New person from Washington

**seyc** · 07-15-2012, 08:33 PM

This is my first year of having bees. I got a couple packages in the spring and just did splits. I currently have Italian bees. I live in the South Puget Sound area and I am not sure they are the best for this area. I have the feeling that this is the only area in the country right now where we are happy about any day that gets above 60 degrees.

**westernbeekeeper** · 07-15-2012, 09:45 PM

Welcome to the site!

**julysun** · 07-15-2012, 09:56 PM

Maybe you could get a hive of Russian bees for comparison. Anyway, Welcome!

**Island Apiaries** · 07-15-2012, 09:58 PM

We have some great carniolian stock here on Whidbey Island.

**seyc** · 07-15-2012, 11:11 PM

Well, the reason I did the splits is that I am getting some Russian/Caucasian queens to put in them. If I have two non-Italian bees and . . hmmm. . . if you get 12,000 bees in a 3# package, I have about 200,000 bees, then 0.001% are not Italian and the other 99.999% are. I am not really sure if I should count them until they are out of their queen cages and start laying. So, the bees I have, that I am willing to count, are Italian.

**AmericasBeekeeper** · 07-16-2012, 04:07 AM

Welcome Seyc!

**Specialkayme** · 07-16-2012, 05:12 AM

Welcome to the site!

**rsjohnson2u** · 07-16-2012, 06:29 AM

Welcome.

Yes, gotta love the Pacific Northwest. July 16th, and rain forcast for the next four days!!!

I'm going to try requeening with Sue Cobey New World Carniolan stock out of the WSU extension program at Mount Vernon....Remember, the commercial guys/gals still use lots of Italians for early build-up, although you may have to feed them. Speaking of which, you split first year packages? Did you feed them lots of syrup? I have two packages, one I fed to the point I'm splitting to keep them from swarming (syrup bound), and one that seems like a big healthy hive(not going to split).

Good luck with your Russians...Keep us posted on their progess

**seyc** · 07-16-2012, 10:55 AM

Feed them lots of syrup? Only like 4 or 5 bags (100-125#) of sugar from Costco!

My two deeps were full of brood (both hives). I took some classes from the local beekeeping club and I learned that brood should be to the inside and honey to the outside of the box. It felt kind of weird to put the deep frame back in, knowing that brood would be on the outside, next to the wall of the box, but they had filled it, and there was no place else to put it.