Thank You Bees!

Berry season is almost here:

Thanks to the pollinators! Yum. This was the first of many backyard strawberries in our berry patch. The raspberries will be next; I can't wait!

I had to get another batch of supers too. I think I will have to store some full ones in the shed until it's time to extract. It's really hard to work the hives when they have five or six supers on. I almost fell a couple of times trying to wrangle them last year. Yikes! Not a good habit to get into.

What else is going on? Toby's queen all but stopped laying a couple of weeks ago. I was planning to replace her this summer anyway so she got swapped out for the new queen that was in my remaining nuc. The new queen hatched out of a swarm cell from hive #3/last year's nuc and was laying well. She should be happy to have a full sized hive to call her own.

The old queen (she'll be two in August) is in her "retirement home" for now which is a nuc box. It won't hurt to keep her on hand while I make sure the new queen gets established.  Still hoping the nuc can generate a few frames of drawn comb for future use....