🐝💗Our Backyard Beekeeping Journey!💗🐝

[R2elk]

Sorry, the angry wasn't for you. What makes me angry is the county assuming that spraying a pesticide is a good idea.

The problem wasn't them spraying the mosquito killer, it was doing it during the day. They had sprayed many times before and since without any problems but they always spray at night.

Don't be surprised if they are spraying for mosquitoes where you live too. If they stopped doing it, there would be an uproar over the mosquito explosion.

 

[R2elk]

Sorry, the angry wasn't for you.

I know why you did it but I am the one that gets credit for your reaction.

 

[Sally PB]

I know why you did it but I am the one that gets credit for your reaction.

Huh what??? I'll go change it.

 

[Apis mellifera]

Italians by far out produce anything else.

I had a line of Italians from Noble Apiaries that were fantastic and over wintered well without any outside help.

Unfortunately for me, they stopped shipping package bees.

I'm pretty sure they were Glenn Apiaries Pol-Line VSH queens. Tom Glenn retired quite some time ago. But you may still be able to find packages with Pol-Line queens still. VP Queens still breeds them, so I'm sure you could find someone who sells packages with Pol-Line queens. You could contact VP and they will tell you who sells them.
https://vpqueenbees.com/vp-breeding-program/breeding-strains

 

[drstratton]

We were playing golf with a big group of people last night. There were two groups, in the other group a lady I just met had a bee fly into her mouth and sting her on the lip, ouch. She jokingly told me later that one of my bees stung her...lol If my wit had been quicker, I would have asked her for compensation...

 

[drstratton]

Just finished our 6th OAV treatment.

No stings tonight. That's a win...lol

I'm still thinking we'll inspect sometime this weekend. I need to make a list of what I really want to see. It helps me to not miss something. But, if they're really spicy, that list may go out the window or up in smoke...

 

[drstratton]

Well, I think we have a problem. We were going to do an inspection this weekend, but things happened and we didn't get it done. When I pulled my varroa boards this morning, I think I found a couple of wax moth larvae. One was dead, but one was still slightly moving. Hopefully that means the bees are cleaning them out. This is on my #1 hive, which has always been very strong. I didn't see anything like that on my last inspection. I have to take a friend to the Dr today, but not until this afternoon. Hopefully I will have time to get into the hive this morning. It's 59°, coolest morning we've had for a couple of months. Hoping it warms up quickly and the bees head out to take care of business.
Definitely not what I wanted to find at the end of the season. Hoping the bees are doing their job and it's not a total infestation.

 

[drstratton]

We saw good and bad.
Just got out of the hive. I didn't see any wax moth activity, which is good. The bad, I didn't see any fresh activity from the queen. We saw some older larvae and lots of capped brood. We also saw lots of empty drawn comb in the bottom deep. Zero eggs. I'm afraid we lost our queen.
There was one supercedure cell, but I didn't see larvae in it. No queen cells.
The bees weren't acting too crazy.
We will give it a week, check again for queen cells. If we don't see any eggs, we might try to combine with the swarm or package hive.
Lots of capped honey and lots of bees in the 2nd deep and the supers. Not as many in the bottom deep.

I see something in this, but it doesn't look like larvae.

Still some brood in the first super. a lot of them were emerging.

Taking a little break, then we'll check the other hives.

 

[drstratton]

Hive #2 Better news here.
Lots of nectar, little capped
Eggs, larvae & brood.
Lots of bees

No stings today...lol

We will inspect the swarm and package hives on Thursday. I have to take a friend to the Dr today. Going fishing tomorrow.

Sad about the first hive, she was a good queen. I try to be as careful as I can and I'm nervous every time I inspect. Hopefully, we'll see something different in a week. Not holding my breath.

 

[Apis mellifera]

Definitely not what I wanted to find at the end of the season. Hoping the bees are doing their job and it's not a total infestation.

Unless the bees are really weak wax moths are not a problem. Leaving empty frames of comb in equipment is usually when they become a real problem.

Zero eggs. I'm afraid we lost our queen.

An easy way to find out is to put in a frame with eggs from another hive. If they start to build queen cells in a couple days, then they are queen less. If not, you have a new queen and she's not laying yet. Once the new queen is laying feed them 2:1 sugar syrup. It's almost always the latter. Packages and nucs come with mass produced queens so they aren't always mated or shipped well and are often superseded.