Campus hives were inspected several times during the Winter months. Across, the months we saw a steady loss of hives after the late fall cold snaps and the February cold spells. As a result we lost all hives but one.
This surviving hive (022) shown below was opened up and a quick inspection performed. The queen was seen. However there were only 2 frames of bees present. The box (023) was added with honey resources and plenty of brood frames.
The refinished bee boxes were also brought back to campus. These boxes were setup on the bench for future use. A commercial bee package was ordered and should arrive towards the end of May. These boxes will be used for these commercial bees.
Several of the house hives also perished over the winter months. Only one hive survived the harsh winter months. This hive is currently exploding with bees and needed a split. I performed a split with the top 2 boxes of bees. These top two boxes were searched for the queen bee extensively. She was not found and these two boxes were used in the new queen-less split. The original hive body was given an empty brood box for the top. We will check this brood box in one week to see if new eggs have been laid box (017). Both split hives had egg frames.
The new split was comprised of the top two boxes below the separator. If the other original hive does not have new eggs then we may investigate further.
