I'm back...
And yesterday I checked on the hives I have here. For those of you who don't know, (most) I had ordered a package scheduled for delivery on June 16th back in April. It arived yesterday and, the top bar hive which it was origionally intended for is currenly occupied (I'll find out just how much tomarrow).
Captured hive:
The queen now has a wonderfull brood pattern consisting of a solid football shape. I remember a few weeks ago, not too long after I origionally got them, they had what's known os "shot-gun" brood where every other cell seems to be missing a/n egg/larvae/pupae. This has been almost completely resolved and, my hypothesis is that they were doing this as an SMR trait (Surpressed Mite Reproduction) and, that's the whole reason I wanted them. It's deffinately getting populous now but, they are still only on 3 medium combs. By August they should have most drawn but, they probably will need feeding. Still minimal aggressian from them.
Italian Hive:
They still haven't even TOUCHED that super of foundation and, I'm thinking that I'll have to pull it off, wax coat the foundation and put it back on. I'm also concidering removing the excluder or, at least placing the super beneith it. THey seem to be crowding all of the honey into the brood nest and, unless I can get them to start storing in the supers, they WILL swarm. A swarm this late in the year will eliminate any chance of harvestable honey later. The queen though, on the frames she can, still mantains a good brood pattern. I'm thinking that next week I may do a thourough search for her just to see if it's the same one I had last year. That part is really of no imporance but, it's still fun to know that you can find an individuall bee in a large colony and know it's the same one you saw last time.
PACKAGE ARIVED YESTERDAY!!!!
Yep, I'm still expanding and this will be my 5th hive. Now, if I could get them all producing honey at, say, 3 supers a hive, I'd be dealing with 36 gallons a year. The top bar hive will be conciderable less every year. I'll have some photos either later today or tommarow of the instalation.
Captured hive:
The queen now has a wonderfull brood pattern consisting of a solid football shape. I remember a few weeks ago, not too long after I origionally got them, they had what's known os "shot-gun" brood where every other cell seems to be missing a/n egg/larvae/pupae. This has been almost completely resolved and, my hypothesis is that they were doing this as an SMR trait (Surpressed Mite Reproduction) and, that's the whole reason I wanted them. It's deffinately getting populous now but, they are still only on 3 medium combs. By August they should have most drawn but, they probably will need feeding. Still minimal aggressian from them.
Italian Hive:
They still haven't even TOUCHED that super of foundation and, I'm thinking that I'll have to pull it off, wax coat the foundation and put it back on. I'm also concidering removing the excluder or, at least placing the super beneith it. THey seem to be crowding all of the honey into the brood nest and, unless I can get them to start storing in the supers, they WILL swarm. A swarm this late in the year will eliminate any chance of harvestable honey later. The queen though, on the frames she can, still mantains a good brood pattern. I'm thinking that next week I may do a thourough search for her just to see if it's the same one I had last year. That part is really of no imporance but, it's still fun to know that you can find an individuall bee in a large colony and know it's the same one you saw last time.
PACKAGE ARIVED YESTERDAY!!!!
Yep, I'm still expanding and this will be my 5th hive. Now, if I could get them all producing honey at, say, 3 supers a hive, I'd be dealing with 36 gallons a year. The top bar hive will be conciderable less every year. I'll have some photos either later today or tommarow of the instalation.
posted by FLbeekeeper at 2:22 PM
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