Well all 3 of my hives made it through winter with stores to spare. April 28th I did a walk-away-split on my Russian hive,1st time doing a split, did an inspection today and I have 2 new Queen cells, not sure why I have 2 but the Bee’s are doing well building comb in the new split hive. On 5/7/19 I received my new package of Saskatraz Bees. Yesterday 5/8/19 I caught my very 1st Swarm, It was a challenge as I needed a 12 foot step ladder instead of my 8 ft ladder to capture the Swarm. It took 2 attempts but I caught the Queen and the Bee’s followed right into my Nuc. box. Now, including my new Swarm, I have a total of 6 hives. In a matter of 1 year I went from 2 to 3 to now 6 hives. With the help of this forum and a lot of reading I have had some good success.
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Lovely update. Glad to hear you are doing so well. Some people think that you only become a true beekeeper once you have caught your first swarm. 
Congratulations!
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Thank you Dawn, It’s exciting times with these Bee’s! Catching that Swarm was a lot of work. I think these Bee’s came from a farm about 2 miles away, they showed up yesterday morning around 9 AM, the Farmer has 2 hives, after speaking with him last year, he told me that he doesn’t pay much attention to the Bee’s. Took over an hour to convince them that they are welcome but they have settled in.
It will be fun to see what happens with my Split in a couple of weeks.
Take care!
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