We checked the hives last week and decided we needed to split the big hive on the first warm day. The colony is huge and will definitely swarm if we don't do something although there are no immediate signs in the hive that they're ready to swarm.
So yesterday we divided it in half. Well, not exactly in half. The bulk of the bees are still in the main hive where the queen is, but there are plenty of bees in the split and hopefully they will get busy at once rearing a new queen. There's a little activity going in and out in the queenless split, which is good because many of the foragers go back to the original hive. At any rate, rearing a new queen takes about two weeks and then another week or ten days until she's made her maiden flight for mating and starts laying.
Today I added another super (bee box with nine frames) to the big hive. That will give the bees plenty to do since I put in five undrawn wax frames that the bees will have to build out before they can use it for storing nectar and pollen. That box should end up being a honey super while the queen lays in the boxes below. Plenty for the workers to do, a good thing because busy bees are happy bees.
We are off to a booming bee season and are asking all the patrons of beekeepers to intercede for our little apiary. If all goes well, we will have a bumper harvest of honey come August. If we are extra fortunate, we will have honey before then. Our supply is getting low.
No comments:
Post a Comment