Sand Hill Thicket HAS MOVEDAug 19, 2023

Did #beehive inspections today. Our original #hive is still in stasis - a lot of #honey, but very little brood, & are only working on the original 5 drawn out frames that came with the #nuc we purchased in spring. There must be a new #virginqueen in the hive because we saw a few larva. We cannot figure out why she hasn't laid a bunch of brood, unless she died recently. Stumped.

In contrast, our swarm hive is outta control & made burr comb on the underside of the queen excluder!😂 #Beekeeping /1

Show threadSand Hill Thicket HAS MOVEDAug 19, 2023
We are still in the process of cleaning up our swarm hive from the mistakes we made earlier in the season. When we caught the swarm we didn't have enough frames to fill a deep super and we put a shallow honey super on top. Naturally the bees got creative and went wild making comb every which way. By the time we had a new super and some open frames put together, they were out of control. We've been cutting comb and rubberbanding bit by bit ever since. /2
Show threadSand Hill Thicket HAS MOVEDAug 19, 2023
The good news is the swarm hive is growing and being very productive. They've been drawing out new comb since our last inspection on Aug. 5. They've filled front and back of one of the new white pre-waxed frames and drawn out comb on a couple others. /3
Show threadSand Hill Thicket HAS MOVED
Luckily we found the swarm queen (original marked queen that came with the nuc) in the bottom deep super and decided it was really helpful to catch the #SaskatrazQueen and keep her in a clip in the shade while we work. (I've sorta circled her so you can see...the #bees were protecting her. 😁) /4
Aug 19, 2023 at 12:31amWeb
Show threadSand Hill Thicket HAS MOVEDAug 19, 2023
We helped the bees make some new designs with their wacky chaos #beecomb, so these will be the "before" pictures. Maybe we will take some "after" pictures in a few weeks? 🤔 /5
Show threadSand Hill Thicket HAS MOVEDAug 19, 2023
We made sure each of our supers in both hives had 10 frames per super, except the bottom deep super on the swarm hive - we have two frames left that are still connected to each other that we need to cut apart and reorganize. We simply were too hot and tired to finish today. /6
Show threadSand Hill Thicket HAS MOVEDAug 19, 2023
Finally, we are going to do an experiment to see which frame gets drawn out first - a white frame or a black frame (both pre-waxed)! Stay tuned! Until next time! 🐝🐝🐝 Crazy, beginner, not-yet-divorced, married #beekeepers, signing off! 😁 /end