Synopsys
I continue to have numerous problems with hives going queenless causing me to have to pull brood frames from other healthy hives to allow them to raise a new one. This practice is not sustainable. I don’t know why all these queens are failing – hives look completely healthy otherwise. I’ve setup 2 Nucs at the Brooks yard – split from two of the better hives to suplement the queen rearing needs. PTC and Woolsey yards seem to be most affected by this phenominon – which is funny because they are in very rural locations and have abudant forage.
I’ll be running a bucket of sugar syrup & mega-bee out to PTC and Woolsey tomorrow to supplement the forage and hopefully encourage the queenless hives to do a better job replacing their queen.
PTC 1
Looks good. 4 Frames of bees – lots of brood. No SHB. Treated with powdered sugar.
PTC 2
Not so good. 2 Frames of bees. No Brood or eggs. More queen problems. Pulled a frame of brood from PTC 1.
PTC 3
Again – no brood. Pulled brood frame from #4 Not Cool.
PTC 4
Looks ok. Not going gangbusters, but there were brood and eggs.
PTC 5
Looks ok. Brood and eggs, but spotty pattern.
Fayetteville 1
Doing great. Lots of brood and eggs. Treated with powdered sugar. No SHB.
Fayetteville 2
Good eggs and brood. 3 frames of bees. No SHB. Treated with powdered sugar.
Fayetteville 3
Good eggs and brood.
Brooks 1
Most of the brood that was in the honey super has since hatched out. Looks like I lucked out and the queen was in the bottom deep when I put the excluder on last week. The bees are moving into the honey super and reusing the old brood cells for honey storage. So far 4 frames are drawn out, but none capped over yet.
Brooks 2
Ready for 2nd deep. Pulled 2 frames brood and honey and split off Nuc. Replaced frames with foundation.
Brooks 3
Looks good. Bees have moved up into the 2nd deep and have begun to draw out comb.
Brooks 4
No real change. Some activity in honey super, but no comb drawn out. Bottom deep is full of bees.
Brooks 5
This is probably the most enthusiastic queen I’ve ever seen. Pulled 2 frames and started Nuc. Replaced frames with foundation.
Brooks 6
New nuc colony for purposes of queen raising. Split from Brooks 2
Brooks 7
New nuc colony for purposes of queen raising. Split from Brooks 5.
