A few week back Hive 2 seemed to be queenless - there was no brood, only a few capped brood, and no queen found. Then I had a couple bad weeks at work, a good trip to West Virginia to see my in-law's family, and so on the drive to the mountain today I was wondering if there would be a point in getting a new queen or I should just merge Hive 2 to Hive 1. Well there weren't many bees coming out of the hive, which just added to my worry. And when I get up to it I see some guard bees wrestling another bee to keep it out. I was too late to get the video! Darn! So now I am thinking, great robber bees. The hive must be dying. Seeing that I decide to do Hive 1 first so that the bees will be a little disorganized from the inspection so they would be less likely to start robbing Hive 2.
I don't know about other folks around but it seems like it has been a pretty crappy honey year. During the big nectar flow of spring there were so many cool to cold days followed by rain, then a hot day or two, repeating the cycle again and again. I put a honey super on Hive 1 a few weeks back but they have been so slow to build any wax my hopes for honey this year have gotten slimmer and slimmer. I cracked the top and pulled the outside frame. Yeah, still not much wax against the outside but the inside of the frame was about 2/3 drawn. I pulled the next frame and it was pretty well drawn out and had a bit of honey but nothing to write home about. But, the two inside frames looked pretty good. They were totally drawn out and starting to get pretty heavy with honey. Nothing capped yet, but pretty heavy. Sweet! So I threw on a queen excluder, put the honey super back on and sealed it up. Check out how pretty this new wax with shiny honey in it is.
On to Hive 2. I popped the cover and low and behold there are quite a few bees! Hmm. So I start pulling frames. Lo and behold capped pupa! And larva! Was it a fluke? I pulled a couple more, each more full of larva and pupa than the other. Well this is just weird! I pulled that box off and looked at the one below. Again more larva! I'm not sure where this queen came from but there is certainly one there. Whew! Since I thought this hive was going to be dying out I didn't bother bringing another box, plus it is probably too late to super now anyway although I could probably get some wax drawn for next year. I will have to think about that for next time I head out.
I don't know about other folks around but it seems like it has been a pretty crappy honey year. During the big nectar flow of spring there were so many cool to cold days followed by rain, then a hot day or two, repeating the cycle again and again. I put a honey super on Hive 1 a few weeks back but they have been so slow to build any wax my hopes for honey this year have gotten slimmer and slimmer. I cracked the top and pulled the outside frame. Yeah, still not much wax against the outside but the inside of the frame was about 2/3 drawn. I pulled the next frame and it was pretty well drawn out and had a bit of honey but nothing to write home about. But, the two inside frames looked pretty good. They were totally drawn out and starting to get pretty heavy with honey. Nothing capped yet, but pretty heavy. Sweet! So I threw on a queen excluder, put the honey super back on and sealed it up. Check out how pretty this new wax with shiny honey in it is.
On to Hive 2. I popped the cover and low and behold there are quite a few bees! Hmm. So I start pulling frames. Lo and behold capped pupa! And larva! Was it a fluke? I pulled a couple more, each more full of larva and pupa than the other. Well this is just weird! I pulled that box off and looked at the one below. Again more larva! I'm not sure where this queen came from but there is certainly one there. Whew! Since I thought this hive was going to be dying out I didn't bother bringing another box, plus it is probably too late to super now anyway although I could probably get some wax drawn for next year. I will have to think about that for next time I head out.
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