New Colony - ROZINA

Today we hived that package into two ten-frame mediums.  These boxes were filled with the remnants of this Winter's Dead-outs.  These bees start off with a full box of honey & pollen along with a full box of drawn out and somewhat filled comb.  This gives them a huge start to the year.  I hope it translats into honey.

Newly hived Package

Since i'm practically starting over again all new hives will be mediums. This hive is made up of a;
Telescoping Cover
Hive Top Feeder
Medium
Medium
Slatted Rack
Screened Bottom Board (closed)

We are still having cool nights but come high Summer the hive will look like this;
Telescoping Cover
Inner Cover
Imrie Shim (top entrance)
Honey Super/s
Medium
Medium
Medium
Slatted Rack
Screened Bottom Board (open)

I might put an Imrie Shim between Honey Supers.  I've done it before but with inconclusive results.  The idea being an entrance per Super allows the bees to transfer the nectar faster thereby improving production.  We'll see how this year goes.

Anyway, back to the bees.  These girls were a calm bunch.  They didn't explode from the package nor did they fly around manically during the procedure.  They dropped in and spread out in the box. The only oddity was a few handfuls of bees walking away from the hive along the ground.  I've never seen it before.

The bees took to orienting immediately but went back in for the night soon after.  As always i hive bees late in the day to better keep them in the new location.  The next day they were back at it flying wide arcs in the apiary.  I went down later in the day but saw no pollen coming in yet.  They still need to find those sources.

The gallon of 1:1 syrup i gave them is half way down.  From what we can tell by the bees lack of interest in old left out honey frames and pots with sugar residue the Spring flow is on and quite strong.  The Maples are done but Dandelions are popping up everywhere.  This is great for the bees to have natural forage as apposed to pollen patties and syrup.  The best thing for a new colony.

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On a sad but not unexpected note; Mab is dead.  I broke down her equipment and tossed it into the freezer.  She had a laying queen and brood in February or so but something happened and now she's gone.  What a shame.

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More Honey Supers

Both Mary & Myrina are actually in the mood to make surplus honey this year, \\ Hallelujah! //  Not much but it looks like we may see 2 Medium Supers worth; one from each.  Not leaving it to chance I added a second super to Myrina today.  I'll add a second to Mary in a day or so.  I don't expect them to fill up the new supers but they might as well start drawing them out for next year.  There is little over a month left to our major flow.  Could be enough time to do the job.  If there comes a Fall flow we'll be ready.

The second super on Myrina went beneath the current one.  It is wired foundationless blasted with sugar spray.  I placed the Imirie Shim between the 2 Supers.  The bees have used it but sparingly.  I might block the bottom entrance tomorrow to motivate them to use it in earnest.  I'll do the same thing with Mary when she gets her's.

Two Honey Supers

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I also got around to changing out the brood boxes on Melissa.  The yellow one (Heléna's) came off and the companion white one went on.  It's now clean and mold free.  Here too I placed the new brood box beneath the current one.  Now the bees will be near to top of the new frames where they need to start drawing comb instead of climbing up to it first.

Speaking of Heléna, she will get her second brood box this week too.  Another busy week but a good start to June.

Sweet Melissa

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