Flow hive photos from our backyard :)

General Bee Chat
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It’s spring and everything’s happening here at Coolgardie! Just got three flow hives up and running (hopefully) with three new queens. We’ve had a rocky start to the spring season, with a swarm that lost their queen somehow even after we managed to coax the swarm into an empty nuc box with a frame of brood. (Seeing the swarm when it first departed was quite the sight!)

We couldn’t spot a virgin queen in the original nuc they swarmed from, they seemed very unsettled which was out of character for that hive and even after three weeks, no sign of brood or eggs. And the third hive had chalkbrood infestation from the day we brought it home and didn’t recover through the winter, very scattered brood pattern. So it seemed re-queening was in order there anyway. We installed a new queen today in each hive, transferred nucs into the Flow Hives, replaced some old black plastic frames with new wax foundation – and here’s hoping our little ladies will thrive!

Dad has been busy learning to wire the wax foundation into the frames and he was very happy with the heritage colours for the rooftops against the red cedar. I think they look very nice.

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We’re learning so much about these amazing little bees – despite mistakes along the way – but getting more confident with each inspection and it’s been an interesting challenge. My little brother (age 8) loves them and has been helping out with every inspection. He’s usually on smoker duty and likes to sit and watch a bee crawl around on his gloves.

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Cheers,

Jess

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Lovely report, thank you so much for the update. All the best with the new season!

:blush:

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Hi Jess, it looks like your colonies are off to positive start. I very much look forward to incoming updates.

All the best to you and your Bees,

Regards,

Scol.

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Thanks Scol and @Dawn_SD for the warm words. Fingers crossed for a positive start to summer with these three hives. :slight_smile:

Cheers,

Jess

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Looking good, Jess! It’s so nice to see things just getting going in your part of the world as things are slowing down here in mine :maple_leaf::fallen_leaf:. Keep the updates coming :cherry_blossom::blush:

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Thanks Eva! Yes that is true - and so the endless cycle of beekeeping continues… :wink:

We opened the hives today and two of the new queens were accepted - but, as we guessed might happen, the swarm that we thought was queenless did have a queen - perhaps she was out on her mating flight while we were doing the inspection and transfers last week, haha. She made sure to eliminate her rival (the queen we tried to introduce) but looks healthy and large so we are pleased regardless. Fingers crossed for them all!

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