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It is seeming that the flow is slowing down here. Goldenrod is about 2 months away by my guesswork. Should have good flow until October at that point. And we are in a drought bubble here, currently at least 13 inches behind the yearly average rainfall. Hitting 50 miles to north, east, and west, but we are suffering here. So unless that changes, goldenrod might be slow as well.
I have 2 hives that are meaner than I prefer. I have to smoke the heck out of them and keep hitting the bellows every 3 or 4 frames during inspection. That keeps them to just buzzing, but at least not attacking. One hive is at a friend's and they are now following him when he zips past with the mower. Getting popped each time he mows but they really increased his production in his orchard. The other is my only split, and was of course from my best producing hive (the one above) and they are grumpy as well. Yesterday I didn't keep the smoke going and was stealing some nurse bees for adding to a cut out. They got mad and I got popped enough times to say this is enough. Then had a small cloud follow me to the house. They are lucky I didn't walk back with a can of starting fluid to show them what hot is. LOL
So I am thinking I may make another attempt at producing a half dozen or more queen cells. Have failed on my last two attempts doing notching. Have cups, but not attempted grafting yet. Any suggestions on methods that would be best that are easy for a small number of queen. I can set up a starter cell if needed.
I have 2 hives that are meaner than I prefer. I have to smoke the heck out of them and keep hitting the bellows every 3 or 4 frames during inspection. That keeps them to just buzzing, but at least not attacking. One hive is at a friend's and they are now following him when he zips past with the mower. Getting popped each time he mows but they really increased his production in his orchard. The other is my only split, and was of course from my best producing hive (the one above) and they are grumpy as well. Yesterday I didn't keep the smoke going and was stealing some nurse bees for adding to a cut out. They got mad and I got popped enough times to say this is enough. Then had a small cloud follow me to the house. They are lucky I didn't walk back with a can of starting fluid to show them what hot is. LOL
So I am thinking I may make another attempt at producing a half dozen or more queen cells. Have failed on my last two attempts doing notching. Have cups, but not attempted grafting yet. Any suggestions on methods that would be best that are easy for a small number of queen. I can set up a starter cell if needed.