An experiment with splits. One over-wintered hive and one new package were not building up as well as I thought they should be, so I put the queens in nuc boxes and re-queened the hives with Carniolans. We'll see how this goes ...

Well, it's a rainy June 7. The overwintered Italian hive is not building up well at all. Guess I'll have to requeen it - I have Carniolan queens ordered from Full Bloom Apiaries for the two new Italian packages, as they aren't building well either. I may put the Italian queens into nuc boxes just to see what happens. The Carniolan hive from last year is going great, starting to fill the first super.

February 2013 - a bit of snow !

We didn't have to "find" Nemo - it found us. More snow than we've gotten in a long time. The upper entrances were clear, so a few bees went for a flight but didn't make it back. Rain today, so it will be like cement.

Well, they are wrapped up for the winter. Out flying on good days, and even finding some pollen !

 

The ECBA hosted Randy Oliver last weekend. If I can retain about 5% of what he shared with us, I'll be amazed. 

Waiting for Spring

The 2 large hives and the nuc didn't survive (varroa in the 2 and the nuc froze). I didn't treat the 2 hives until October, so they were probably doomed at that point. The hive on the end survived and they seem to be doing well. Anyway, I have packages and a nuc of Carnis on order for spring, and have begun to set up the deeps. Still learning ...

Not like last year ...

Saturday, January 7 it was 52F here (??!!). Warm and sunny enough to open the hives for a quick check. Everybody looks fine, they are munching on the winter patties and flying around a bit. The Carnis are in a smaller cluster, but that is their nature. It's my first year with them, so still learning. The Italians all look good, one hive has moved up into the honey super that I had left for them.