This might be my new favorite quote, I love this!!! Thank you for your kind words and your support. I was nervous to go in today but I used a bit more smoke than I usually do and just went slow and stead. They were fantastic as always! Maybe slightly more on alert as there was one or two bees flying up the side of my head buzzing in my ear the whole time, but that’s all they did. No stings!
And the best part… I FOUND BOTH QUEENS!!! The swarm queen (her name is Pikachu - named by my son ) looked healthy and the bees love her, they followed her around the frame as she walked around and when I put it back in they all dove down in after her. The other queen (I named her Gloria after Gloria Gaynor who sang “I will survive” in 1978) is still a virgin! She was small and looked to be unmated. And there was actually still some capped brood from Pikachu before she swarmed!
So I think they will be okay!! I am so relieved and super proud of those babes. They are amazing! And I’m grateful that the bear was relatively gentle. I hope it stays away though haha
that’s great news! well- just leave the hive with the virgin queen Gloria alone for about 10 days whilst she does her mating flights, then you’ll want to check to see that she is laying. There should be eggs and larvae by then. Sounds like your hives will soon be back on track.
Oh my goodness Erin - I just found this thread and what a story!! I wonder how things went from that point but I seem to remember you posting about winter prep…how’s everything looking this season so far? Spring is finally here (Stay away bears!!)
I don’t remember where this thread left off, but I can tell you that last year was the year of swarms… 3 to be exact. So I ended up with 7 hives all together. We had several droughts last year, each followed by flooding torrential downpours, so the growing season was awful and thus no honey for us. The bees didn’t even have enough for themselves so I had to feed them all a bunch throughout the season. And even then they still didn’t have enough, so I ended up combining a few hives and STILL fed the remaining 5 colonies. So far I like what I’m seeing, all 5 have been out and active every day that it has been warm enough. I saw some pollen a few weeks ago too! I fed two colonies just some sugar patties I made up, and I’m going to check on the others’ food situation soon, and will probably do pollen patties, and syrup once the night temps stay up enough. I hope your spring is off to a good start!
Who knew beekeeping was so dramatic sometimes! 5 colonies coming through winter is amazing though - well done
I’m feeding one of mine/fed thru winter because it was robbed last fall. All looking pretty good otherwise and I will inspect a preemptive split I made last week soon. We had a nice warm & sunny day today and it was great to see so much activity, and beautiful pollen colors coming in.
(Stay away bears!!)