GOOD NEWS!!

I only found a couple queen cells in three hives. This is a great sign of happy honeybees!! The three Aurora hives are doing very well. Pupa patterns are all in oval shapes, filling up the center of the frames. I found minimal drone cells, lots of eggs and larva. I will check for queen cells again in ten days. Sugar water will be less and less in demand but I will keep the feeders filled until I pull them in June. I'm thinking I will add a second hive body in 10-14 days to give ample space for the queen to lay in. If you don't have a water source nearby, now is a good time to find a method of providing water for your bees. A plastic kiddie pool works great because it captures rain and you don't have to fill it as often. Be sure to put wood, rocks or moss in the pool to help the bees get out of the water. They have a tendency to drown if there's nothing for them to climb onto.

Time to check for Queen Cells

Tomorrow I will be checking for queen cells. Gently lift each frame and look for large cells protruding downward. When at full size, the queen cell is about 3/4 to 1" long. Before removing queen cells, make sure your queen is laying well. She should have eggs, larva and pupa by now. Remember the pattern should be a circle that mostly fills the middle of your frame surrounded by pollen and sugar water. (later to be honey!) Be sure to check the bottom of each frame. This is a favorite place for the workers to build queen cells. If you have any concerns about your queen(s) give me a call. I still have six queens available which is a great sign! We got awesome bees this year with healthy queens, thanks to Steve Victors.

Keep Feeding Your Honeybees!!

I will be adding the final pollen patty tomorrow after it warms up a bit (50* or warmer). Filling up the sugar feeders every three days has been my schedule this spring. The two on the Chena River have been using 1 quart every day. Last Sunday one of my Carn girls stung me on the chin. It was one of those bad reactions that affected my neck and chest. After two days the pain and swelling started decreasing. My great friends gave me some homeopathics which helped tremendously. Thank You, Susan Yanish and D.A. McGilvary!! Keep feeding your honeybees!!!

Queen Fertilda

This afternoon I checked my two hives by the Chena River. They both had eggs but one was amazing! That queen I think I'll call Fertilda! I found three frames full of eggs and larva. "You Go Girl" is what I said when I saw how busy this queen has been.

Successful Queen Checks

Tonight was fantastic when I discovered three of my queens are doing great!! The eggs are there! I plan to check my other two Friday night or Sat. afternoon. At first it may be difficult to spot the eggs but if you look closely at the back of each cell (as long as your comb is drawn out) you should see little white eggs pointing almost straight at you. They are actually smaller than a grain of rice.

Save the queen cage(s)!!

Please don't forget to save the queen cage and cork! If you do plan on caging your queen(s) in the fall, you will need the little queen cage to do it.

Queen Checks

Goodmorning,
Here in the next couple days beekeepers should be performing queen checks. Provided it is 50* or warmer, open your hive(s) and grab the queen cage. Pull it out of the hive and look to see if the queen is out of her cage. There may be some worker bees buzzing around inside the queen cage. Remember, you are looking for a bee that is much bigger with a white dot on her thorax. If she is out of her little box then pull out several frames (one at a time) to see if they have eggs and larva. If any of you don't see eggs and larva by Sat. April 30th, call me at 374-8984 and I will come inspect. I do have extra queens in case anyone has problems.

Everything went real smooth with getting the bees transported from California to Anchorage by UPS and from Anchorage to Fairbanks by driving. I am very pleased with the condition of Steve Victor's bees! There were very few dead bees in our boxes compared to last season. The Queens look plump, well-bread and I like the white dot being used this year as the queen mark since it is so easy to spot. One tip you should know about is if you made the mistake of pushing the cork inside the queen cage, it needs to come out so she can crawl out. It is difficult to get the cork out without damaging the queen so I recommend doing a quick release, holding the queen cage down, inside the brood box. Remove two or three center frames first. Then hold the queen cage down in the open space. Remove the screen on the queen cage and she should drop down into the box. 374-8984

Reminder: I checked my sugar H2O last night and found my two quart jar feeders already empty so I refilled them. I checked my frame feeders as well and they were 2/3 empty so you probably ought to feed your bees today (Monday, April 25)

There's a Bee Club meeting coming up soon so when I get the date and time I will post it here.

Please post on this blog. If you have any tips or questions, it would be a great way to communicate and network.
Blessing for a fantastic season!!