The Honey Factory

[ColtHandorf]

Laughing at the 4-5 more women. lol

 

[jerryse]

Laughing at the 4-5 more women. lol

X2 I can not imagine 4-5 more women in this house . One is more than I can handle most days .

 

[duluthralphie]

X2 I can not imagine 4-5 more women in this house . One is more than I can handle most days .

You guys think too small. I would fix them up a cute little bunk house. They could return to when not doing the work I need done. Like building a cute little bunk house.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

You guys think too small. I would fix them up a cute little bunk house. They could return to when not doing the work I need done. Like building a cute little bunk house.

You must be rich and super good looking to attract all those women.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

I went into my hives today.

I was going to skip the full suit, but they seem upset with me. So I put it on.

Once I got it on they were happy, maybe it was my black tee shirt they didn’t like.

The hives looked good. More drone cells than I like to see. Also they are sloppy bees, I cleaned up a bunch of junk comb.

The patterns aren’t bad, good amount of brood capped and uncapped. The pollen Pattie’s are about gone, I gave each hive three junk frames of honey. Put a drone frame in each hive, and moved some brood into the top box.

I added the boxes today. I also scrapped off some drone cells that would cause me grief this fall.

They have enough brood and nurse maids I think I can make another hive. I will buy a queen next week and start another, I think.

My pears are about to blossom so they should expand rapidly soon. I need to fix my fence, but I have 14,000 other things I need to do too.

I am thinking about becoming a Fundamentalist Mormon so I can get 4-5 more women to work around here for free.

Here are so hive photos. You can see they devoured the protein patty.

Hives look so much better when they are 2 stories or more.

These guys look darker and smaller than my Canooks did.View attachment 3101214View attachment 3101215View attachment 3101216View attachment 3101218View attachment 3101220View attachment 3101221

Is your Queen marked?

 

[duluthralphie]

Is your Queen marked?

Yes

 

[Apis mellifera]

I added the boxes today.

Good thing, in your brood frame photo they are backfilling the brood nest with pollen. Thats the first sign that the colony will be making swarm cells soon. The second box will buy you some time for swarm management.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Good thing, in your brood frame photo they are backfilling the brood nest with pollen. Thats the first sign that the colony will be making swarm cells soon. The second box will buy you some time for swarm management.

I saw all the bee bread in the brood and I was wondering why they would do that, thank you for the info.

 

[duluthralphie]

I saw all the bee bread in the brood and I was wondering why they would do that, thank you for the info.

I think some of it has to do with the f’upped weather we have had. We have had pollen for 6 weeks with temps hovering both sides of freezing. We do not have any sources of nectar so the bees gather pollen.

Also I gave the packages honey frames to help them out. Right or wrong.


There are a lot of bees but no where near the number they need to split the hive. But as I said the number of drone cells concerns me.

I will be splitting the hive next week, with luck. I will be attempting to split and bring another queen in.

I am trying to decide do I make one or two more hives.
I don’t want to set any honey making back, but I don’t want a swarm either. I could get nasty mean and put a queen excluder on both sides the queen and lock her/their butts in their respective hives.


Maybe clipping the wing of the queen. They do that with the high powered AI bitches…

 

[Apis mellifera]

Also I gave the packages honey frames to help them out. Right or wrong.

Plus, you have a boardman feeder on and patties which are mostly sugar. So, they have sugar, sugar, and more sugar. You should have for more woman because you're so sweet! Once they start backfilling the queen has nowhere to lay eggs and swarm prep will begin no matter how many bees are in the hive.

There are a lot of bees but no where near the number they need to split the hive. But as I said the number of drone cells concerns me.

In the green drone frame or all over the frames? The brood frames you posted look really good.