Another one bites the dust.

It was warm enough yesterday to go out and check the hives for the first time in about two months. Our nuc is doing great, and that is the one we were worried about. They still aren't out of the woods, but they are eating the sugar we put in the hive for them. They don't seem too interested in the pollen patties, but as long as they are eating something they should be ok. The Utah hive is still strong and more aggressive than the others. I bet we will have to split that hive this year to keep them from swarming. They were eating the sugar in their hive too, but were also trying to get into the other hives to see what they could rob. Going to have to watch that situation. Nevada hive #1 is strong and doing well. More gentle than the Utah hive, but I don't think I would want to work them without gloves and veil. Nevada hive #2 is dead :( The bees were laying dead on top of the sugar so I know they didn't starve. I think the mites got them. These were the bees we bought last fall and by the time we noticed the mites, it was too late in the season to do much about it. So now we have two big hives and a nuc that are still doing well. Let's hope it stays that way.

Hive inspection

Went out to check on my big hive out on the ranch today. Getting a little bit worried about them. Now that they don't have the medium hive to rob, they aren't doing as much. They haven't touched the top super at all, not even to draw out a frame. Just nothing. The lower supers still have plenty of capped brood and some honey stores, but they seem to have stalled out. I don't think we will get any honey from them this year.
  The medium hive has been back at the house for a month now. They really picked up once they were away from the big hive. The queen still has a pretty spotty brood pattern, but they were hatching today so the empty ones might be from brood hatching. I actually got to watch one of the girls emerge from her cell today. She came out all fluffy and a pretty pale yellow. Her stripes were a pale yellowish gray. Very fun to see. This hive has loads of honey stores, lots of brood and new bees. I am going to have to get another box on that hive ASAP. THIS one might produce some honey this year :)
   The nuc is doing alright, but it has only been a month since I got the queen and stole some brood from the big hive to get her going. I noticed a worker coming in this morning with her pollen baskets clear full of a pale pollen. They also had some bees hatching today. I didn't see the queen but I am pretty sure she was on the far outside frame. The bees on that frame were clustered in a certain spot so I am guessing that's where the queen is. This hive produces very dark almost black bees. The queen is carnolian/caucasian cross and you can tell a big difference between the bees that she has hatched vs the bees I gave her. These bees are not as aggressive and are fairly easy to work. When I gave brood to her, I only had smaller frames and I was hoping they would have drawn out the only two deep frames they have but it has not happened yet. Once they do, and the queen starts laying eggs in those, I am hoping to phase out the shallower frames and replace them with deeper ones. Not exactly sure how I am going to to this, but I will figure it out.
   I just hope I get some sort of a honey harvest this year and enough I can give the ranchers who were nice enough to let me put my bees in their field. They even picked out the perfect spot for them.

New bees!

We got a new hive last weekend. We drove to Utah with our empty super, all set up and looking tiny in the back of the truck. On the freeway, we passed a big rig hauling hives covered in screens. I can only imagine what he thought when he looked down at our little hive with one deep super, lol. We did some shopping (I love Costco!) and then went to dinner with Hubby's mom. Weird enough, we ran into relatives at the restaurant! We got to our table and turned around and my mother in law was gone, we walked back the way we came and she was talking to her sister in law and Hubby's cousin. We all changed tables so we could sit together and had a very nice time. Once it was later in the evening, (you want all the bees to be home when you pick them up) we traveled to the apiary. The guy we were buying the bees from opened the nuc and showed us the queen and brood pattern before putting his five frames into our super. We loaded them up and headed home. On the way we stopped to pick up a dozen fertilized blue laced red wyandotte eggs to hatch. So fun pics to come!