Two Hives Queen Right, Two Not!

We've never had such a hard time getting a split to rear a new queen! Bethesda still doesn't appear to have a queen so we gave the colony two frames of larvae and capped brood from Elkridge. Morgantown doesn't appear to have a queen either so we gave that colony one frame of larvae and capped brood from Wheeling. Hopefully, before the end of the summer we'll have four queen-right hives, but this is getting a little frustrating. We  took two frames of honey, one from Wheeling and I can't remember which other hive. All the hives are bringing in lots of nectar and quite a few frames are almost ready to harvest. Elkridge doesn't seem to like the box of plastic frames. Wheeling is doing a great job drawing comb on the plastic and filling it. I got the plastic frames from two different places. Both were supposed to be wax coated, but I'm wondering if one set of frames are more bee-friendly than the other. Hopefully, Elkridge will start to draw the plastic frames before the next bee inspection.

A Hot Day in the Bee Yard

After the wax moth invasion last week, we decided we needed to make sure we were on top of things. Since the mercury is climbing up to about 90 degrees today we headed out about ten after Mass and breakfast. Whooeee! Already hot as blazes in those bee suits.

Bee Inspection and a Hive Disaster!

 

Well, we're down one hive today thanks to an infestation by wax moth. Bethesda was the first hive we checked and they were doing okay but still don't seem to have a queen so we added another frame of eggs and larvae from Elkridge. Hopefully they will get queen right and give us a fourth hive.

Chicks are getting big! Only about six weeks until egg laying!

I took this photo on May 14th, the day we moved the chicks into the coop. When I looked at this photo today I could only say, "Wow!" They are so much bigger now.