I opened Mellona first, my over-wintered successful hive. Inside I found several frames of brood and eggs. I only stayed in there long enough to see and then closed up the hive. If you'll click on the picture below, you can see eggs and small larvae in the cells on the left. RELIEF! This hive appears to have enough to share, so I could take a frame of brood and eggs from them for the Blue Heron hive.
Here's a close-up of the larvae in the cells in this hive.
Below is another view where you can see eggs in many cells.
Then I opened up the swarm hive to find that they were building this beautiful wax in the brood box. They also have completely filled a box of honey. I plan to give them another box tomorrow. I didn't have time to look extensively, but they have brood and eggs as well.
Finally I opened Aristaeus2, the hive that I gave a frame of brood and eggs to on April 5. It's the 18th and they have made a beautiful queen cell from that frame. The queen should emerge in the next day or two. She'll spend a few days getting used to being alive and then she'll fly off to mate, hopefully successfully.
So tomorrow I'll put a new honey super on the swarm hive and I'll give another frame of brood and eggs from Mellona to Aristaeus2 just for insurance. Maybe if things work out at home, I can get them to work out at Blue Heron as well.
Well yay! At least that's good news :)
ReplyDeleteDear Linda -- I spent quite a bit of time this past winter reading about beekeeping, attending beekeeping club meetings, and enjoying your blog.
ReplyDeleteAnd now this spring, we've got our own tiny apiary in our backyard in Oakland California. We're taking a no-chemical approach, and so far things are going really well. We caught two swarms, and a friend divided her colony for us.
Thank you for your clear writing, and inspiring videos and slide shows.
Best Regards,
Lisa and Robb