I worked on beekeeping things most of the day today, but didn't inspect any hives. I did move 3 hives from my yard, down behind the furthest away barn right at dark. All 3 hives are in 2 deep hive bodies each. They were very, very light. I fed them about 2 gallons of syrup each the week prior to the cold spell, and it's good that I did or I might have lost one or more of them. It's amazing how much honey/nectar/syrup it takes for a booming hive to feed the larvae and the house bees. I'm going to put syrup on them again in the morning before church.

How do you move them? I have one I need to move and was thinking about putting a ratchet strap around it and screwing a 2x4 angled across one side and just sliding it into the tractor bucket at dark one day.

I did basically the same thing. I used a ratchet strap, stuck a piece of screen in the entrance to keep them in and got my dad to help load, and unload them from the tractor bucket. I kept them as level as possible while in the bucket.

Fur if you could talk Mexican I might be able to get you a night job with the pollinators down here. They came in with 4 semi loads of bees this weekend. The commute might be a bit much tho.

I speak enough Mexican to know when I'm being cussed or not. I need a night job, I've still got enough spare time on my hands to sleep a full 8 hours.

Wade how did the package install go?

Brad,

The package installlation was smooth as silk. Both hives were full of bees and both hives finished off a quart of syrup each today. Gonna wait until Friday to make sure the queens are out. If we buy from them again, I'm going to order an extra queen and start a nuc too. There were plenty enough bees for that.

That's good to hear. I thought there were a lot of bees in there. After seeing them, I wish I had ordered packages too. I wish I had weighed those while I had them at the shop, then you could weigh the empty boxes and we'd know how many pounds of bees you got. I definitely think it was more than 3 lbs.

Both queens were out when I checked on them today. I love a marked queen, first time I have ever had one. Both hives consumed a quart of sugar water each today. But, I think there is some robbing going on from the old hives so I'm going to hold off a few days on the syrup. I may put a quart on right at dark and see if that at least gives them a 10 hour head start.

One of the hives had some honey on a couple of frames. I will check them again next Friday and look for brood. Didn't hang around long once I found the queens today.

Glad they're doing what they need to do. I like marked queens to, but Terry Frost said he'd never mark any more. He apparently hates marking them as bad as I do. I've marked most of mine over the years but I'm always afraid I'll squish one. I've gotten in a bad habit of marking them without picking them up. I almost killed one with paint last year doing that.

I've been surprised at the amount of pure water that these hives require. It isn't even warm yet and the bees are working every chicken water bowl and the pond real hard. Do they use water in making their honey or is it just a hive cooling process?

They use water this time of year to dilute honey to feed to the developing larvae, prior to capping the cells. They do use it to cool the hive too, as you said but I'd imagine it's too early for that even in your area.

Brother put out a nuc with some comb in it. Took about a week to catch one of our neighbors swarms

I am loving reading this about bees!! Learning so much so please feel free to get real elemental in what you discuss!! Thanks!!

So y'all are now back in the bee business. Good deal. Didn't the one yall cut out last year die this winter? I think I remember you posting about that.

You want us to talk about the periodic table?

I'm guessing you mean elementary but spell check did you in? LOL

Brad,

Picked up 260 frames today from Foxhound. Adam said hello. I would have been glad to have brought his queens back with me on Tuesday. I gotta get my swarm traps out ASAP. Adam said his hive was building swarm cells too.

I never thought about you taking his queens back until after you left, but I would have mentioned it had I remembered. Adam is a good guy and I like doing business with people that I actually like. You'll love that Acorn foundation. A guy I went to highschool with just started beekeeping and I went over to help him go through his hives yesterday. He bought 2 complete hives 2 weeks ago. He got his cart ahead of his horse and bought his hives but has no supplies. I took some frames in case he needed them and I'm glad I did. His hives were a mess. They guy he bought them from put the screws to him. Anyway, one hive was about to swarm so I made a split and put some frames with the Acorn foundation in the brood nest. He checked them this morning and said they had already started drawing comb on them. I've never had them jump on any other foundation that quick. Even wax foundation.

I went through my largest hives this week and saw no swarm preps, but I do have one hive that's strong enough to start swarm preps any time. I need to do a split with them.

Fur. We did lose the one we cut out over the winter. We have four hives coming in a few weeks and this one. Also the neighbors are gonna split one today and let us have the split. the give we caught was his best hive. I hate we got that one but we did. He said its yalls fair and square. He noticed his was a little light and we checked the trap and sure enough. It's full. Gonna let her gets some capped brood and move her to her new box. That sound good?

Yes that will work. If your neighbor would sell you a frame of eggs and open larvae you could put that in the hive and move them in a day or two. Do you have any frames with foundation in the trap or did you put all drawn comb? Swarms are primed for comb drawing so I'd take advantage of that.

Yes. Have two frames of comb 1 of some honey and 2 empty frames. Learned a lot last year and hopefully we will be rolling in a few weeks.