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.
When we opened Cleveland we were met with a vision from a horror movie. Wax moth larvae everywhere and devastated honey frames. We took out all frames and took them over to put on the bonfire. I'll wash the boxes, bottom board, and covers with bleach water before we use them again. It's always sad to lose a hive.
What makes me even sadder is that it didn't occur to me to give the chickens a treat. All those yummy little squirmy things went up in smoke instead of into the chicks tummies. Oh well. Next time we check the hives and take out some of the drone larvae I'll feed that to the chickens.
Elkridge is doing well although none of the honey frames were completely packed, but they have lots of capped and uncapped brood so we added another box for them to work on. Morgantown is doing okay, we checked a bit and decided to leave them alone.
The master hive, Wheeling, is working like crazy and for the first time in ages was calm. We took out seven frames of capped honey and an eighth was almost completely capped. So we now have 11 frames of capped honey in the freezer and fridge which is close to our biggest harvest of 14 frames. Each frame produces about three pounds of honey so we already have over 30 pounds of sweetness coming. Hopefully we will have twice that many before the harvest at the end of July. So exciting!
No comments:
Post a Comment