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Hives bumped up / LocalHarvest

It was time to bump up 2 of my 5-frame nuc hives to 10-frame boxes. I waited until the rain had subsided to a slow drizzle, and fired up the smoker.. and moved 2 nucs to 10-frame deep hives with screened bottom boards.

I believe that this will give the bees something to do besides […]

Hot in Texas

One of my 7 hives is bearding outside the 5-frame nuc. Temperatures here in North Texas are in the mid-to high 90’s right now (1st week of June 2012). I do believe that it’s time to move these ladies to a 10-frame box along with a screened bottom board. That should do wonders for helping […]

Now Hiring: New Queen For Old Hive.

Strange subject line, eh?

My oldest hive seems to have lost its queen over the last month or two. The brood boxes are full of honey and pollen.. and LOTS of drones… but not a single egg, larvae, or capped brood in 2 deeps and 2 supers.

My latest captured swarm has filled out EVERY […]

Trap-Out Re-Start

Today I checked up on a trap-out that was started about 2 weeks ago. Unfortunately, the 1-way screen was blocked with masses of dead bees – and the survivors chewed through the other blocked entrances/exits to get out. I can’t say that I blame them for their industrious nature!

I made the appropriate repairs to […]

Spring Splits made

Yesterday I picked up 4 new queens with which I have made 4 new hives from my original hive that was 3-deeps of brood/stores + 2 supers on top. This should make the original hive much more manageable – and provide the nucleus frames and some genetics for many hives to come in the future.

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Tree Trapout – the queen emerges

The trapout that started on March 29 can officially be called a success! I received a call yesterday from the homeowner – letting me know that the queen has emerged, and was sitting on the screened-over entrance with maybe 100-200 bees. That was exactly what I was hoping to hear, since the standard procedure for […]

Fresh Comb

It’s been three weeks, now, since I added the foundation-less frames to the hive.

Yesterday, I saw another beekeeper in the neighborhood working with his hive at a community garden. His single deep hive had swarmed, and he had caught the swarm and added them to another box. I decided that I should check […]

Bee Larvae – MMMmm – Protein!

I decided that it was time to REALLY check out my bees for the spring… I’ve only got the one hive, so I’ve been wanting to add a box or two – to allow them to increase their numbers so that I can make a split or two off of it.

I decided to checkerboard […]

Hive Brand

Here’s a pic of my new hive brand for marking my woodenware. Made by a friend who is a welder/metal worker.

Late February Hive Check

We’ve had such a mild winter – it makes me worried that we’ll have a cold snap in the next couple of weeks approaching Spring Equinox.

Today was such beautiful weather. At 7pm, it’s 75 deg. F., and we hit 77 today. We’re supposed to have lows in the mid-30’s this Friday night, though.

The […]