Rain

I attended the 2010 Indiana Beekeepers field day on 4/24. There was a pitch in dinner and a hive inspection for the newer folks with bees and then a seminar from a local member regarding swarming. If you are not in a local club I strongly suggest you get into one, as the benefits are many for the novice bee keeper.

Weather has not been kind the past couple days. Nothing but rain and storms. Havent been able to get into any of the hives, was going to attempt some queen grafting this weekend if the weather permitted, but was not to be. There is always next week I guess.

The above pic is of one of our bees that landed on my wife's finger

A great inspection!

Sunny

70 degrees

We opened bravo and charlie on sunday and were very excited by what we saw. Charlie only been in for 2 weeks and the queen is laying and everything looks good. No comb to draw since we provided them with comb already. Bravo looks fantastic, after coming out of winter very small, they have built up quick and large.

Queen is laying good brood patterns and several orientation flights have already taken place, they have built up so well I added another deep today as they are already filling 7 of the 10 frames in the brood super.

It looks to be a great year for beekeeping as the weather is really cooperating for the girls.

She's out

Checked today and the cage is empty, so her majesty is out and about. Havent checked for eggs yet but we will in the coming week or so. All appear to be doing well, as the weather here has been great.

Bravo bringing in the pollen and are very busy as well.

All for now

The Russians are here

Sunny 60 today

My son and I went to Kelly's and picked up the russians today and put them in the box, was fun and a challange as usual. But we are getting better at it. i enclosed some photos as well.

Out and About

I put some home made Honey bee healthy in last week to spur some laying activity and it must be working, hive is really out and about and busy, course the weather here is amazing this week so that may be playing a larger part in it than anything else.

Going to pick up the russians on saturday and weather again looks to be awesome, so everything should go well and thier first day should be nice as well for orientation flights etc. Just havent decided if I am going to put them in the new TBH or the other LH that I have sitting there. Decisions decisions...

March 2010

Have now started to build a top bar hive (one from Michael Bush's page) everything has been going well, girls look good and we are awaiting the arrival of our russians in april.

Weather has been quite well and they are bringing in lots of pollen, rain is forecast for the next couple days, but then nice temp and sun for the rest of the week, so they can get at it again. My son and I are also going to attempt to aquire some bees from my uncles farm as he has a bee tree there, so we are getting some swarms boxes ready and are going to place them near the tree and see if we have any luck.

All for today...

New Year

Well a new season has begun...

the weather was warm today, bout 55 degrees or so and the girls were a flying alot. i lost alpha to starvation, hive was literally empty and the cells had butts sticking up out of them, so it was starvation as near as I can tell. bravo on the other hand is going like gang busters! I mean boiling out of the entrance today and bringing bucket loads of pollen as well, though I dont know from where or what kind it is. I looked around the area and I see nothing blooming to speak of.

I have new bees coming in April (Russian hybrids) for alpha and my son and I are going to try our hand at breeding some of our own queens. Specifically out of Bravo since it did so well over the winter.

well guess thats it for now, will post some pics soon.