Archive for September, 2013

Splits looks pretty good.

Sunday, September 1st, 2013

Last July, I made a “walk-away” split on on of the hives. It was very active and had a good supply of reserves so I made two hives of it. I made sure that each hive had newly laid brood so that the box without a queen could make a new one. It has been a month and a half and both hives are doing well. Bees live about 45 days, so if the split had not worked, one of the hives would be empty.

Otherwise the hives are suffering from the lack of flowers in late summer. I see now that they are bringing back lots of pollen, and I guess it is Goldenrod, Queen Anne’s Lace and Ragweed. This is good for the bees. I have been feeding them every week, but not excessively.

I hope that they will make it through the winter.

The last time I harvested honey, it rained so I did not spin the frames. When I came back the next day, the bees had found the frames and robbed back all the honey. The frames were completely stripped of honey. I did not sell any honey this summer.

I will suit up tomorrow and look at the honey supers on the hive and see if they can be harvested. I might do it tomorrow if there is enough. Otherwise I will take off the queen excluders and let the bees have it the honey for the winter.