Do these flows ever end?
I am assuredly amazed how much flowers produce nectar in Florida. In February, it began with Oak honey and honeydew, then moved to Clover in April and now, Palm Tree honey in May. In June; mangrove then moving into Brazilian Pepper in August. Now, the Palm tree flow is comming and comming strong!
Captured Hive:
This hive is showing a developing brood nest and has probably doubled in population since it was captured. The bees are being a little flighty when I opened them but, still pretty non-aggressive in terms of persuing and stinging behavior.
Italian Hive:
This hive has made a 180ยบ turn in this last week. They had no pollen stores and almost no honey in the brood nest area. That, typically, is a sign of a sort of pollen and honey famine. Now, there are probably 6 frames, slam-full, of pollen and honey. The queen has also stepped up egg production with the suden appearance of frames full of eggs and young larvae. Today, I also ran down the bees all into the bottom brood box in an attempt to finally get the queen out of the honey supers. These are probably, now my gentlest bees and, I will probably have to super them next week to make room for the new flow. The Palm honey has an interesting flavor compared to the other honeies but, proably the most marked difference is that it's actually very "runny" not viscous.
Russian Hive:
Today I swapped out three poorly drawn frames for new foundation and, given the current flow, they sould draw it out well. I accidentally left the cover perched probably 3/8" off the box itself on one side and, the bees had already mostly propolized it shut. Unfortunately, I think they superseaded their queen given I'm finding superseadure queen cells and a few have been chewed open. I'll probably have to requeen this year depending on the aggressive atributes of the new bees. This hive currently has about two supers suitable for extraction.
Captured Hive:
This hive is showing a developing brood nest and has probably doubled in population since it was captured. The bees are being a little flighty when I opened them but, still pretty non-aggressive in terms of persuing and stinging behavior.
Italian Hive:
This hive has made a 180ยบ turn in this last week. They had no pollen stores and almost no honey in the brood nest area. That, typically, is a sign of a sort of pollen and honey famine. Now, there are probably 6 frames, slam-full, of pollen and honey. The queen has also stepped up egg production with the suden appearance of frames full of eggs and young larvae. Today, I also ran down the bees all into the bottom brood box in an attempt to finally get the queen out of the honey supers. These are probably, now my gentlest bees and, I will probably have to super them next week to make room for the new flow. The Palm honey has an interesting flavor compared to the other honeies but, proably the most marked difference is that it's actually very "runny" not viscous.
Russian Hive:
Today I swapped out three poorly drawn frames for new foundation and, given the current flow, they sould draw it out well. I accidentally left the cover perched probably 3/8" off the box itself on one side and, the bees had already mostly propolized it shut. Unfortunately, I think they superseaded their queen given I'm finding superseadure queen cells and a few have been chewed open. I'll probably have to requeen this year depending on the aggressive atributes of the new bees. This hive currently has about two supers suitable for extraction.
posted by FLbeekeeper at 2:14 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home