Catch Up!

Got to play catch up with my blogging! It's already been a week?! Wow. Let's see. The swarm from our own hive that John captured re-swarmed and disappeared. So obviously we were very disappointed about that. That was a really strong hive and we hated to lose half. Hopefully the colony that was left behind will continue to thrive. They actually already had 3 queen cells in the making when John checked on them (the worker bees feed the larvae special food called royal jelly to make queens, the first queen to emerge then kills the other queen cells before they can emerge). We had ordered two queens from a supplier in California, and John decided to release one of those queens into the hive, so he removed the 3 queen cells they were making. We haven't been back in that hive to see how things are going since, I think that was last Thursday. The other queen was put into hive #1. Hive #1 is the hive we got last year that did survive the winter but has done poorly. We tried to find their queen to kill her so we could re-queen but after two attempts never could find her, so John went ahead and introduced the new queen last Thursday. The queen comes in a queen cage, and there is a candy plug at one end that the worker bees will chew through and by the time they eat the candy to release the queen, they all recognize and accept her scent. It is time now to get back into these hives and see how the new queens are settling in. And we are keeping meticulous notes of the hives. We have taken a Sharpie and numbered each hive. And then in the notebook each hive has its own section and I write down the date and what we observed or did to the hive. That way we can see what works or doesn't work down the line! Yesterday afternoon John got a swarm call. He would have let it pass except the swarm was at the farm of the brother of one of the farmers we are putting hives on. Did that make sense? LOL. So John really wanted to network. Plus these two farmer brothers have bird dogs and hunt. Anyway John was able to capture the swarm by tapping the branch and all the bees fell into his bee box. They were way far back in the farm and no electricity was available to use the vacuum. Anyway. John then took the swarm to Melvin's farm, where we already have one hive. He transferred the swarm into an empty hive there and then "robbed" a frame of honey out of the existing hive there to help the swarm along. We have been experimenting with robbing a frame of brood (baby bees and honey) from a strong hive to a new hive and so far so good. Well this existing hive only had one frame of brood still but they had drawn out a frame of honey so John tried that. We'll see how that works. It is already almost time to go get Asher from school. I was really hoping John would be able to do it today, but he is on call and there are cases through the afternoon. Allie and I had playgroup this morning and she didn't get down for her nap until 12:40 pm. I then feed Penny, checked on the turkeys and chickens and then tried to get caught up a bit on the computer. Oh, we lost a baby chick yesterday for unknown reasons! Asher found it in a corner of the henhouse, near the door. Strange. So far today no more dead. Hope it was a freak thing. Mom arrives this Saturday and I am way excited. John is watching the kids for me so I can pick her up in Lexington by myself. Her plane arrives at 12 noon and we will get a nice lunch, go to the scrapbook store, then get pedicures and maybe hit a fabric store. We have to leave Lex by 4:30 pm so I can get Allie to bed. Again, I am sure there is more I am leaving out, but time to get Allie up (ugh, I hate waking her!!!!!!!!!) so we can get Ash. Only 6 more school days after today and I am so ready for summer break!!!!