So my last post was about the queen being in the split…a lot happened after that.  The split did well, but didn’t build much comb.  I received a new Russian queen from Mike’s Bees and Honey out in Forest, OH.  She introduced well but laid nothing but drones.  Mike was pretty certain that the heat during shipping hadn’t killed her, but had basically killed all the sperm in her, leaving her sterile even though she thought she was doing a good job.  I sprung for shipping and he sent another (he stands behind his bees).  She introduced also but at that point the weather was getting cool and the days short, and I think she knew it, so she wasn’t laying much.  My population was dwindling because I hadn’t had a well-laying queen in that hive for quite some time.  Around the beginning of September I caught a break in someone contacting the bee club about some bees in downed tree.  Jim Pinkerton, Lori Stahl and I went to cut them out.  Jim’s bee-vac and my chain saw did a pretty good job.  I took the bees and Jim took the queen.  I did a successful combine of those bees with my hive to give them a population boost.  The first week in October was my last time opening the hives and my last time feeding syrup.  Toward the end of October I put a big block of fondant on top of the inner cover and that was that.  The bees flew well into November because of warmer weather, but I didn’t open them up.  It’s now December and very cold.  We had two warmer days near 50 last weekend and I saw both hives out and taking cleansing flights…very encouraging.

• «Previous Post
• Next Post »

---