A recent gift from my crafty neighbor in the bee yard. It shows a bee flying in front of a flower. Too cute! ©Erik Brown
My two original Langstroth hives, Mars and Jupiter, have had their ups and downs this year. Mars did well, but then had queen issues. Jupiter survived a split, a swarm that I caught, and likely another swarm that I missed. Both hives are going into winter and I have been checking mite drops on the bottom board of both hives lately.
This is their story.
Although I finished yesterday with a somewhat aggressive Mars, I quite enjoyed checking my two new hives. One is a single-deep Langstroth split from Jupiter on April 11, in an attempt to keep the hive from swarming. The other is my new top bar hive created when Jupiter swarmed anyway on April 25. Here is an update on how they are faring. Continue reading
The updated bee yard
On Monday, April 11, the early afternoon turned into a rather sunny day. Not very warm, but sunny and the bees were flying. I had a 5-hour flight to California in just over four hours, in fact I still had to pack my bags. I had been sick over the weekend, diagnosed with strep throat that very morning, and was taking antibiotics to get better. I figured I had an hour to spare. Clearly, time for my first split. Continue reading
Bees with eeb 