#beekeeping demos

[continent-of-wild-endeavor]

Hive inspections 4/30

Gonna catch up on these again!

GF: Beekeeping demos today for the baby goat festival. Hive one is doing well, lots of nectar in their third box and they’re just starting to cap it. So I gave them a fourth box of at least half foundation and moved two frames of honey - well, nectar - up into it and put two foundation frames into box 3. There is brood in both boxes 1 and 2. Was talking to folks, so I didn’t actually see eggs, but I did see all other stages of brood. Good population. Harvest next week?

All three other hives are doing well also. They have functional queens, they’re making honey, they’re capping some. I gave hive 4 a new box. I did not do so for 2 or 3, therefore they probably need them next time. Not great notes here because I was talking to people while I did it, but everything is looking fine.

[continent-of-wild-endeavor]

Hive Inspections 5/13 & 5/14

5/13 Plantation: 1&4 good. 2  just a handful bees & a wandering queen. :( Combined that with 3 which is also probably doomed. Idk. Put its extra nectar/honey on 4. Took 3 capped frames, which had been from 3. Odd.

GF: Nothing harvestable in 3&4. Will be soon in 1! Took 1 frame from 2. Did not inspect swarm (5). Must fix it up tomorrow.

GBF: Both kinda pissy. Genetics, late in the day? It was 5:30 or so. Did get 3 frames from 1.

5/14 GF: Took a quick peek in each hive during demos, and saw eggs and honey work going on in each one. Hive 3 is still kind of funky in a lot of ways, but they’re functional. I need to get down to the bottom of that one next time - I suspect they’re not using their bottom box much. Actually probably all the hives need that kind of inspection new swarm 

Hive 5 had built kind of a lot of comb from their roof because I didn’t fill the box with frames, so today after demos I got in there and fucked it up good. Have to get it straightened out now or it’ll get a lot worse! Attempted to use rubber bands to cut those combs off and put them in new frames, but they were so soft from the heat and being new wax that they would not hold. Most of them ended up lumped in front of the hive. I fear I may have damaged the queen, but bees were fanning and going back in the entrance afterwards, so here’s hoping. I also moved them over onto a better bottom board and cinder blocks. For now the bottom previous bottom board is leaned up against the front with their broken comb and brood on it so they can clean out what they want. Next time be sure to get back to a caught swarm within a day or two to put proper frames in it gods damn it!