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Category: Split
Releasing The New Queen
Today I released the new Italian queen into the Pasta hive. She has only been in there for 4 days, but it appears from yesterday’s inspcetion they have accepted her. It’s supposed to rain for nearly a week straight so I wanted to release her today.
After letting her go I could see they had eaten about 3/4 of the way through the hole in the candy, so she probably would have been out by tomorrow anyway. Plus I wanted to watch and make sure they had really accepted her. She looks happy to be out, but not nearly as they do
It looks like everything went fine. I think she even started to lay? That’s it for now. I’ll wait 2 weeks until the next inspection to let her get settled and by that time there should be larva and pupa.
Silly Bumblin’ Beekeeping
I inspected all five hives today so this will be a long post. You’ve been warned! I was disappointed in a couple of the hives until I stepped back later and thought about it.
- The original Carniolan hive, Carny, that had swarmed 3 times has two brood boxes and one super. It is still packed with bees, but no sign of any eggs, larva, or capped brood. Why? The super is half filled.
- The last swarm I caught, Middle, is one brood box. I am still feeding them with a reduced entrance, but it also has no new eggs, larva, or capped brood. Why? There is still a small amount of brood that I gave them initially.
- The Eastern hive, which was the original swarm I caught, is doing great. It still has the marked queen that swarmed from the Carny hive. I did see her, in addition to larva and capped brood. Eastern has two brood boxes and a partially filled honey super.
