Friday, April 19, 2013

First Hive Check - BINGO!!!

I just got back from checking the Carniolan colony which I hived on Monday.  They were almost out of sugar water.  I pulled the queen cage out - EMPTY! I looked for eggs - EGGS! - I looked for the queen - BINGO!. . . Her name is "Snow Angel."   My prayers for this colony were answered!!  I will check three more on Sunday or Monday before leaving for Anchorage to pick up more colonies with Wanda Bowder. 
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7 comments:

  1. Jill AddingtonApril 20, 2013 at 12:28 PM

    We hived our bees yesterday afternoon in the nice warm sun when there was no wind. Her Majesty was very active and had attendants all over her cage. The workers immediately started working on the frames and moving any dead bees out of the hive. One of the cats got a bit too close and got stung, but he's fine. Last night, Carl jokingly said he was going out to see how much honey they'd made already. There was a low, almost rumbling sound coming from the hive, which we took as a good sign. This morning, you can hear the same sound when you stand next to the boxes and listen carefully. Can't wait to do our first hive check in a few days!!!

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    1. Dawn Cogan April 20, 2013 at 3:09 PM

      Sounds like all is well!!

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    2. Jill AddingtonApril 20, 2013 at 8:13 PM

      They were very active this afternoon! Lots of flying around, noisy, noisy, noisy!!! They were also all over the pollen patty. Yay!!!

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    3. Dawn Cogan April 20, 2013 at 9:40 PM

      This is just the beginning of an amazing season!!

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  2. Jeffrey SimonsonApril 22, 2013 at 2:01 PM

    Dawn, I looked for the queen and eggs on Saturday. The queens were out of their cages, but I did not see them. Though I did not remove every frame. I also did not see eggs, mostly because the cells were all covered with workers.

    How do I remove the workers from the frames so I can see inside the cells? Do I just knock the frame against the hive? Won't that make the other bees upset? I thought about hitting the frame on the ground, but the ground is too cold.

    Also, I have an extra queen in each hive. These secondary queens are still in their cages. When do I decide I do not need them? When I see lots of larvae? And when I decide I do not need the secondary queens, what do I do with them then?

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    1. Dawn Cogan April 22, 2013 at 11:21 PM

      When you want to move the worker bees so that you can see eggs and larva, you just simply blow on the bees with your mouth and they will move away from the area. I don't knock the frames agains things because there is a chance the bees can get injured, especially the queen. Keep the queens as long as possible as they are very good insurance in the case something happens to one of your other queens. Another thought is that you could sell them for $25 each. Let me know if you want to sell them so that I can refer queen buyers to you. I'm bringing back 5 extra queens on Wed. You could run a two-queen hive after the weather warms up!

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    2. Jeffrey SimonsonApril 23, 2013 at 6:36 PM

      Thanks for the tips Dawn. I'll look for larvae on the next warm day. 11 days from now according to the forecast. I'll fill the feeders before that. I'll let you know when I have extra queens.

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