It has been a very cold week for humans and honeybee alike. I filled the quart of syrup twice this past week as the bees were taking it down very quickly. With frost and temperatures in the low thirties to fifties, they couldn't get out much. On May 16, it was sunny and in the low fifties and it had been one week since we notched the frame. Not the warmest day, but we needed to check for the queen cell. To my amazement, there sat a beautiful queen cell in the middle of the frame where we had notched. The strength of the bees looked well too, as they welled up over the bars of the frames. We moved this medium box with the queen cell in it to it's own bottom board on the same pallet as the original hive and replaced the covers. We reduced the entrance and placed feed (sugar syrup) on top. By splitting this original hive we have naturally deterred the bees from swarming. Once the new queen emerges (on day 16 of gestation) there will be a pause in the brood cycle until she is mated and laying. This pause will also naturally decrease the Varroa mite population. See pg 60 of Mel Disselkoen's OTS Queen Rearing. I will not open or disturb this hive except to feed it until June 7 (Day 30 from day 1 as an egg). I will then check to see if the new queen is laying.
In the original deep box we removed the queen excluder that was on top of it. Too cold to find the queen, but could see the bees had already begun drawing out comb on the one frame of foundation we had placed a week ago. We increased the entrance on the original hive and placed a second deep hive body over it with eight frames of new foundation and 1 frame of brood from the lower box. This should entice the bees to move up. We did not place feed over this box as they have frames of honey for feed.
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