Gallery – Page 3 – Walberg Heights Apiary Tales

Lookin’ Good

Things are really looking good. Frau Imkerin and I went through all five hives today, so strap in, this is a long journal. One of the best things we observed about all the hives is that we saw zero small hive beetles. Compared to past years that was really encouraging. I also randomly checked some drone brood with the magnifying glass headset and didn’t see any verroa mites. It all sounds too good to be true but we’ll know for sure when we mite test in July.

All the girls have been very busy and were mostly mellow today, except for Carny. They got kind of pissy when I got into the brood box. I guess some Homo sapien girls may like to be squeezed, but Apis millifera ligustica not so much. As usual, it was my fault. Always be sure to look at your tools before you pick them up!

I took the stinger in the left hand in case you were wondering.

On to better things … Below is the journal of the condition of all the hives in the order we checked them today.

Pages: 123

Still Adding Honey Supers

I added another honey super today. That makes six 8-frame and two 10-frame supers. Even though we are trying to make the transition from 10-frame to 8-frame equipment, I added another nine frames to the 10-frame Carny hive today. Even after the 3rd year, we’re still not stocked up on all the hardware we need. I guess I need to get better at unplanned expansions, and math, and staying on top of things. The wet spring has been challenging and a new learning curve.

Open frame view of the apiary from the deck. You can’t see them, but there are lots of girls flying over your head to the north.

We are out of frames with drawn comb, so I checkerboarded new foundation and open frames again. The photo above shows how I have finally settled on setting up the open frames. I add a small starter strip of foundation that I have cut down from a full sheet. Then I add wire for stability. I try to put the open frames into the hive next to a honey frame that is already drawn out to help guide the girls when they draw new comb. Time will tell.

Honey Flow Is On

The bees are starting to store up honey. I added three more supers today. We now have a total of seven. Today inspections results …

Carny – Super is filling up and will need another one soon. I didn’t get into the brood box.

Middle – Super is nearly full but I didn’t add another one yet. This swarm hive with the virgin queen is still establishing itself and is not very populated. One frame had some larva and spotty drone brood. The other side of the frame had larva in a much better pattern. By next week we should we able to tell if it is worker brood or just more drones. I’m hoping the virgin queen just got off to a slow start.