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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 […]

Swarm Capture

I received a message from a friend today about a swarm that had taken up a temporary home in a tree in her back yard. I loaded up the extension ladder, and high-tailed it to her home before it got too late in the evening, and evaluated what we had going on… It looked to […]

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 […]

Honeybee Trapout

Here’s a video that I took while performing the trap-out on Monday’s arrived swarm of honeybees to a neighborhood in Richardson, Texas.

 

After the bees exit the window-screen mesh cone, they are unable to find their way back in. Their choice is to (a) use the 5-frame nuc box with a frame of […]

Swarm Call

Today is marked as the first swarm call for the Spring 2012 season.

When I received the call, a few bees (scouts) were coming in and out of the tree. By the time I got there, the bees were coming in – and it was looking like a tornado of honeybees. I quickly placed my […]

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 […]