Saturday visit to Jim and Cindy's Apiary

May 15, 2010

Jim and Cindy begin a hive inspection.

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So, Friday evening around 6:30 or so, as I was cooking a fine Indian dish to take over to Rabbit Hash, I get a call from beekeeping friend Jim. He told me him and Cindy were going to go through the hives on Sat. wanted to know if I was interested in helping. Of course. It was supposed to be a great day and the timing was just right.

Glad I made it over because it was a great opportunity to see everything from newly caught swarms to some nice established hives. There was also a significantly loud/active hive. It was definitely the most diverse bee day I've seen yet. As you will see in the pictures, we saw everything from eggs, to larva in all stages. It was particularly significant for me to get a good look at some eggs as it showed me just what I needed to find in my own hives.

We also saw some queen cells, still capped, and one emerged. You can see these in the pics too. We marked a number of queens and even established a new hive with one of several swarms they were queing up for in future integration. Their logging practices are diligent and sharp and they go into each hive with a lot of information from the last check. Really, I can't see how you could do it any other way.

We scraped open some drone cells to check for mites. Clean, for now. The hives were really thriving and their bees are calm and nice :)

I quickly scurried home anxious to get in to my own hives as it was time to begin seeing eggs. Sure enough, eggs and all stages of larva is both hives... including capped larva. I didn't see EITHER queen today and I went through the frames twice! I am just destined to not find this mystery queen, but I am guessing they are both there since all the other signs are there. One thing I did note was that I have 4 queen cell cups startin in the weaker hive. I left them alone for now. That's all for now. Video will come later.

Tags: beekeeping

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Hived two packages of bees in 10 minutes today!

May 03, 2010

The post office called me at 6am and said my bees were in. After a rainy, gloomy weekened, I didn't expect to have them in by now. I ran down and picked them up and then hit up the weather channel to see what the day was looking like. "Partly cloudly!" Sweet! The sun was blazing down into the yard by 7:15 and I decided to get these babies hived before heading to work.

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It worked out perfectly. We will have rain tonight and that would keep them in there a little longer to get used to their new quarters. Everything went off without a hitch and the bees were pretty calm after 5 days of being caged up and shipped. They were dying to get out. I'm excited and can't wait to get back in to be sure the queen was accepted and is laying.

More later.

Tags: beekeeping

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