Please refer to the previous post titled “Hmmmmm!!”. I received the queens on Friday and sold one on Saturday. That left me 5. Today, I opened both of the remaining nucs with bees, one is a 5 framer and the other is a full deep with a honey super on top. The third one had absconded. I think the SHB ran them out. They probably took residency with the other two. Anyway, I placed queens on each of the open hives and let the bees find them. After about 3-5 minutes, it looked to me as if the bees were trying to ball and sting the queens. I decided to just let them set there and went about 90 miles round trip to get some brood.

I have 3 hives in that particular apiary and was surprised to find that the bees were not strong enough to get even 4 frames of brood. I had to settle for only 2 frames. When I got home, straight to the nucs I went with the brood. I found that instead of trying to kill the queens, the bees were feeding them through the screen. I put the frames of brood in the 2 hives and placed the queen cages next to the brood. Surprisingly enough, I found the bees were nearly gentle. Not at all like they were prior to placing the queen cages on the open frames. I replaced the frames of foundation (I am using plastic frames) with drawn and partically drawn comb in one of the nucs. The other had honey and pollen in it. Tomorrow, I will take a frame of honey and a frame of pollen from the strong nuc and put them in the small nuc.

Like I said, this is an experiment. If the bees survive and thrive, then I will look at bees with a greater respect and admiration. These may be survivors in the top group. I will let you know about them in about 2 weeks if they survive, sooner if they don’t.

If you want to be a BEEKEEPER, then you have to experiment some and try different approaches sometimes. That is the learning process and gives you an idea of what makes the bees tick. Always keep an open mind and watch your bees for anything that is not normal. When you can do that and tell the difference of normal and abnormal, then you will be a beekeeper and not a bee haver or newbie.

From here to October, you will have some summer nector and cotton and ornamental flowers to get the bees ready for Winter. Treat for mites, beetles, and check for diseases so you can treat before Winter. If your bees are strong going into Winter, then they will likely be strong coming out of Winter. Now, I have 3 queens marked and clipped that I need to sale. If anyone needs one or all, just make a comment to this post and I will get back to you.