Queenright
Both hives are queenright! We inspected both today and found the queen in each right away. The brand new queen did not seem to be laying yet, though there could be some eggs. After finding her, my main objective, I didn't want to disturb the hive even more so closed it right up. I'll check again in 6 or 7 days. By then, we should easily find some larva at least.
The other queen, in hive #2, was still in the top box, middle rows of frames. I set her aside and pulled the frame she was just on, along with several others, and started up a nuc. Hopefully this will work this time to have them rear another queen. All the bees died from the first nuc, including some frames that were fully capped but the bees never emerged. I think it had just been too cold, and the little nuc couldn't stay warm enough. Maybe we'll be lucky this time, with the temps forecast to be in the 70's pretty much all week.
At least this frame will get put to use. I have to give a talk on Friday for a friend who teaches a class at the university on technology in daily life in ancient Greece and Rome. I'm talking about my wine making and beekeeping, so I'll take this frame in and use it with my talk. That's a bottle of sour cherry and a bottle of white wine sitting on the floor by the frames. Both have our "Grumpy Bee" label!
One thing in the talk I will mention is the swarm we had last year, just one week shy of being a full year ago. The number of bees in hive #2, and their behavior, indicates to me a swarm just may be in the offing again. Maybe pulling a thousand or so bees, about 5 frames, and putting on a super will help prevent that. Likely, not.
The other queen, in hive #2, was still in the top box, middle rows of frames. I set her aside and pulled the frame she was just on, along with several others, and started up a nuc. Hopefully this will work this time to have them rear another queen. All the bees died from the first nuc, including some frames that were fully capped but the bees never emerged. I think it had just been too cold, and the little nuc couldn't stay warm enough. Maybe we'll be lucky this time, with the temps forecast to be in the 70's pretty much all week.
At least this frame will get put to use. I have to give a talk on Friday for a friend who teaches a class at the university on technology in daily life in ancient Greece and Rome. I'm talking about my wine making and beekeeping, so I'll take this frame in and use it with my talk. That's a bottle of sour cherry and a bottle of white wine sitting on the floor by the frames. Both have our "Grumpy Bee" label!
One thing in the talk I will mention is the swarm we had last year, just one week shy of being a full year ago. The number of bees in hive #2, and their behavior, indicates to me a swarm just may be in the offing again. Maybe pulling a thousand or so bees, about 5 frames, and putting on a super will help prevent that. Likely, not.
That is great news about the queens. I hope all is well with the recheck in a week. Is it honey wine? I have never had honey wine before, I bet it tastes good. Good luck with the talk hou are giving, I am sure everyone will find it fascinating.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Michelle. Hopefully she'll be laying and getting the population back up. Still a lot of bees in there. The wines are a sour cherry and a white, Aurore, a French-American hybrid. My grapes took a big hit, though, with the hard freezes mid-April. Maybe I will be making some mead (honey wine) this year if the bees cooperate!
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