Category: Beekeeping

I was going to make a video of this, but the SD in the camera filled up five minutes in.

The Green Hive needed to be split. It was my last hive using two deep boxes and the frames inside were old and deep brown in color.

The hive had swarmed several weeks ago and there was a new feral queen inside. Lots of bees, but I didn’t want that feral queen to get started.

I picked up a couple of new VSH Pol-line 2.2 queens. They breed them up in San Luis Obispo.

Took me a while going through the boxes, frame by frame, until I finally found the feral queen in the bottom box, trying to hide.

Once I had her in a clip, I was able to split up the frames and bees quickly.

I installed the two new queens and am hoping for the best. I might add a brood frame from the Pink & Green hives, but going to let the ladies settle a bit before I do that.

Placed honey super boxes on the bee hives today.

These boxes is where worker bees will store nectar and turn it into honey.

Yesterday’s bee hive inspection.

Checking in on the bees after a few weeks.

They are busting at the seams.

The Blue Hive is queenless so I combined with with a queenright nuc to merge the colonies together for survival.

A short inspection of the hives on a warm day in December.

A brief hive inspection after not being able to for several months.

Harvesting honey from my backyard bee hives.