Queens, Queens, and More Queens!

Today's check turned out to be all about marking queens (5 new queens!) and pulling regular honey frames to extract to give our ladies more open comb space. It was a hot, 80F day in the bee yard and we also fixed Hive Stand 2 and placed carpet under all of the hive stands to cut down on foliage and ticks. We also ended up taking home the old Flow Hive Super to extract one full frame and to store until the hives are larger and more stable. Right now we need them to make wax and it takes 6lbs of honey to produce 1lb of wax!

Stand 1: (Closest to Project Grow Garden)

Nuc 2 – White Queen

• Saw queen
• Gave 3rd five-frame nuc box filled with mostly foundation frames, but moved up some comb frames
• Lots of brood, eggs, larvae
• (D1 = White, D2 = White, D3 = Green)

 
Hive 5 – Yellow Queen Split w/ Dark Queen marked red

• Found and marked queen red
• D2 all foundation being drawn out
• Took 2-3 honey frames
• Needs 3-4 wet frames
• (D1 = White, D2 = Blue)

 
Hive 2 – Yellow Queen

• Removed D3 because it wasn’t needed
• Saw queen
• Replaced D3 with New Flow Super
• (D1 = White, D2 = Blue, QE, New Flow Hive Super)

 
Stand 2: (Middle Stand)

Hive 1 – Previous White Queen Hive

• Was 3 tall, but broke down into D1 and two nucs all with capped queen cells
• Saw brood but no eggs which makes sense because we removed white queen a week ago
• Tons of queen cells both open and capped, removed all open queen cells
• (Nuc 3: D1 = White) (Hive 1: D1 = Tan) (Nuc 4: D1 = White, non-telescoping outer cover)

 
Hive 4 – Swarm Hive w/ Honey-Colored Queen marked red

• From Original White Queen Split
• Lots of eggs
• Making new wax
• Found and marked queen red
• (D1 = Green, D2 = White)

 
Hive 3 – White Queen Split Combined with Original White Queen Nuc w/ Queen marked red

• Removed 2 honey frames from D2
• Found unmarked queen and marked red
• Wet frames need to go to D1 – F3, F7
• Removed New Flow Hive Super
• (D1 = White, D2 = White)

 
Stand 3: (Closest to Black Walnut Tree)

Nuc 1 – From 2nd White Queen Split w/ Queen marked red

• Found and marked queen red
• (D1 = White, D2 = White)

 
Hive 6 – Yellow Queen Split w/ Queen marked red

• Found and marked queen red
• Pulled 2 honey frames and moved 4 frames up to D2
• Needs 2 wet frames
• Removed Old Flow Hive Super
• (D1 = Green, D2 = Green)

So, if you're counting, that totals 7 marked, laying queen in the Flow Hive Apiary as well as 1 hive and 2 nucs with queen cells for a total of 10 potential hives!

On Sunday we went back into the apiary and replaced the eight wet honey frames that we had extracted for a total of 28lbs of honey! Our buzzy ladies were very happy to be getting back open comb frames with a little leftover honey.

On Thursday, a quick check of the swarm traps revealed that we'd caught a small swarm (our 11th hive) that we intend to use to make wax and to bolster our other hive's bee populations.

This is proving to be a VERY BEEZY bee year!

Plan for Next Check:
1. A little early, but we could check Hive 1 and Nucs 3 & 4 for eggs and new queens.
2. Possibly removed more honey frames for extraction to give more empty comb space.
3. Possibly harvest from the New Flow Super.
4. Check all hives still queenright and give more boxes of foundation space where needed.

Date for Next Check:
Sunday, July 2nd at 10am in the A2B2 Teaching Apiary at Matthaei Botanical Gardens next to the Project Grow Garden in the Campus Farm Area.
Hope you can bee there!

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If you would like to join the A2B2 Flow Hive Team or would like to know more about the Flow Hive in general, please contact Jen Haeger at [email protected].