Swarm Call

I got a call at 12:30 today with a woman sawing there were honey bees all over the ground and it looked to be like several thousand. I asked her to describe it and she said honey bees in two blobs on the ground about the size of phone books across the street from the high school and on the sidewalk....

I asked her if she knew the difference between yellow jackets that live in the ground and honey bees and she responded "Yes I know the difference.... I am not an idiot. I am alregic to honey bees and not yellow jackets and these are honey bees!"

I got there and sure enough it was a swarm!

Only one problem.... I found the queen and she was lying on the ground like she was hurt..... I dont know how it happened, but I doubt she will make it. That explains why the swarm was on the ground. I placed a frame of eggs in the box from a hive that has a queen I like.... Maybe I can get them to make a new queen....

splits and swarms

I split almost all of my hives this weekend.... Most were more than ready for it as the honey flow is comming early. I was very supprised to find a hive with swarm preps. they were clingy and they had several uncapped and capped queen cells..... found it too late I guess. I still split it and used the queen cells in the splits.

pollen and drones

On the nice days, my bees are bringing in tons of pollen. I have had to do some major movement of hive bodies. Almost all of the lower brood chambers were empty and needed to be moved on top for the queen to lay in and the beed to store food.

I have tons of mature drones and drones in various stages of life. This is great. In about a week, I am going to split all of my strong hives and try to recouperate some of my losses.

I am also waiting on a call from Larry Tate for when we can start instrumental insemination. Should be fun!