Bee working this Saturday, May 26...... 3pm

Well folks, we might be doing something completely different this Saturday, weather permitting of course Let's plan for 3 pm..... Will only take about 30 minutes or so....... Some of you may remember how we tried to fix the problem hive by Adding a frame of bees to the hive to help them create their own Queen, this has not worked unfortunately, so to the next method...... Laying workers can get so ingrained in the own hive that they think they don't need a queen, so won't help create a new one like we tried. So the best advice is to just shake the bees out, and let them take up with any hive they find, or we can motivate them to fill a hive in the same place as their own hive was. So if all goes to plan tomorrow night I will bring back a small nuc hive I have made by trapping out a swarm from an old building, but it is very small, about 3 frames of bees. I will put this on top of the problem hive ready for Saturday. So on saturday if the weather is nice, we will first remove all 10 frames from the bad hive, we will put the 5 frames from the trap out nuc into the box, then we will take the 10 frames about 20 feet away and shake all the bees off the frames. We will then put back the 5 best frames that have honey and pollen, that is to say we will avoid putting back as much brood or eggs as we can. The other frames will then be frozen for two days and put back into another hive later where the bees will clean them up. We will also check if the other hive needs a new honey super, as two to two and half weeks has been typical to fill a super recently on a strong hive. Pls let me know

Well we did work the bees last weekend......

But no Scouts showed up , except Dylan. We at least had two leaders who both have hives, and Rob one of our mentors, so we made it a teaching moment anyway, and worked the bees , we looked at the problem hive and they are still an issue, workers laying is the opinion of Rob. They were also rather testy and gave us a hard time, had to put a veil on. I made a rather basic mistake when I last checked the hive after putting a brood frame into the hive 3 weeks ago, when I checked after 2 weeks I saw good laying pattern, but of course that was the same frame that they had just capped. 2 weeks is Not enough time for a queen to be made and to start laying, so my bad. So I will need to make a plan this weekend before camping. We then put a honey super on the pkg hive which was so much gentler, and no issues at all, very nice brood patterns, eggs, larvae and capped cells across many frames, the bees have been working hard and all 8 frames were drawn out, other than one half gallon of feed they have been free ranging. Looking good for a few frames of honey for the scouts. We also gave The Burns hive an inspection, and added a honey super on it too. One thing we found is that the hive has spacers and only had 9 frames in the deep, so they had drawn some funky wide comb, we will fix later in the season. We did not notice this previously as we were focussed on the queen issue. So I ask you all to please let me know when it is a bee day if you are not coming, this is about you scouts learning about bees, not me. The book goes to the Publisher tomorrow , so we will have a Beekeeping manual by the time we next meet. Anyone wanting bee experience any time , let me know, and if I am home and the weather cooperates , we can work bees, I am enjoying the education part of this program.

ThIs Saturday - Bee work day

Need to prepare some honey super frames with foundation .... Pls meet at the workshop at 2:30pm. 3 pm we will head across to work the hives , we will open both hives, check health and if possible mark the queen on the swarm hive. Remember long sleeves, light colored clothes please Boys will be doing the work this time, just guidance from me and mentors. We will find the queen , look for larvae and eggs, maybe add a honey super on 8 frame hive.