In this video Cedar does some spring time management and a brood inspection. He discusses splitting the hive, how to get a new queen, and whether or not you should let your bees raise their own.
How do you source your queens? Have you had success letting your colony rear their own?
What are your Spring management tips?
I have a different view to Cedar in relation to “bee drift”. I don’t think that a fully loaded bee will fly into a neighboring hive, based on personal observations.
It’s my observation that bees return to the exact spot, from which she departed, within probably a square inch. If you move the entrance 2" higher or lower, the bees will return to where it used to be. If you cover part of an entrance, some bees will return to the covered portion.
My view is that bee drift only occurs while bees are doing orientation flights. Being nurse bees, they are readily accepted by neighboring colonies. Once a nurse bee orientates to a particular entrance, that’s where she’ll return to.
A strong colony can make a neighboring weak colony stay weak, on account of bee drift during orientation flights. With all the bees doing orientation flights during the early afternoon, it’s easy for bees in the weak colony to get caught up in the frenzy of orientation flights, & thus join the bees in the stronger colony.
PS, there is no shame in wearing gloves even if you’re a veteran beekeeper. Stings hurt, plus, while wearing gloves you can be fully focused on the job at hand, instead of constantly watching out for stings, which is what Cedar seems to do,