Backyard Apiary

On Friday, I inspected the long hive to see if they raised their own queen. Drones are just starting to fly, so a virgin queen shouldn’t have to wait much longer to find a few mature mates. It’s been about three weeks since I added the two frames of brood to the long hive. There were signs of a few queen cells, where one emerged and the others were ripped open. No eggs or larvae in the hive, but the queen has only been going out on mating flights for about a week. All of my hives have capped drone cells now to help spread the genes.

I inspected all of the hives on Saturday and need to start my swarm prevention steps. To keep the long hive’s numbers up, two frames were moved from Antheia containing the full range of brood. Hegemone’s queen was laying in the top (3rd) box and all of the frames were fully drawn and being filled. A fourth box was checker boarded on top. Antheia will get her fourth box as soon as I finish rotating the cleat from the wedged frames to make it a foundationless guide.

I poured the last bit of the 2010 harvest in to a half gallon jar and a quart jar. It’s slightly crystallized, but still delicious.

On Jan 30th, I discovered that one of the small, late season swarms at the garden didn’t make it. The hive had plenty of food stores, but they either couldn’t get to the food or they were too weak to stay warm. I didn’t find the queen’s body, so I have no idea what happened to her. The hive should have been merged with another before the winter, but I left it separate as an experiment. The other two hives at the garden were doing well at that time.

The long hive is also in a dire situation. There are a lot of bees, but no sign of a queen. No capped brood, eggs or larvae. I pulled a frame of eggs from the purchased queen hive and a frame of capped brood from Hegemone. The plan is to help the hive limp its way along until mature drones are flying and they can raise their own queen. This will slow down the other hives and will hopefully help prevent as much swarming as last year.

I found the queens in langstroth hives and they are doing well. The purchased queen is an amazing layer and she filled almost every free cell with eggs. I gave the hive another box with a few drawn frames to give her more space to lay.