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Sunday, February 05, 2006

Why are their two races of bees in my hive?

I went to check on the Russian hive a little after I checked on Italian one. At first I was concerned that they may have swarmed. They were very quiet given there is usually a loud roar when I open the hive. I appears as though most of the super is filled with honey but they're still refusing to draw out most of the frames in teh brood chamber. Only about 6 frames are drawn with only 4 in active use. I'll probably have to requeen this colony or hope that the bees more actively draw comb in the summer. THe one thing they have no shortage of in that colony is propolis. The hive is just about gummed up with the stuff. One thing I did notice when I opened the hive was that my usually dark black bees now have a few Italian, leatherback colored ones. This has probably been due to the queen being killed and a new queen mated with native stock. I did find a supercedure queen cell cup on one of the frames. The brood patern in teh hive is improving. I'm begining to find the characteristic circular shape brood patern of a good queen. The bees sure do seem to be storing enough pollen. THere are practicly frames full of the stuff. If I could just get those bees to draw out the rest of the frames I'd be happy and maybe I'd get a crop or two of honey this year. This could be a prommissing year for honey production.