Still swarm season
The bees continue to be all over the hives. Our number 2 hive, which swarmed, still looks as though it hasn't lost a single bee. This morning they were even more abundant on hive #1, so we decided to go into it and remove swarms cells. I also wanted to make sure they had a good top opening.
There were certainly a lot of bees. They were completely covering the front of the entire hive, bearding off the outer cover and off the bottom board. Not so many in the honey super, which I noted they had begun to draw out some frames a bit.
There was plenty of larvae, and though I didn't look at all the frames, a couple I did look at certainly had some room in it for the queen to lay in. But it was hot (90 degrees--this will be a record for the 10th of May), the bees were definitely grumpy and telling us so. Kathy didn't think they were as bad as I thought they were. I did find a few swarm cells in the top two boxes, only one looking capped. We removed those. In the bottom box, however, there was a real mess hanging down off the frames. Big, unruly globs of comb with brood. We removed all of it. It probably gets that way because of my screened bottom board. The screen sags, which gives them way too much room down at the bottom. I need to come up with a solution for this.
We closed it up, making sure there was plenty of air coming in the top and space that they could enter through.
This morning, we put out a nuc with lemongrass oil and several frames. If there is a swarm from either, hopefully we can trap them.
There were certainly a lot of bees. They were completely covering the front of the entire hive, bearding off the outer cover and off the bottom board. Not so many in the honey super, which I noted they had begun to draw out some frames a bit.
There was plenty of larvae, and though I didn't look at all the frames, a couple I did look at certainly had some room in it for the queen to lay in. But it was hot (90 degrees--this will be a record for the 10th of May), the bees were definitely grumpy and telling us so. Kathy didn't think they were as bad as I thought they were. I did find a few swarm cells in the top two boxes, only one looking capped. We removed those. In the bottom box, however, there was a real mess hanging down off the frames. Big, unruly globs of comb with brood. We removed all of it. It probably gets that way because of my screened bottom board. The screen sags, which gives them way too much room down at the bottom. I need to come up with a solution for this.
We closed it up, making sure there was plenty of air coming in the top and space that they could enter through.
This morning, we put out a nuc with lemongrass oil and several frames. If there is a swarm from either, hopefully we can trap them.
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