Category: Bee Keeping Journal

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.

Refilled water at WildCA18A Barrett location. Good entrance activity. Hive not opened. Top Warre box looks packed with bees when looking through screen.

Quick peek through top screen at WildCA18B colony. Bees are all over the frame feeder.

WildCA18B hive opened, eggs found marginal brood pattern. Introduced frame feeder, filled with 1:1 sugar water. Comb drawing has slowed and colony does not appear to want to fill the box.

Dakota18B hive opened. No eggs were found. However the newly hatched virgin queen was found. Also several chewed out emergency queen cells were found. Almost all of the capped brood has hatched and been back filled with nectar.

New hive stand was installed at campus in South Eastern corner. Langstroth hives will be installed at new location.

Scott bees seen at campus swarm catcher.

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.