Saturday visit to Jim and Cindy's Apiary

May 15, 2010

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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