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I've been keeping this blog for all of my beekeeping years and I am beginning my 19th year of beekeeping in April 2024. Now there are more than 1300 posts on this blog. Please use the search bar below to search the blog for other posts on a subject in which you are interested. You can also click on the "label" at the end of a post and all posts with that label will show up. At the very bottom of this page is a list of all the labels I've used.

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I began this blog to chronicle my beekeeping experiences. I have read lots of beekeeping books, but nothing takes the place of either hands-on experience with an experienced beekeeper or good pictures of the process. I want people to have a clearer picture of what to expect in their beekeeping so I post pictures and write about my beekeeping saga here.Master Beekeeper Enjoy with me as I learn and grow as a beekeeper.

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Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Revitalizing Bermuda

Bermuda makes me sad - the bees are barely there, but they are surviving and there is a good brood pattern and a laying queen, but they are slow to get up and go. Today I gave them their third sugar shake of the spring. I hope this will clean off most of the mites. I 'll wait now for a couple of weeks before starting again.

Upon inspection, Bermuda is not building in the lower deep, so to remove some of their stress, I removed the deep. It looks quite pitiful with only the medium hive body, but maybe this will allow them to rebuild their strength. My only fear was that the queen was in the deep since I didn't see her, but I set it on its side in front of Bermuda and by nightfall, most of the bees had returned to the now tiny hive.

















Bees around the feeder at Bermuda - the one at the corner has a nice load of pollen on her legs.

















Here is Bermuda reduced to a single medium box with the deep on its side to invite the bees to return to the mother ship. I don't have another medium, but do have the old hive bodies that a friend gave me from his beekeeping 20 years or so ago. I may take one of the mediums and burn out the inside - after all I do need to initiate my propane torch - and use it for Bermuda's second story after they grow a little. I also may take a medium frame of capped brood, when one is available, from Proteus since it is growing so fast and add it to Bermuda.
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