Heather's Honeybees: June 2015

The last day of June has brought a second phase of new beginnings to my apiary. I suppose I should say apiaries as I have two sites now. The splits from the beginning of May have grown to five to 6 frames of brood and are ready to be split again. Following Mel Disselkoen's method of rearing On The Spot queens to raise strong, young, healthy colonies, one week ago I dispatched my queens in all the hives and notched frames that had thirty-six hour larva. Today I went back into the hives to find the queen cells where I notched and make splits. I did not make nearly the splits I could have. I have to stop somewhere. One can only purchase so many hive bodies, frames, bottom boards and top covers in one season! The main reason for dispatching the queens is to have a post solstice queen in each hive and for the break in the brood cycle which will decrease the varroa mite population. See Mel Disselkoen's book, On The Spot Queen Rearing, or his website www.mdasplitter.com for more information.
I will check for new queens in the starts 30 days from when I did the notching. That date will be July 23.

OTS Queen, Isn't she grand? If you can't see her, she is in the middle of the picture.

Queen in queen cage with attendant bees. A beekeeping friend of mine had swarms given to her that were queenless. I was able to give her two of my queens. That was of course after I made her catch the queens and cage them.

Expanding my territory. A friend who lives three miles from me and lives on ten acres wanted bees on her property. I was more than happy to help her out! She has beautiful gardens, woods and streams of water for the bees!