Not much progress
Disappointing day. I had put the new queen in hive #3 on May 7th, so when I went into the hive today I fully expected (hoped?) to see some good brood production. What did I see? Nothing. Nada. Zipola. After my near catastrophe with the delivery of the new queen, now I see no evidence of her at all. No eggs, larva, zero. Very upsetting. So I moved over to hive #2, into which I had placed two frames with very good looking eggs the same day. I looked for queen cells. Nothing. Nada Zip. What is wrong with these bees??
Mostly likely, the culprit is the really crappy, cold,wet weather we've had in the past couple weeks. One morning this week, beyond the May 15th historical last day of frost, we had frost. We've had a lot of rain, many very windy, cool, overcast days, and just not a lot of great climate for the bees to do their thing.
So, I put two more good frames of eggs and young larva in hive #2, one frame in hive # 3. placed a super on hive #1 which is really going gangbusters, and will add more in a week. The near term forecast is very positive, with highs in the low 70's and lows in the 50's all week. Many things are in bloom and the bees are all over our neighbor's high bushes which border our lane. There are a lot of drones in my hive, so availability of drones shouldn't be a problem. We'll keep our fingers crossed. Sorry about no photos, but I was totally prepared to take pics of the new queen, queen cells, etc., but no such luck.
Oh, here at least was one good thing that happened this week. Morels! Right behind our house. Big, fresh, very tasty yellows. Fantastic.
Mostly likely, the culprit is the really crappy, cold,wet weather we've had in the past couple weeks. One morning this week, beyond the May 15th historical last day of frost, we had frost. We've had a lot of rain, many very windy, cool, overcast days, and just not a lot of great climate for the bees to do their thing.
So, I put two more good frames of eggs and young larva in hive #2, one frame in hive # 3. placed a super on hive #1 which is really going gangbusters, and will add more in a week. The near term forecast is very positive, with highs in the low 70's and lows in the 50's all week. Many things are in bloom and the bees are all over our neighbor's high bushes which border our lane. There are a lot of drones in my hive, so availability of drones shouldn't be a problem. We'll keep our fingers crossed. Sorry about no photos, but I was totally prepared to take pics of the new queen, queen cells, etc., but no such luck.
Oh, here at least was one good thing that happened this week. Morels! Right behind our house. Big, fresh, very tasty yellows. Fantastic.
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