Writing from Florida

My daughter and I are in St. Pete, Florida right now. It is HOT! The beaches are blanketed with white sand and tons of tiny sea shells. A couple hours in this sun and you have to eat lots of ice cream, dump cooler ice on your head and seek out the nearest shade! I look forward to working with honeybees when I get home. Fairbanks summers are really hard to beat!

June brings us to a consistant checking for swarm cells. I found several in each hive this afternoon. Before removing them I made sure the queen has been laying eggs consistantly. I look for several stages of larva and freshly capped pupa. I like to locate the queen as well. Once I'm sure I still have a queen and she is doing her job well, I remove all queen cells with my hive tool. Also, making sure each hive has a top and bottom entrance/exit is important for proper ventilation. Supers and queen excluders will be added around the 18th of June. I am leaving town for a couple weeks but will post again upon my return.