Hive Inspection 5/6/12

Mary, Myrina, QC, Nuc #5, Heléna, Nuc #6, Nuc'd Swarm
72°F
Cloudy
Calm

Myrina has not moved up into new medium box yet.  Gave her another gallon of 1:1 syrup. 

Mary has lots of eggs and pretty brood patterns.  She's really coming back online.

Queen Castle (2nd) still has two capped Queen cells.  Added more 1:1 syrup.

Queen Castle (1st) received a frame from Nuc # 5 with several large capped Queen cells and a honey & nectar frame.  Added 1:1 syrup

Nuc # 5 may no longer be Queenless.  Some eggs were found on a frame in top box.  The bottom box had a frame with Queen cells.  The frame and another honey frame were placed in the QC.  Lots of bees.  'Boiling' behavior observed.

Heléna is Post Swarm.  Her top Honey super remains undrawn.  It was removed.  One Honey super is still on about half drawn out.  It was placed between both brood boxes.  Her population is good in spite of the swarm.  Other than a hatched Swarm cell a hatched Supersedure cell was found.  Bees making more Supersedure cells.  Some 'Boiling' behavior.

Nuc #6 has seven torn down Swarm cells and a hatched Supersedure cell.  She also has TWO queens.  The old white marked one & the new virgin one.  The old queen is still laying her butt off.  High population.

Nuc'd Swarm is loaded with Laying workers.  Some drone sized cells may have had fifteen to twenty eggs in them.  No Queen was found though they have drawn out all five frames.  These bees will be dumped out in front of my Neighbors weak hive this week.  It is gone, done, finis.

Plan to inspect Melissa in a day or two.

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Hive Inspection 4/2/12

All Hives (six)
65°F
Sunny
Calm

Didn't mean to do them all but that's the way it goes sometimes.  It has been almost a month during an early Spring since we last looked in the bees.  Not a good idea but we have been terribly busy around here; did i mention we have chickens now?

Melissa has six brood frames in the top box and four in the bottom box.  Good brood pattern and a high population.  The bees are calm.  Saw Wax Moth larva in the detritus below the screened bottom board; that's a new one.  The moth larva posed NO danger to the hive and were fed to the chickens.  The bees finished off the last gallon of syrup.  The feeder was removed and a partially filled Honey Super from last season was added.  In a day or so an undrawn Super will be added as well.  Did not see the Queen but plenty of fresh eggs.

Nuc #6 (Gumption) also had a Moth larva under the Screened Bottom Board.  That too was cleaned out.  Her bees have not yet begun to draw out the new Medium brood box.  They have, however, finished their syrup.  The population is good but her productivity is low.  There is a Supersedure cell being drawn out on frame #5.  I left it in.  The bees know best.  It wasn't planned but her still empty new brood box was hastily donated to Nuc # 5.  I'll make her two new ones this week.

Nuc #5 (Mab) is on fire when it come to making bees.  The three week old New brood box was fully drawn & filled with capped brood, drone cells, pollen, & honey.  The best looking Spring frames i've ever seen.

All five new frames, front & back

The population is still heavy now that they have used up the new box.  As previously mentioned i borrowed the empty box from Nuc #6 to give this one room.  However, it is to late!

OOPS! First Swarm Cell of 2012.  Three weeks in a new undrawn box

The Queen cell was cut out and placed in Myrina who needs to be requeened anyway.  Many believe that once the Swarm cell is capped the bees will swarm no matter what.  I've done this before without the bees swarming so i hope to do it again. As soon as these bees fill up the new box they will be hived in a regular medium two box hive.  The feeder is still on and they'll get some more syrup.  So i'm guessing two more weeks.

Heléna has twelve of twenty frames filled with brood.  Her population is high and getting higher fast.  The Queen was in the bottom box as the top box was full.  So her feeder is gone replaced by a drawn honey super.  More Wax moth under the Bottom board but they were handled.  The brood frames are picture perfect.  Sadly it was late and too dark to get the image.

Mary is a surprise in non-productivity with only four of twenty frames having brood.  Her population is only fair with very little Drone comb.  The top box is practically honey bound.  So i will spin several frames to give them room to grow.  If she doesn't take to it she'll be requeened.  Her feeder came off too, but she hadn't finished the syrup in it anyway.

Myrina has only taken half of her syrup.  The population is fair with only three of ten frames in brood.  A Wax moth was found in the hive on a frame; one worm which was dispatched.  This colony is Very weak.  She began the downward spiral last Summer.  Then entered Winter diminished.  She got through Winter but she's going nowhere fast.  To remedy that the Swarm Cell from Nuc #5 was placed in this hive (frame 5) After i pinched Queen Myrina.  I'll check the hive again in a few days.  The Queen Cell was capped and due to hatch soon.

Note the Spotty brood of the previous Queen

This weekend i'll make a few more brood boxes and sufficient frames.  I'll put more undrawn Honey Supers on Malissa & Heléna too.

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Quick Peek & Brood boxes

Nuc #5 (Mab)
Nuc #6 (Gumption)

On Feb 28th i took a quick look at the two nucs.  Nuc #5, or Mab, is packed with bees and has three of her five frames loaded with brood.  The queen looked big & healthy as always.  This colony was my first captured swarm from last year.  Her population plummeted last fall but now she'll be ready to swarm in no time.

Nuc #6, Gumption, Has two of five frames in brood.  She doesn't have the number of bees Mab does but she's drawing comb already.  She is a late September swarm.  I never took her seriously though she continuously laid eggs.  So she's off to a great start now that she survived Winter.  So i finally marked the Queen; with white since she is from last year.

Since Mab is full of bees & Gumption is drawing comb they both received an additional brood box (5 frame Nuc) today.

Ready to go with old frames & new wax foundation

 -

Mab's (nuc #5) new yellow Medium Brood box

-

and Gumption's (nuc #6) new yellow Brood box too

I intend to inspect a few hives this weekend.  Might need to reverse some boxes to hold off swarming.  This Winter has been VERY mild and the bees are way ahead of schedule.

 

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Hive Inspection 10/17/11

NUC #5
Sunny
75°F

The only nuc i have left and the first one i have ever tried to take through Winter.  She is from a wild hive and may be Survivor bees.  They have about finished their one gallon of 2:1 syrup medicated with Fumagilin.  Since they are a nuc that's all they get.

Top Box DNB2: frames
1 - Backfill, honey, empty
2 - Mostly drawn, backfill, SHB (1)
3 - Mostly drawn, backfill
4 - Backfill, honey, SHB (1)
5 - Mostly drawn, honey, backfill

Bottom Box DNB1: frames
1 - Solid Honey
2 - Honey, backfill, brood, pollen
3 - Honey, backfill, brood (eggs) - QUEEN (marked)
4 - Honey, backfill, brood
5 - Honey, brood, pollen, backfill

Bees on all the frames of the bottom box

Population seems to only be fair.  I'd like to see more bees in here.  They have four frames with brood and that's a good thing.  Honey stores could be higher too.  There are a couple of feedings left so hopefully that will do it. 

Queen of Nuc #5 (Mab).  Sorry for the blurry pict

At least these bees know to move the brood nest to the bottom box.  I wont have to manually move them down like the others.  I will also need to insulate this nuc and get a HTF for warm weather feeding.

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Nuc #5 Swarmed

This year has been the worst swarming year since I've started beekeeping.  At this point I'm more of a bee-releaser than a beekeeper.

We noticed a swarm yesterday coming from the direction of the neighbors apiary.  We banged some pots together to get them to ball up.  It was a very small swarm and it settled in a tree overhanging my side apiary.  The neighbor checked her hive but found nothing to indicate the swarm came from her bees.  I was confident it wasn't from my yard as all the hive have plenty of open space in them (Ha!).  There are three other apiaries within a mile of our two.  We all thought the bees came from somewhere else.

Swarm in a Sourwood tree

Today i went to look into the Nuc & Mary.  I've not been in them for a while and i wanted to make sure the swarm didn't come from my yard.  As soon as i opened up the Nuc i saw an unmarked queen running around the top frames.  She was on top of two frames in the top box that have brood.  The brood on those frames is very young.  I wasn't wearing my glasses so i don't know if there were any eggs in there.  Again the larva were very young looking.

I need to find out when an existing queen swarms in relation to the emergence of the new stay behind queen.

The brood patterns in the nest was weak & spotty but that's the nature of brood during a swarm event.  I'll check in a week to see if i can find eggs.  The new queen was enlarged and good size.  It may be her that made the larva i saw.

New Queen ready to be marked

The clincher was the three used swarm cells on the fourth frame in the bottom box.  I have been peeking in this hive almost each week.  There has been plenty of room for the combined bees to live on.  The two nucs together equal only ten frames yet i gave then another five with foundation.  Which they've been drawing on.  The frames were not honey bound either.  idunno!

The culprit cell

It is late in the year for queens to be mating.  Not a lot of drones out there.  Yet this queen my have made it under the wire.  The population isn't actually low now after this swarm. If this queen is fertile she has two months left of laying before normal cluster time. Their population can be on track to get them through winter.  That and after all it's a nuc.  They only need to have ten frames of bees and they almost have it now.

This should not have been a surprise AND I should have bee looking out for this.  Both nucs that were combined to make this large nuc were from swarms!   So I essentially Doubled Down on the swarming bet.  I'm going to start keeping better, visual, track of how my colonies formed.  These aren't bees.  They're swarm monkeys.

...and then there was this guy

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Hive inspection 8/28/2011

MELISSA
Sunny
85°F

Going into Melissa to check on the handful of Swarm cups i saw the other day.  Swarm Cups are what I call the little queen cups formed on the bottom of the frames, or in Swarm Position.  She seems to have many bees now.  I would say her population is High.  I need to know if she is honey bound or just has no room left on the comb for the bees.

DHB2: frames
1 - Back filling with Nectar
2 - Back filling with Nectar
3 - Back filling with Nectar
4 - Solid eggs & larva
5 - Honey & Nectar
6 - Brood & some Drone cells, 4 swarm cups removed
7 - Brood & eggs, 3 swarm cups removed
8 - Solid eggs & larva
9 - Back filling with Nectar
10 - Back filling with Nectar, mostly full

DHB1: frames
1 - Back filling with Nectar, broken frame is fixed
2 - Medium Frame, mostly honey & back filling
3 - 1/2 Brood
4 - Medium Frame, brood & 2 swarm cups, drone cells
5 - Not fully drawn, 4 swarm cups, some pollen
6 - Brood, some pollen
7 - Medium Frame, brood & 2 swarm cups
8 - Pollen, little brood & honey
9 - Medium Frame, mostly pollen & honey
10 - Pollen, mostly honey

All the cups in the top box (DHB2) were removed.  That way i can tip up the box later this week to see if the bees made more swarm cups.  If they do it will be strong evidence of an intent to swarm.  Which may lead to a Fall Split; that I really don't want to do.  Fortunately the queen has yet to cease laying; a sign the colony is preparing to swarm.  This, then, may be a false alarm.

Fall Splits are common and used by many beeks.  I am unfamiliar with them, though, and don't want to learn about it offhandedly.  To that end i have talked to the neighbor and she will take the four Medium frames back and use them to bolster two of her colonies.  These were the original frames used to make the Spring Split that became Melissa.  They came from one of my neighbors colonies back in May.

The bees took a Medium frame and made it a Deep frame

The bees need more room.  Normally one can add an empty frame in the brood nest.  Then the bees perceive extra room.  That can quell the urge to swarm.  These Medium frames offer more than just empty frames.  I will cut the extended comb off the bottom of the frames. Then rubber band the comb to the empty frames.  This way the frames will already be accepted by the bees and provide additional space to build comb on to complete the frame.  We'll try to get it done this week. 

News just as big is the dramatic lessening of Drone Cells.  There were very few left in the hive.  I do not recall seeing any that were uncapped.  I didn't have my glasses on so couldn't tell if any adult drones were walking around.  It appears Mating season is coming to a close.  This is another reason I'm not fond of creating a Fall Split at this time.  The possibility of too few drones left to properly breed a new queen formed from a new split.  A Virgin queen, or badly mated one, will not be able to take a colony through Winter.  They'll all die off after a few freezes.  If i were to make Fall Splits I would have done it at the beginning of the month.

- - -   - - -   - - -

Afterward the news paper in Nuc #5 was removed.  I didn't look through the colony but did see where the bees might be drawing out comb.

Additionally every Colony was feed one gallon of 1:1 syrup today.  Each gallon also had 1 tbsp of  Apple Cider Vinegar and a drop each of thyme & peppermint essential oils.

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Pre-Winter Combinations

The honey year is over and it's time to get ready for Winter.  First on my list of things to do is make sure the colonies going into Winter have the strength to get through Winter.  By that I mean population.  Time to move the weak colonies in with the dependable colonies.

As it was

At most this year we had nine colonies; four double-deeps, two double-deep nucs, two single-deep nucs, and one wild log.

1. Mary - double-deep, twenty full frames & good population, strong
2. Myrina - double-deep, twenty full frames & good population, strong
3. Heléna - double-deep, ten full frames & fair population, slow
4. Melissa - double-deep, nine full frames & fair population, slow
5. Nuc#1 - double-deep nuc, ten full frames & OK population, slow
6. Nuc#2 - double-deep nuc, ten full frames & good population, productive
7. Nuc#4 - single-deep nuc, five full frames & fair population, unproductive
8. Nuc#5 - single-deep nuc, 5 full frames & good population, productive
9. The wild log's bees are gone or going

It was decided to combine the colonies in a way that maximizes the amount of genetics in the yard.  So queens from my yard will be pinched in favor of queens from somewhere else for these combinations.

•  Melissa came from the neighbors yard with a history of comb & honey production.  We combined her with Nuc#1 who is from Mary and kept Melissa's Queen.
• Heléna was from Georgia but requeened herself and is now a local girl.  She was combined with Nuc#2 from Myrina.  Nuc#2 was a powerful colony I should have hived first thing in Spring.  A lost opportunity but i know better now.  Anyway her bees should easily rocket Heléna's bees through Winter.  Heléna's queen was kept. (The Queen from Nuc#2 went to my neighbor who had to requeen a weak hive.  Yay!)
• Nuc#5 was a wild swarm from the next county.  They might be ferals and seem to have enough want-to.  Very calm bees too.  They were combined with Nuc#4, a swarm from Myrina.  The growth in Nuc#4 stalled early and remained unimpressive.  Here Nuc#5's Queen was kept.  These two Nucs together still only make up a large Nuc; ten frames.  I put them together with a third nuc box.  If they utilize it then great.  If not, no loss.  Either way these bees need to get through Winter as a Nuc.

This means we go into Winter with four Double-Deep hives and One Nuc.  All of them are filled with good bee populations and plenty of potential.


The Combination went as follows:
Nuc#1 into Melissa - 8/15/11
Nuc#4 into Nuc#5 - 8/17/11
Nuc#2 into Heléna - 8/19/11

Melissa Combined & Nuc#1's box left for the homeless field bees

All combinations were 'News paper combinations'.  The introduced colonies went on top of the resident colonies.  I will check them each next week.  It appears that all went well.  Only Melissa had a pile of dead bees outside of her front door but it was very small.  I may have cut too big of a slit into her paper (4 inches) when i did her.  The others only had slits of one inch put in their paper.

Nuc#5 combined with the extra box

Since no one moved more than twelve feet many field bees were displaced.  In each case we left a single frameless box at the original location of the lost hives.  These boxes stayed for a few days.  Long enough for the bees to drift to whichever hive of their choosing.

Moving Nuc#2's frames into a ten frame box

☼

Heléna Combined

☼

Queen of Nuc#2 on her way to the Neighbors Yard

By odd coincidence the white hives were merged with the white hives and the yellow hives were merged with the yellow hives.

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Hive Inspection 5/24/11

Heléna & Nuc #5
83°F
Sunny

Heléna is coming along nicely.  She is drawing out 9 of the 10 frames.  the comb is straight and in good form.  They are storing plenty of nectar/syrup.  Though she's still very slow to take the syrup; a gallon will last over a week.  She is laying as much as she can in the limited space.  Plenty of eggs, larva, & pupae already.

Frame #2 -

Frame #3 -

Frame #4 -

Frame #5 -

Frame #6 -

Frame #7 -

Frame #8 -

Frame #9 -

Frame #10 -

I started to use foundationless/Natural comb this year.  At first i used small bits of foundation as a comb guide.  Now i nail the wedge in sideways.  The comb here is off side because the queen cage was on that side (oops!).  The bees definitely favor the South side of the hive though.  That's the side all the big comb is on.  Frame #1 is on the North side where they're slowly getting too.

Queen Heléna

The Queen looked good.  She didn't get marked though.  After the last debacle marking the Queen in Nuc #3 i won't do it if there isn't enough eggs to make an emergency queen.  This colony has fresh eggs but not enough.  She'll be marked sometime around when the second Deep is near drawn out.

- - -   - - -   - - -

Nuc #5

Nuc #5 is a real joy.  The bees are dark and may be feral.  They seem good about drawing comb and filling it.  They've been in the nuc for a week and are working every frame including the plasticell.  The queen has laid eggs in every available cell.  They have been feed 3 quarts of syrup so far.  The best part is that they couldn't care less about me.  They're very passive and don't mind me when i poke around their frames.

Frame #1

Frame #2

Frame #3

Frame #4

Frame #5

It looks great for a weeks worth of comb.  It was a surprise to see how well they did on the Plasticell.  I had given up on that stuff and gotten rid of most of it.  I would've kept it if I knew these bees were OK with it. 

Nothing capped yet but that wont take long.  I'll keep feeding them since they're taking it so well.  They never had syrup delivered to them while in their tree and probably think they're in Heaven.  Hope they don't get to dependent on it.

Nuc #3 Queen

The queen is a big girl.  She too won't be marked until they have a majority of drawn & filled frames.  Technically she should be marked with blue since she is likely from last year.  I'll need to find the blue pen again.

The plan is to go treatmentless with these bees.  I know they've survived at least one Winter in a tree without any help; maybe years.  If they do well I'll start using them to requeen the others.

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Swarm, Queen in Super, & Other Notes

Keeping up with the bees has been a daily chore lately.  Catching the Swarm on Wednesday (5/18) was great but all the equipment had to be borrowed.  The issue with that was the neighbor uses Mediums only.  Yesterday (5/20) the medium frames and the Medium Nuc were traded out for all Deep equipment; the quiet box is now in service.  On a good note the new bees had drawn almost a full frame already.  I like these bees.

The full story on the swarm is straight forward.  The Wife saw the swarm before Noon then called me at work.  After work we went back and hived them.  They were very cooperative in that the swarm quickly accepted the nuc.  They were all in it and calm within an hour.  We came home, put them on the stand, and fed them.  They've been busy since.  When i traded all the equipment they were calm and passive.  I guess the swarm was at about 2 pounds.  Good haul!  Oh, and the tree the bees were swarming on was a bee tree.  I marked it with flagging and notified everyone in the club.  We'll all watch it for years to come.  Welcome Nuc #5.

Equipment issues:
I'm out of  woodenware.  This Spring i started with 2 full hives.  The plan was to add one more full hive, via package, and make 2 Nucs.  The equipment for all was made and ready to go.  However what happened was more than i had hoped for.  On top of the what was planned I made a third Nuc and caught two swarms; the third Nuc is insanely productive and will be made into a full hive as soon as another box is available.

I have decided to make all the woodenware I need instead of buying it.  4 Nuc bodies, 2 Nuc covers, 2 Nuc Inner Covers, 2 Nuc Screened Bottom Board., 2 Nuc Slatted Racks, all for 5 frame Deeps.  Also I need 2 Screened Bottom Boards, 1 Slatted Rack, 1 Cover, all for 10 frame Deeps to fix a few issues with the full hives.  All of this is needed this year, NOW!, but the budget has been used up.  SO...I'll make everything from plywood.  Not ideal but doable. Plywood is more susceptible to water damage but is much cheaper.  To deal with the water issues I'll need to make sure the end grains are covered and well sealed.  If done properly the plywood boxes will last as long as solid wood.

Honey Production:
Queen Mary got into the Honey Super.  I notice on Monday (5/16) the bees had drawn a few frames out down to the bottom.  I wanted to put the Excluder on then but a rain storm shut me down then and for the rest of the week.  Yesterday (5/20) I went to put it in but it was to late.  She had gotten to 3 frames, mostly drone cells.  Not a problem though.  I made sure the Queen was not in the Super then swept the bees off the egg frames and culled them.  They went directly into the deep freezer.  Left them in for 2+ hours.  I figured by then the eggs were sufficiently chilled.   Then put the frames back into the Super.  The Excluder went on as soon as I culled the frames.  I'll check the Super again in a few days.

Queen Excluders are mostly called 'Honey' Excluders around here.  Seems bees don't like to pass through the bars and many Supers never get drawn out.  To remedy this I modified the Excluders.  I cut off the bars on the last inch of each side.  That way the Queen won't be in a position to crawl through while worker bees on both side can pass without hindrance.

Clipped off the sides

Other beeks like to place the Excluder sideways on the box.  It does the same thing while allowing for additional ventilation.  I'd rather keep the sides of the hives closed off.  The gap opens up the outside & the top of the last frames.  It closes off the inside of the last frames and everything in between.  When placing the chilled frames back in I saw the bees actively passing through the gaps.

Myrina is still having a problem drawing out honey comb.  To motivate her more I put her Honey Super in between the top & bottom brood boxes.  I'll check back in a week for improvement.

The Small Swarm:
Nuc #4, this swarm nuc was still doing nothing.  To boost their instinct to act like bees I added a brood frame from Nuc #3 and an entrance feeder.  A check in a few days will tell me if it worked.  Fingers crossed...

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MAB CHRONICLE

September 25, 2011
r-BB, EF, DNB1, DNB2, DNB3, IC, TC

• Add ½ gal 1:1 syrup w/ACV, Thyme & Peppermint oils

September 17, 2011
r-BB, EF, DNB1, DNB2, DNB3, IC, TC

• Add ½ gal 1:1 syrup w/ACV, Thyme & Peppermint oils

September 15, 2011
r-BB, EF, DNB1, DNB2, DNB3, IC, TC

• Add ½ gal 1:1 syrup w/ACV, Thyme & Peppermint oils

September 13, 2011
(post link)
r-BB, EF, DNB1, DNB2, DNB3, IC, TC

• Colony SWARMED
• New Queen marked white

September 6, 2011
r-BB, EF, DNB1, DNB2, DNB3, IC, TC

• Add ½ gal 1:1 syrup w/ACV, Thyme & Peppermint oils

September 4, 2011
r-BB, EF, DNB1, DNB2, DNB3, IC, TC

• Add ½ gal 1:1 syrup w/ACV, Thyme & Peppermint oils

August 29, 2011
r-BB, EF, DNB1, DNB2, DNB3, IC, TC

• Add ½ gal 1:1 syrup w/ACV, Thyme & Peppermint oils

August 28, 2011
(post link)
r-BB, EF, DNB1, DNB2, DNB3, IC, TC

• Add ½ gal 1:1 syrup w/ACV, Thyme & Peppermint oils

August 23, 2011

r-BB, EF, DNB1, DNB2, DNB3, IC, TC

• Add ½ gal 1:1 syrup w/ACV, Thyme & Peppermint oils

August 21, 2011

(post link)

r-BB, EF, DNB1, DNB2, DNB3, IC, TC

• Add ½ gal 1:1 syrup w/ACV, Thyme & Peppermint oils

August 17, 2011 - (Combined with Nuc #4)

(post link)

r-SBB, EF, DNB1 , IC, TC

• Combined with Nuc #4
• Keep Queen
• Remove Screened Bottom Board (SBB) neighbor's
• Remove Inner Cover (IC) neighbor's
• Remove Top Cover (TC) neighbor's
• Add Bottom Board (BB)
• Add second Deep Nuc box (DNB2)
• Add third Deep Nuc box (DNB3)
• Add 5 undrawn frames, wax foundation
• Add Inner Cover (IC)
• Add Top Cover (TC)

June 15, 2011

r-SBB, EF, DNB1, IC, TC

• Add 1qt 1:1 syrup

June 14, 2011

r-SBB, EF, DNB1, IC, TC

• Add 1qt 1:1 syrup

May 25, 2011

r-SBB, EF, DNB1, IC, TC

• Add 1qt 1:1 syrup w/ ACV

May 24, 2011

r-SBB, EF, DNB1, IC, TC

• Add 1qt 1:1 syrup w/ ACV

May 23, 2011

r-SBB, EF, DNB1, IC, TC

• Add 1qt 1:1 syrup w/ ACV

May 22, 2011

r-SBB, EF, DNB1, IC, TC

• Add 1qt 1:1 syrup w/ ACV

May 20, 2011

(post link)

r-SBB, EF,  MNB1, IC, TC

• Remove MNB1
• Add DNB1, 5 frame (old quiet box)
• Remove all 3 Medium frames
• Add 5 Deep frames, foundationless

May 18, 2011

(post link)

r-SBB, EF, MNB1, IC, TC
MNB1 = 5 frame, CW & foundationless
Queen Spotted = yes
Brood Present = no, New Swarm Nuc
Brood Pattern = no, New Swarm Nuc
Drone Cells = no, New Swarm Nuc
Population = 2 pounds
Condensation = no
Pests = no

• Add all Equipment, borrowed
• Add only 3 Medium frames
• Bees from wild swarm in Bedford County
• Reduce Entrance
• Add Entrance Feeder & 1:1 syrup w/ ACV

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A Bale of Hay

Let me tell you a story...

There once was a Walnut tree

That was in fact a Bee Tree

That had Swarmed this very morning

So the local beekeeper clipped the swarm down

and placed it in a borrowed Nuc box

Where the Queen felt right at home

and they all lived happily ever after

The End

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