Getting Ready for the Divide

May 12, 2011


Chanhassen Apiary: 

Ben smoking the bees before opening hive #1 in Chanhassen

Since our hive #1 was strong and healthy, we got ready for the divide. It means that we will take some of the bees from that colony and start a new one. We will take one box (deep) with brood and no eggs and move it to where we want to have a new colony. To make sure that we take the box without the queen,we added a queen excluder between the 2 top boxes. Here on the picture, it is between the top deep white and deep green. A queen excluder  is a screen that is placed over a box  preventing the "fatter" queen to go into the top box.

Hive #2: Ben did a reversal again to give room for the queen to lay her eggs. He noted 6+ frames of brood. However, not much activity yet in the supers.

Hive #3: The combs are being drawn in the 2 deep boxes, which is fantastic for a new package of bees. Ben saw a beautiful brood pattern developing. It seems that the honeybees have a lot to eat because they had consumed only 1/2 the syrup given.

Hive #4: will be created with the help of hive #1 our strongest Italian colony.

May 13,2011


Shakopee Apiary:

Hive #1: Ben did the same thing. He prepared the hive to be divided using a queen excluder. Here between the 2 top deep boxes.

Hive #1 in Shakopee