Monday, July 26, 2010

Hive Update: A New Nuc

Well, we've had quite the year so far with our queens. We tried two new queens for our large hive and the first one disappeared right away. The second one laid some drones and then she must have gone on her honeymoon and never come home. Furthermore, even though we didn't see mites in the hive, her drones were born with deformed wings, so we ended up putting the larvae in the freezer. We treated for mites right away and the next day we combined the hive with a healthy nuc. Fingers are crossed because this is our last chance to get the hive strong before winter. We took off the honey super so they'd make lots of honey for the winter. We had some frames with old wax in them with honey in the corners. The bees were not filling these frames and we feared the wax might contain pesticide build up, so we harvested the honey using the crush and drip method. The new bees have been in there for two weeks now and our fingers are crossed that they will flourish.

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