Well, we waited too long to make the splits and both hives swarmed. In trying to allow the bees to build up as large a colony as possible in advance of the main honey flow, we carefully monitored how much available space there was in each hive and worked to make sure the bees had… Read more

(update from April 28) Despite our best efforts to balance hive build up and swarm prevention, it looks like we are going to need to split Hive 2 to keep the bees from swarming.  The way this works is we essentially perform a controlled swarm, rather than let the bees do it on their own.… Read more

(Update from April 21) Friday was a day for a quick inspection and walk around the property. We continued to see Celandine Poppy and Common Violet in bloom. Weather was warm and there was a lot of activity at the entrances of both hives. Hive 1 has drawn out 7 frames in their honey super… Read more

Thanks to Sarah B. for helping out with the inspections this week.  We had a busy day as we finally had good enough weather to allow for a full inspection.  We collected data for the VA Tech Varroa study, checked for Varroa in our other hive, did a frame-by-frame inspection, and some checkerboarding in the… Read more

This week at Christ the King clean up of the grounds was performed by a strong group of 15+/- members. Things are looking good for Easter services tomorrow! Weather was warm this past week, but with a front pushing through Friday night Saturday was unseasonably cool which precluded a thorough inspection. This week we did… Read more

Thanks to Brenda R. for assisting with the inspection and partial removal of the entrance reducers on Sunday. Entrance reducers are used to help the bees better defend the hive, or to more easily maintain temperature within the hive on cold days. When the hives were initially set up in early March, the entrance was… Read more