July 4, 2010

Independence Day

Hive #1 - All good. 'Independent' confirmation of a new queen alive and kicking. The old one must have kicked the bucket. Seems the hive was much healthier than last time. Fewer drones and more workers. It appeared at least. The queen excluder that was put on last time produced results as Super #1 is ready to have the honey extracted! Hopefully it can be done this week.

I also need to pick up some new beeswax for the frames as I've run out. This is why in Hive #3, there are only three slides in the super. But that's Hive #3. I also need to replace the box with the nice one in the garage, but this also, is another story. Finally, before I forget, a hot honey knife is required. It will bee much more effective than putting a knife in warm water.

Hive #2 - Also all good. Found the queen and she didn't have a dot on her as expected. Last time she had a green circle but the queen this time had nothing. Put the queen excluder on this hive today. Bees were not as active as the bees in Hive #3.

Hive #3 - Very active today, meaning they were moving around quite a bit. Very impressed. Along with Hive #2, the queen excluder has been put on. The effort to find the queen was abandoned on Hive #3 as the amount of grubs/babies found was extremely high. As such, their was no purpose in continuing to disrupt their activeness.

Does opening a chamber where a baby bee is evolving at all harm it? Will the other bees close up the opening to protect the grub after the hive is closed up?

And it was HOT today. Just thought I should add that.