Exploring the World of Bees…
Dakota18B, filled frame feeder with syrup.
Dakota18C, filled frame feeder with syrup. New Carniolan queen still not free from cage. Released queen into colony split and visually checked that she was accepted. Immediately queen piping could be heard.
Dakota18A inspected. Empty Warre box moved to bottom of hive stack. All other boxes are full. That makes this hive 6 boxes in total. New empty Warre bottom box should solve the crowding problem with this hive. Still plenty of frames for brood.
Dakota18B hive inspected. Eggs found. Queen found. Decided to split colony. 3 Brood frames moved to South East hive stand. 3 blank foundation frames added to Dakota18B.
Dakota18C split created at South East hive stand. Split started with 3 brood frames and 1 honey frame. Colony started with a purchased Carniolan queen. Filled frame feeder with syrup.
Dakota18A hive opened. Empty Warre box added to top. Due to hotter temperatures, daytime and night time entrance is crowded and bearding.
Wild17 hive inspected. Larva found. Top box full of honey. Number 3 box is filled with brood. Number 4 box is half open frames. This hive is aggressive. Do not open without smoke and bee suit. Stung 4 times.
Dakota18B hive inspected. Eggs found. Queen found. Syrup feeder filled. Smoke used not bee suit needed.
WildCA18B hive inspected. Eggs found. Queen found. Syrup feeder filled. Smoke used not bee suit needed.
WildCA18B moved to campus at South East corner hive stands. Also empty hive body was moved as well. Smoke used but no bee suit needed.
Dakota18B hive inspected. Eggs found. Queen found. Frame feeder added and filled with Syrup. Smoke used but no bee suit needed.
Dakota18A hive inspected. Eggs found. Queen found. Good hive numbers. Smoke used but no bee suit needed.
Additional swarm catcher installed on campus, hoisted up into cottonwood trees next to field on West side of campus.
WildCA18B hive opened only to refill the frame feeder. Colony consumed all of syrup. No inspection performed.
Queen start colony from Dakota18B mother colony was inspected. All 10 queen cups were empty. Also about 50 dead bees were in the bottom of the starter box. All frames of bees were moved back into the mother colony.
Next time make sure to provide more ventilation to the start colony. Also make sure to graft the correct larva age.
Removed 1 brood frame from mother colony Dakota18A. I grafted 10 larva into a queen cup frame. I could not find what I believed to be the best aged larva but still attempted the grafting. Added pollen substitute patty and placed a syrup feeder inside sealed starter colony box. Placed starter colony in protected location.
Created starter queen colony from mother hive, Dakota18A. Italian Carniolan breed. Three frames were removed from Dakota18A, 1 honey frame, 1 brood frame and 1 pollen frame. Sealed Colony up and placed in protected location.