Exciting news...

We went into the apiary this evening and we found
 1 Queen in each hive. 
Can you spot the queen right in the middle?  She's very long and her wings are short

 



Honey!  Look close...most of the cells are capped.  The bees are working hard!

 

 Brood!  This means the queen is laying.  Look closely and you can see white larve on the left side of the frame.  Below the capped cells are developing pupa. 

climatekids.nasa.gov

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Bee a Friend!

Too chilly to go in the HIVE this weekend but not to cool to hang out with GOOD friends. 

 

     Bee a Friend...

Good Friends are Bee-u-tiful...

Into the hive later this week when the temperature is above 70...keep your fingers crossed for a QUEEN sighting.

From Egg to Queen...

It only takes 16 days for a queen to incubate from the day the egg is laid to emergence so...we should have a queen any day now.  Will check the hive this weekend and hope for the best. 

www.leominsterbeeman.com

 

 

Hide and Seek!

Saturday, April 13, 2013

 

Dave and I inspected the two hives and the NUC  today- a small, three- to five-frame beehive, we set aside to raise a queen...you know just in case we needed one since we were not sure if we captured the queen in the swarm.

The original hive appears to have a queen...she's new and not yet laying eggs...brood is sparse.  Something to keep an eye in the next 10 days.  She needs to get down to business and start pumping out 1000+eggs a day if she's going to stay around.

When we went into the new hive created by the SWARM we were hopeful to spot the Mother Queen from the original hive but no such luck.  She must have been the one that got away!  Anyhow, we put the NUC frames in this hive with a few queen cells so hopefully we'll have a queen sometime soon...if not, we'll have to find one to purchase to keep this hive up and running. 

On a positive note we noticed a lot of honey in the first hive so that's a good sign...they are working hard and we may have honey to extract come June.  Fingers are crossed!

Plenty of bees but no Queen...



Pollinate Propagate...The Garden is Looking Great!

     April 12, 2013...how does your garden grow?

Mint Mojitos here we come...

What's all the BUZZ about...

Just 3 weeks before the SWARM...the weather is warm and the bees are ready to fly...there's a BUZZ in the air.

 

Two hives and another on the way...Here come the pollinators!

 

 

Not so sure about POLLINATORS...watch this!

 

 

 

...the SWARM

Four days out from the SWARM and the bees are still in the hive. 

SWARM Central!

            Sunday was an exciting day at our house...the bees decided to SWARM....and SWARM they did!

 

 Swarm Catcher Dave to the rescue!

Three attempts and we have most of the bees...



Bucket number 1!

One SWARM = a second hive in the works and a NUC in process.  The burning question...do we have a QUEEN in each box or one in the works?