Keeping notes - worth gold

I really need to be sure to post my inspections here - EVERY TIME I do one.  That will be my goal from here on out.  I have learned a valuable lesson about record keeping.

I am finding that the records I kept last year are a HUGE help for this year.  I see that at this time last year my hives were only three medium boxes high, and that I began mite and nosema treatments mid September as well. So now I know, I better get my butt in gear and get busy with the final honey harvest and treatments.  I am also glad to know that the hives were only 3 boxes high, and not 4.  That means I can take a little more honey for us humans!

So here is the update for the past few months;

I learned A LOT after splitting the hives.

I found out that early June was WAY TOO LATE to split a hive (in this area) to effectively avoid swarming.  At least one of the hives ended up swarming within two weeks of the split anyway.  Luckily I was home and witnessed the ordeal, and recaptured the swarm in my own backyard (My first official swarm!).  The other hive may have swarmed, but I really can't tell.  After all was said and done, I had 6 hives.

Note to self:  Do hive splits BEFORE you see swarm cells.  Early May is probably a better time to do swarm prevention.

I also learned more about queens and re-queening.

Out of three new queens, only one of them was readily accepted by the hive.  The second one swarmed, and the third one just vanished.  I had the pleasure of letting one hive raise their own queen, but the last hive needed to be re-combined with the parent hive.  So in the end I now have 5 queen right hives. Whew!  I learned that it takes a lot of patience to see the results of the bees own work in queen rearing.  Just when I was beginning to panic and was ready to combine the hive, the new queen magically appeared.  One extra week is all they needed.

I think the most valuable advise I got was that if I was in doubt about the queen status of a hive, simply steal a frame of fresh eggs from another hive and insert into the hive in question.  If they need a queen, they will make one.  This is the simplest and least disruptive way to ensure you have a queen.

Note to self:  Let new splits make their own queen.  It may take a while, but they know what they are doing, not to mention it will save you from paying $20 for an insect.

So now, with the summer months rapidly drawing to a close, we begin our Autumn and Winter preparations...

The goal for this week - finish honey harvest, medicate hives for varroa and nosema,  and begin aggressive feeding for final winter build up.