We can’t stress enough that hive inspections should be about looking for evidence of a queen, not about finding the queen. Look for eggs, larvae, and brood. What do you do if you find a supersedure cell? These are typically on the frame in the main brood area. As a general rule we leave them […]
Our general rule is that you add another box when the colony is covering 60-80 percent of the frames in a box. (Kirk says 80-90 in the video but don’t let them get that crowded if you can avoid it). This is a new package started 21 days ago in drawn comb from a deadout. […]
What do you do when you don’t see evidence of a queen in your hive? Whether you smashed her during an inspection or something just happened to her, what are your options? This is a new package that ended up queenless as evidenced by no larvae or brood. Kirk walks through options, and decides to […]
It’s been 2 weeks since we hived these packages! Here are a couple videos to give you an idea about what we are seeing and what bees should be doing. Recommendations, check hives in the middle of the day when it is warm. You can learn a lot just by watching the entrance! If they […]
The million dollar question! If we don’t need the bees for a split we tend to choose supering for honey production when they have the workforce to take advantage of nectar flows. If we find that the colony has run out of room and already decided to start the swarming process (swarm cells in use […]
Keys for success with your new package! (Based on the mistakes we see new beekeepers make!) Feed, feed and more feed! New colonies have a lot of work to do and the more resources they have in the form of food, the quicker and more efficiently they can get it done. Don’t worry, about making […]
We hived packages on our bee day 2 days ago. Going in to see if queen has been let out of her cage and how they are doing. It has been cold and rainy here with intermittent moments of sunshine.
If you want to see how we recommend hiving package bees in Idaho, here are links to our videos!
The spring time dance of bees, they survived the winter but what influences spring survival and success. I’m writing this April 12, 2022. We had a week of 70 degree days, today it is snowing and 22. I’m writing this from my perspective and experience of keeping bees in Southern and South Eastern Idaho. Our […]