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.

Both of the swarm hives seem to be happy in their new homes. They have quite a few bees, so drifting didn’t seem to be an issue. So why was there no eggs, larva, or capped brood in Carny and Middle? After thinking about it for a while, I finally had an Aha! moment. I’m hopefully assuming they both have virgin queens?

Middle hive was a secondary swarm about one week after the initial one. So she would probably be around 2-3 weeks old. With all the rain we’ve had it may be another week before she starts to lay. It’s also possible she has laid a few eggs and I just didn’t see them.

Carny, the original hive, would probably have a queen one week younger. It may be a couple of weeks before I see any action there. Rain is forecasted for the entire upcoming week. That’s good. It will help keep my nosy, prying interventions to a minimum! If I would have thought out the process ahead of time I wouldn’t have opened Carny and Middle. New swarm hives are better left undisturbed for the first 2-3 weeks.

The Italian Inspections

The other two hives weren’t as full of surprises. The original Romans had a brood box and a honey super. It was so full of bees that I added another brood box. The super was half full so I didn’t add another one yet. It is definitely the strongest hive in the apiary.

The new split, Pasta, has a solo brood box and full honey super from Romans. The new caged queen has only been in there for 3 days, but with all the rain in the upcoming forecast I wanted to check on her. It looks like the girls approve are and are ready for her to be released. They appear to be feeding her, and not biting or trying to sting her through the screen.

I emailed a couple of my mentors for their opinion. One thought everything looked good and to go ahead and release her. The other said it was hard to tell, just observe her when released and see how they react. By the time they had responded I had already put her back and put everything away for the day.

They have now changed the forecast so I plan to release her tomorrow.