Beautiful Spring Day in the Bee Yard!
One of the neighbors near where we keep our bees has several exotic birds. Yesterday, as we drove up to the bee yard, a bird friend was waiting there to greet us!
We are nearing the peak of the spring nectar flow here in southeast Texas. So many flowers and a lot of pollinator activity!
One of the hazards of beekeeping in southeast Texas.
We took a peek inside hive 03 and were happy that this colony was doing very well. This hive had only one deep hive. The population had more than doubled since our last visit and they now have five frames of bees. We saw our queen and plenty of brood and honey.
Hive 04 was ready to bust! This colony had two deep hives completely filled with bees. We knew we would have to split this hive in order to keep the bees from swarming. We took the top deep hive box from hive 04 and placed it on top of the hive 03 deep hive box, placing newspaper in between the boxes to give them a few days to reposition their GPS, and leaving behind one deep hive full of bees and the queen in hive 04. We added an empty deep hive box to the hive 04 box to give the bees room to keep their honey production momentum going.
In hive 05, we found our queen with a lot of bees in their two deep hive boxes. To prevent this colony from swarming, we removed two frames of bees with brood and one full frame of honey. We did this because we saw that hive 08 was struggling and these three frames will give hive 08 a kick start. We added a super to hive 05, which will also give the bees more room and a chance for us to have honey this fall.
Hive 06 had one deep super full of bees. We saw the queen and noted that the colony is doing very well. We added another deep super to hive 06 to keep the bees growing and happy.
Our queen in hive 08 is no longer a good egg layer. We will need to replace her soon with a new queen. In the meantime, she is alive at least, and had about two frames of bees when we arrived. Adding the frames of bees and honey from hive 05 will help them for a while.
We are very happy that we made it though the winter with all of our hives. We plan to get hives 01, 02 and 07 back in production very soon!
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| Our neighbor's roaming peacock, taking a stroll down the road. |
We are nearing the peak of the spring nectar flow here in southeast Texas. So many flowers and a lot of pollinator activity!
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| Our hives; 01 and 02 on the right are empty. Currently, we have bees in hives 03, 04, 05, 06 and 08. |
One of the hazards of beekeeping in southeast Texas.
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| One of our hives had a little visitor crouching below. |
Several flowers are blooming right around our hives.
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| Indian paintbrush flower. |
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| Winecup flower. |
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| Chicory flower. |
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| A small mesquite tree is blooming. |
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| One of our girls on a mesquite bloom. |
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| Close up of bee on mesquite bloom. |
We took a peek inside hive 03 and were happy that this colony was doing very well. This hive had only one deep hive. The population had more than doubled since our last visit and they now have five frames of bees. We saw our queen and plenty of brood and honey.
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| Hive 03 is doing well. |
Hive 04 was ready to bust! This colony had two deep hives completely filled with bees. We knew we would have to split this hive in order to keep the bees from swarming. We took the top deep hive box from hive 04 and placed it on top of the hive 03 deep hive box, placing newspaper in between the boxes to give them a few days to reposition their GPS, and leaving behind one deep hive full of bees and the queen in hive 04. We added an empty deep hive box to the hive 04 box to give the bees room to keep their honey production momentum going.
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| Hive 04 is had too many bees. |
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| Hive 04 brood ready to hatch will cause the bees to be even more crowded in their hive. |
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| Great honey production in hive 04. |
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| Hive 04 honey. |
In hive 05, we found our queen with a lot of bees in their two deep hive boxes. To prevent this colony from swarming, we removed two frames of bees with brood and one full frame of honey. We did this because we saw that hive 08 was struggling and these three frames will give hive 08 a kick start. We added a super to hive 05, which will also give the bees more room and a chance for us to have honey this fall.
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| Hive 05 is in great shape. |
Hive 06 had one deep super full of bees. We saw the queen and noted that the colony is doing very well. We added another deep super to hive 06 to keep the bees growing and happy.
Our queen in hive 08 is no longer a good egg layer. We will need to replace her soon with a new queen. In the meantime, she is alive at least, and had about two frames of bees when we arrived. Adding the frames of bees and honey from hive 05 will help them for a while.
We are very happy that we made it though the winter with all of our hives. We plan to get hives 01, 02 and 07 back in production very soon!
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| Mark working the hives. |
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