Today, Friday April 16th on an overcast afternoon, I met Jennifer about 4pm to split the 2nd hive. Her queen had arrived my mail that morning.
After removing the supers, we began the task of locating the existing queen somewhere on the 10 brood frames completely covered in bees. It is probably a good thing that I split the hive now, as while searching the frames for the queen, I removed several swarm cells.
Luckily for us, we spotted the queen on the 5th frame. The first four frames I had already moved into the new hive. Isolating the frame with the queen, we removed one more frame, giving her 5 full brood frames with LOTS of bees, honey, eggs, larvae, pollen ... everything for a good start. We closed up the existing hive and then proceeded to place the queen in her cage with attendants into the new hive. We closed it up and Jennifer took it to her home for setup. I will check with her in a couple of days to see if the queen was accepted and freely moving about her hive.
I also checked on activity in the two hives I had split 2 weeks ago. I was afraid that all of the bees would mitgrate back into the hive with the queen, since I did not separate this new hive farther than two miles away. To my surprise and delite, both hives had quite a bit of activity at both entrances. I left them alone and I will return another day to look for queens in both hives and do another inspection.
Overall, a successful outing.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Removed One Super
On Tuesday, April 7th I called the farm manager and asked if he would bee willing to remove the top super now that most all of the bees shouldbe out. He agreed and we made plans to meet after work in Sarasota so I could get the super.
That evening I worked to extract about 6 frames of honey, resulting in about 19 lbs of a darker colored honey. I was able to get the extracted super back to the farm manager that evening and he agreed to place the super back on the hive the next afternoon.
Thanks Adam ... your kind assistance is greatly appreciated!
That evening I worked to extract about 6 frames of honey, resulting in about 19 lbs of a darker colored honey. I was able to get the extracted super back to the farm manager that evening and he agreed to place the super back on the hive the next afternoon.
Thanks Adam ... your kind assistance is greatly appreciated!
Spring Inspection
It was a beautiful spring day and my friend and new beekeeper, Jennifer joined my daughter and I for a trip to the farm on Sunday April 5th in the afternoon after Quaker meeting.
We started by splitting my 2nd hive which had 2 hive bodies and 2 supers. Not knowing which one of the hive bodies had the queen and not wanting to search 20 full brood frames of bees, we just split the hive, adding one of the hive bodies, a queen excluder and one of the supers to a bottom board set on cinder blocks about 20 feet from the existing hive and topped it with a hive cover. Both hives bodies were overflowing with bees looked very healthy.
Next we turned our attention to the 1st hive. This was Jennifer's first time with bees since childhood ... she had her new bee suit and was ready with hive tool and smoker. We started by removing supers, 3 regular and 1 Ross Round until reaching the 1 hive body. It was again overflowing with bee, which was good because we plan to return in 2 weeks when her mail-ordered queen arrives and we split this hive. We inspected about half of the brood frames looking for mites and hive beetles.
When re-assembling the hive, I place a super that was quite full near the top with the bee excluder in between it and the rest of the hive. I hope to return in 2 days to remove this super and extract a bit of honey.
Overall it was a successful inspection and all is well my apiary.
We started by splitting my 2nd hive which had 2 hive bodies and 2 supers. Not knowing which one of the hive bodies had the queen and not wanting to search 20 full brood frames of bees, we just split the hive, adding one of the hive bodies, a queen excluder and one of the supers to a bottom board set on cinder blocks about 20 feet from the existing hive and topped it with a hive cover. Both hives bodies were overflowing with bees looked very healthy.
Next we turned our attention to the 1st hive. This was Jennifer's first time with bees since childhood ... she had her new bee suit and was ready with hive tool and smoker. We started by removing supers, 3 regular and 1 Ross Round until reaching the 1 hive body. It was again overflowing with bee, which was good because we plan to return in 2 weeks when her mail-ordered queen arrives and we split this hive. We inspected about half of the brood frames looking for mites and hive beetles.
When re-assembling the hive, I place a super that was quite full near the top with the bee excluder in between it and the rest of the hive. I hope to return in 2 days to remove this super and extract a bit of honey.
Overall it was a successful inspection and all is well my apiary.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Adding a Ross Round
My daughter and I had an evening 5K race on Friday March 20th in NW Bradenton, just across the road from my hives. I took the opportunity before the race to make a quick visit and add a Ross Round super to my 2nd hive. It was in-and-out ... I'll be back soon to do splits of the 2nd hive and then when a friend gets her queen in the mail (she's already built the new hive) we'll return to split the 1st hive and install her new queen.
2009 Hive Inspection
On March 4, 2009 Mr. Jameson from FDACS inspected my hives. He said both were in great condition and that I could do splits if I was interested. In keeping with the Florida BMPs (Best Management Practices for beekeeping, he took a sample of bees (50?) for genetic testing to determine the % of Africanized bee genetics of my hives.
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