Category: Hive Inspections

D’oh

After rushing to replace the Queens yesterday, I did not feel comfortable about the old Queen in the new Hive 5. I could not find her yesterday and that was unexpected as she is very large and marked green. So today at lunch I decided to do one more quick check on the hive. As I was looking through the Hive I noticed quite a few bees heading underneath the screened bottom board. I removed the deep and flipped the bottom board and there she was. I moved her into the deep and I will check on her in a few days. I was in a rush yesterday after work, as we had a dinner event at a friends house, and I did not want the Queens left unattended overnight, and I messed up some how. I still cannot figure out how, but at least she is safe.

Lesson learned/note to self – never rush and always give yourself enough time to do the best job that you can do.

Quick Queen check

My son and I did a quick check at lunch in preparation for two new queens arriving tomorrow from Old Sol Bees. I was hoping to split a couple of abundant hives but now it looks like I will have to add one queen to hive 2, (the queen absconded yesterday with a small retinue), and the other to hive 3, (the current queen is not laying very well). I was hoping to add a queen to hive 8 as she has been spotty since I acquired the nuc from Foothills honey in April, but I now may need to look at combining hives before winter.