Squill. These bees took a while to warm up to the queen, so Brian was wondering if she was in there and laying or if […]
Ditching The Drone Pupae And Local Swarms Abound
Ditching The Drones And Swarms! The weather has been strange this year with extremely warm weather followed by cold and a week plus of rain. Several local beekeeping friends have seen early swarms in the last couple of days and/or capped queen cells in the hive. Many people are already […]