The Honey Factory

[itsasmallfarm]

checked my bees this last weekend, four hives out of four survived the winter, one ran low on food, but looks good now.

planning to do some splits my mentor is hoping to get double or triple from the 3 strong hives.

 

[jerryse]

Heard from Ralphie and the story continues. He put in a marked queen in both hives 2 weeks ago. Checked on them today and one hive has a unmarked queen. Wrong color even. No new eggs or brood. Just a few drone cells capped in regular comb.

 

[WallyG74]

Heard from Ralphie and the story continues. He put in a marked queen in both hives 2 weeks ago. Checked on them today and one hive has an unmarked queen. Wrong color even. No new eggs or brood. Just a few drone cells capped in regular comb.

Good times

 

[R2elk]

Ralphie has a queen.

Courtesy of @jerryse.

 

[Apis mellifera]

Heard from Ralphie and the story continues. He put in a marked queen in both hives 2 weeks ago. Checked on them today and one hive has a unmarked queen. Wrong color even. No new eggs or brood. Just a few drone cells capped in regular comb.

Thats because both hives were not queenless and had newly mated queens. The marked queens didnt stand a chance. He should have eggs in another week or so. Those locally mated queens will be better than the ones he purchased.

 

[jerryse]

I have been seeing scouting activity at my 3 swarm traps for about a week now, Today I peeked in them today and one had more bees than the others. I think a choice may have been made.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Does anyone have a honey grader?
I'm trying to decide if it's worth 50 bucks just to satisfy my curiosity, lol.

I just harvested some of the lightest honey I've ever had, and it's very very floral tasting. My honey is normally a dark amber color but this is my honey today. (Just bottled it, is why it hasn't settled yet.)

 

[WallyG74]

Does anyone have a honey grader?
I'm trying to decide if it's worth 50 bucks just to satisfy my curiosity, lol.

I just harvested some of the lightest honey I've ever had, and it's very very floral tasting. My honey is normally a dark amber color but this is my honey today. (Just bottled it, is why it hasn't settled yet.)
View attachment 3542900

The only honey grader I have is in my mouth. I’ll give you and the bees an A+ for all the work you put in!

 

[itsasmallfarm]

split my bee hives, now running 8 hives there looking good.

 

[Sally PB]

We did a sugar roll last Friday. We found 3 mites, so 1%.

We have Formic Pro that came with the hive we bought. From what I've read, it's going to be too warm to use it, for the forecasted future.

Any suggestions, anyone?