So today we are a little slow at work so I decided to get my hives ready for winter. I took a mite count of some hives I bought back in the summer and found about 15 mites in 3 hours. My goal is to have all small cell hives with no chemical treatments, but being a rookie and seeing that many mites in a couple of hour I decided I had better treat them before winter so I ordered some Apistan strips that came in yesterday. I have three hives at work so I pulled off the surplus supers, two of them had no honey and one was full. I added the Apistan strips and all went well.
One of my three hives at home needed a super to get through winter so I took the one from work and gave it to the hive at home. Did the same to the three hives at home as I did at work and when I got back to work I looked up at my hives and saw what looked like a tornado above my hives. OH NO it was a swarm about the size of two soft balls. I consulted a local beek friend who thinks that because I don't use queen exluders that I probably pulled the queen off of one of my hives when I pulled the supers off.
So I cut the limb off and set a new hive up and they marched right in (this was my first swarm experience) now I guess in the next few days I am going to have to find out which hive is queenless and try to do a paper combine??? While I did spot my queens a little this spring and summer, most of the time I just saw eggs. Does anyone have any tips that will help with my situation? Are there any ways to determine if a queen is in there other than spotting her or seeing eggs ( because they have stopped laying )? I know I am looking for a magic answer that probably does not exsist. My local beekeeper friend just giggled shook my hand and said " Welcome to Beekeeping "
One of my three hives at home needed a super to get through winter so I took the one from work and gave it to the hive at home. Did the same to the three hives at home as I did at work and when I got back to work I looked up at my hives and saw what looked like a tornado above my hives. OH NO it was a swarm about the size of two soft balls. I consulted a local beek friend who thinks that because I don't use queen exluders that I probably pulled the queen off of one of my hives when I pulled the supers off.
So I cut the limb off and set a new hive up and they marched right in (this was my first swarm experience) now I guess in the next few days I am going to have to find out which hive is queenless and try to do a paper combine??? While I did spot my queens a little this spring and summer, most of the time I just saw eggs. Does anyone have any tips that will help with my situation? Are there any ways to determine if a queen is in there other than spotting her or seeing eggs ( because they have stopped laying )? I know I am looking for a magic answer that probably does not exsist. My local beekeeper friend just giggled shook my hand and said " Welcome to Beekeeping "