Monday, April 8, 2013

Swarmy weather

I'm not even going to bother with pictures.

Another swarm, not sure which hive it came from, but I newspaper combined it with the latest one (actually, as I was doing it, I saw drones cartwheeling out of the hive on the stand, so that was probably it).

And, I'm done. I have no more deeps, I'm needing to order some more frames for the mediums, and I feel overwhelmed already. Dratted bees. I keep assuming it's something I'm doing, but these swings between cold, rainy weather and sunny days can't be helping.

I'm going to call another keeper for the next swarm. Probably lessen my honey crop, but that's the way it goes.

4 comments:

Curbstone Valley Farm said...

Glad to hear your bees are doing well enough to swarm. This time last year we had swarms up to our elbows. This year, everyone was doing great...through early March, then the Queens stopped laying. We couldn't figure it out. Guessed that with the paucity of rain, as we're dependent on native blooms here, that may the flowers weren't yielding much nectar. When we inspected, our bees were almost starving, despite gorgeous weather! I'm hoping they'll catch up though, now we've had a little rain...it almost seems too late for us to be considering splits!

Erin said...

The bees are keeping you busy this year!

Anonymous said...

All those swarms is a LOT to keep up with! You have your hands full with those bees! I don't know if mine have swarmed, honestly, we put our hives over to a side of the house that's not convenient to get to, so I don't check it as often as I could.

Wish I had some solid de-swarming advice, but instead I've enjoyed reading about your bee activities!

Unknown said...

Guess what happened yesterday?

Yes, ANOTHER swarm!! Aiiiiieee. I give up. That one went to another beek's yard.

CVS, I don't know. I always have at least one hive dwindle over the winter, and usually combine with a swarm to pull it through. That's been easy this year.

Erin, yes, I agree.

Sonoma Garden, I'm not sure there's an easy answer. They have enough room, they're not riddled with mites. I believe I may have a swarm-inclined queen in there somewhere. Maybe I'll requeen with boughten queens this fall. We'll see how the honey crop does.