Month: May 2018

WildCA18A fully inspected at Barrett Location. Colony has good eggs, good larva and brood. Queen not seen. Noticeable spotty brood pattern concerned about queen productivity. However, this hive is new and was just moved, I will give this queen move time to acclimate.

Concerned about bees falling off frames during inspection. Bee do not seem to be very energetic on comb. Fallen bees are not taking to the air but rather lethargic on ground. Possible poisoning?

Top warre box filled with bees. Bottom 2 boxes are empty. Checkerboard 3 frames to the next box down.

Full hive inspection on Dakota18A. Queen right hive. 4 warre boxes almost completely fully built out with comb. Noticeable increase in number of bee inside hive and hive entrance activity.

Dakota18A at Niagara was treated with oxalic acid, 2 caps, 10 minutes. Hive was not opened. Normal entrance activity observed.

Metal Queen excluder was added to Dakota18B and top super opened. Dakota18B colony was not inspected due to emergency queen cells discovered during last inspection.

Swarm was caught at the Smith building grounds swarm catcher. Swarm catcher was constructed of 2 horticultural pots wired together and hoisted up into the tree. Simple lemon grass oil bait was used. Swarm was a average size. Colony was installed into a Langstroth deep brood chamber at Niagara.

Wild17 hive opened and 4th warre box added to bottom.

WildCA18A colony was moved to Barrett house. Hive moved was 2 warre boxes and stand. Water feeder placed below entrance of hive.

Wild17 inspected. This hive has a nasty temper when opened. Lots of smoke used. Good new comb. Hive is queen right.

WildCA18A inspected. No smoke needed. New comb looks great. Hive is queen right.

Dakota18B hive opened. No smoke needed. cross comb problem looks much better. Bees are accepting the plastic foundation. Several emergency queen cells were found. No queen can be found in the hive. Assumption is that I must have accidentally killed the queen when I was repairing the cross comb problems. The colony is making a new queen. Oops, lets not ever do that again.

Wild17 hive opened. Used more smoke than usual. Hive is queen right. Removed old rubber bands. No swarm cells present. 3 empty frames left in 3 warre boxes. 1 old worker brood frame moved to WildCA18A.

WildCA18A hive opened. No smoke needed. New comb being built. Added 1 old worker brood frame from Wild17. Took empty bottom warre box and put into Dakota18A.

Dakota18A hive opened. No smoke needed. Added empty warre box from WildCA18A. Checkerboarded 2 boxes.