Queen excluders and new bees

Went to vineyard tonight to add queen excluders to two of the old hives. A plethora of workers makes me happy and happier I added additional honey supers on those hives. Released one queen while other two new hives already had released their own. There must be close to or exceeding 50,000 bees in two original hives. Will have to monitor closely.

May 25th Installation

 Temps this morning.

Previously installed wild swarm box.

It was a very interesting install day. Alex and I had 4 packages to install this morning. Started foggy and about 65 degrees but very quickly was at 70 and already becoming very humid.

I had already installed a wild swarm a few days ago and wanted to recheck while we installed one package at orchard. So while setting up area after trimming some grass I moved one of the concrete blocks that make up the platform for where the new bees will be sit. Moved 2x6 to uncover the hole in block and low and behold about 40-50 bees were underneath. This was quite unexpected and I moved very slowly while moving block. The wild swarm you see in the above photo is about 16' away from this area. A bunch were on the underneath part of the board. I took those and placed them in front of "Parkwood" hive. Went back over and looked very closely only to find the Queen bee. Astonished that I had found her and she looked in good shape and was just right there. Anyway, slowly placed her into wild swarm hoping that she was indeed their queen and all will be good. Time will tell.

Otherwise, we installed all packages, one at orchard and 3 at vineyard. Also took out last of the feeders at other established hive near barn. I may have to add other supers on top as they look to be getting very full of bees already!

New Beekeeper

Helped Mike Gallo set up his Nucs on his property near Sidney. Everything went smoothly. Was a little nervous as the temps were in the low 30's last Thursdsy night. However everything seemed well as his son Cole and himself checked them on Sunday and all was good.

5-17-14 Visit

Checked all bees today. Strong numbers in all however when adding honey supers did not place excluders in between. Never had issues until now with brood in top. Anyway queen has started laying eggs and already many larvae about a week to ten days old. May add excluders sometime in the next month. However will have to check for queen when doing so.

Today when checking no wind and 70 degrees.

5-11-14

Visited bees at Vineyard. Very rainy day, 1.5-2" at least. Temps were in 70's when checked. Switched the supers around again on furthest East. Took out feeder but fed other hive with a gallon bag. The West hive seemed less active but still has good numbers and brood.

Honeybees after adding honey super on 5-7-14 to orchard hive

Building comb out

Building comb out

Taking care of capped brood

Loitering at entrance while consuming supplemented honey

Loitering at entrance while consuming supplemented honey

Sometimes you get lucky on  a shot. Love this one.

Breezy, high 70's, just a beautiful day.

After feeding them a little honey it riled them up.

Light breeze today with partly sunny conditions and 64 degrees. Added two honey supers to vineyard hives.