Surviving Swarm Season

This is the time of year when healthy bee hives think about swarming and their beekeepers try to stop them. My strong hive has been building lots of "queen cups" which are precursors to swarm cells. I've been trying to give them more room so they don't feel crowded by pulling frames of brood (to donate to the weaker one) and honey for the honey bank. They've already filled one honey super and are working on a second. Hopefully they'll stay home and keep making honey!

Lots of flowers for the bees to enjoy now. This is a brunnera.

Drones on a Stick!

Mmm. Don't think we'll be seeing these at the fair any time soon....  The good news is that I didn't see any mites on them this time. Three weeks ago, almost every larva I saw had a mite on it. Ick! Hopefully the drone trapping is working in addition to the powdered sugar. I need to do a mite count again for comparison by the end of the month. 

Drone frame. The empty cells were full of nectar. It was dripping all over the place. Wish I could have pulled it earlier in the day before they filled it up! It's in the freezer now to kill the mites. This is the second frame I've pulled out this season.

Bee ID

So who are these hard working bees in my back yard? I got a question about what variety I have. I started with two Carnolian queens last year. One was superceded in the fall so who knows who that queen mated with. The nuc has a Carnolian queen also. It was the hive with the original queen that had the dysentery and then the AFB this spring. We'll see how well it recovers. I can always requeen with the queen from my nuc if I need to but since that hive produced over 100lbs of honey last summer, I'd like to keep the original queen going at least for now.

Heat Wave

What the? 87 degrees in  May? My bees must think it's July. Good thing the sprinklers are on. I can tell they're thirsty: they're finding every dripping faucet, puddle and watering can in the yard.

Here's Toby's hive with the girls cooling off in the evening on their front porch. 

Nuc Update

Looks like the little "princess" in the nuc is up and running! I made up the nuc a couple of weeks ago and it spent the first week at my friends Carol and Dennis's house. I let the queen out of her cage a couple days later and then brought it home last weekend. I took a peek today and saw the queen on the new frame which was completely drawn out and full of eggs. They're going to run out of room fast! They might have to donate a frame of brood to Cam's hive. 

Back home in the "back 40" near the shed.

Beekeeper-in-training Carol.

Bee Picnic

This is the yard of a beekeeper: dandelions galore!