Friday, May 22, 2020

more nerding

One more bee nerd out post. 
To make up for lost time. 

On Wednesday I went in to inspect the 3 hives that got new queens (was that just 2 days ago?). 2 of the 3 were rejected, or killed, or not laying, or something. Hive #4  had an emergency cell already capped, but not attended? So that's a day 7 brood at least, if it's still alive... earliest I'll see eggs is June 6th. That's not too bad? If it lives I mean? I gave that hive one frame of day old eggs and mixed aged brood, just to keep the "open larvae " smell going on, and give them another opportunity to make a new queen if that one has already failed. 
Same deal with hive #11, minus the queen cell. I gave them a frame of mostly eggs. 
The other hive was #6, it had been a smallish sized cluster when I did my first check this spring. They must have lost their queen in February, there were a couple of youngish bees in the mix. They took that queen and she's laying. 

If it wasn't for the fact these girls are selling for $58 a pop, I'd be ok. 

I'll try to make up some nucs with swarm cells next week. I should be able to get two, I have 2 hives that should have been split, I just didnt have the queens for them. 

No comments: