Sunday, April 25, 2010

25 April, 2010 - 2 pm

It was clear and windy and 85º at the bee yard.

Split Hive
Opened it up and found that there were a hundred or so bees. Didn't inspect or move any frames. I will do that next weekend. I removed the hive top feeder, seems the girls didn't use it much at all. I installed a migratory cover with a hole and put on a full feeder jar.

Swarm Hive
There were a lot of bees coming and going! I thought at first that the hive was being robbed, so I watched for a few minutes. Didn't see anything unusual so I opened up the hive. The bees haven't really moved up into the second hive body. There are bees scattered amongst the frames. Since I didn't have ten frames to put in the second hive body I put in the 7 that I had. When my hive bodies arrive I will replace it. I looked through a couple of frames and found eggs so I put everything back together. I also installed a fresh feeder jar today.

Photos of the Swarm hive




























Alpha Hive
Entrance was busy, many bees bringing in pollen.
I opened it up and looked through a few frames. I found eggs, larva and capped brood. So I buttoned it up.

Beta Hive
There a few hundred bees flying around the front entrance area, looked like "happy flights". Looks like whole lot of bees hatched recently. I am hoping this hive doesn't swarm again this year. I checked the honey super and there are more bees in there this visit but none are storing any honey in it. I removed it and looked through a few frames in the top hive body. Found the queen on the fourth frame I was looking at and put it back. I found alot of eggs, larva and capped brood on the 3 frames I looked at. I need to do a more thorough inspection and see if the hive is storing too much honey in the hive bodies, I'll do that next weekend.

Photos and a movie of Beta hive










































I put together a hive stand in my back yard. In May I will be getting a 3 pound package of bees and will put them in the back yard.

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