Mid-Summer Update

It's been a busy June and July. All three hives have had me on my toes.  The swarm hive did indeed swarm and raised a new queen. I don't want to put up with that every year so I re-queened with a nuc that I raised off the daughter of Bob's queen.

 

And now it's the star of the apiary!

 

Look at this! Pink pollen. How cool. I don't think I've seen that before.

 

It could have come from the astrantia. That's been a bee magnet this week. Or maybe the oregano?

 

Toby likes to watch the bees. The scale hive had a few too many mites in the drone brood when I changed it a couple of weeks ago so I bit the bullet and put formic acid strips on all three hives and the two nucs. A formal sugar shake count didn't look too bad but the numbers are only going up from here, so why take a chance?  I think I read that the mite population doubles in a month.

The scale hive went queenless last month and raised a new one. I hate to say it but it might have been my fault as it happened right after inspection. Yikes.  I guess there's a first time for everything. They seem to be doing ok but I'm sure they lost a little momentum. 

So in all, the hives all have new queens this summer: one raised by me, one purchased and one emergency replacement. I think that probably hurt the honey harvest a bit but it still looks better than last year. The big honey flow was in late April to mid-May but then they got going again in mid-June. They have been losing weight like crazy in the last week so it's looking like the dearth is here. They're also building up propolis everywhere. Just what you want to be struggling with in the middle of August when you're harvesting honey! I guess it's all part of the natural cycle. I'm hoping for some rain to get some more flowers blooming.