Here's my hive, as it overwintered...
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In an attempt to entice the workers to start storing honey in the honey super, I took out the queen excluder. I mean, she won't even lay in the brood super, what's the likelihood she will lay in the honey super? It's the SECOND level up, for goodness sakes!!
WRONG!!
Finally have a few warm days where I can bust open the hive and see what's going on. DOGONNIT!! Pupating brood in my honey super! The little wench! Doesn't she know that's MY space?? That's it! It's ON now! Queen excluder back in place, and a quick prayer that she's in the brood boxes, not the honey super. Close it all up, and we'll see what happens. That was Monday the 8th of April. Oh, yeah, take a few pics because Geek1 has a biology lab project due on the 11th.
Got an email from Mrs. Geek on the 15th that there is a swarm of bees on the ground in the back yard. HOLY COW! Have Geek2 get the spare hive body and set it next to them. He did, and they marched right in (his description). When I got home, the hive was empty and there were a bunch of dead bees on the ground. Not sure what happened, but the swarm didn't make it. Opened the hive back up on the 16th, just to make sure it's OK, and see whether the queen is laying like crazy in the honey super because she got trapped up there, or have the pupae emerged and the workers now filling those cells with honey. SUCCESS!! Lots of honey-in-the-making. Just for my trouble, I take one of the frames of honey out of the brood super. Can you tell I'm impatient? Don't look at me like that. They have plenty of time to refill the frame! Besides, it was an end frame. They had only filled one side of it anyway.
Gotta put that frame I pulled out (BTW: dark honey in that frame) back in, so I opened up on the 19th. Man, these bees are much more aggressive than last year! Honey super has lots of almost full frames. Just waiting for the caps! Pulled out one of the frames that was capped, and it is very light honey. Hmmmm. The flowers make a difference, huh?
I think it's time to open up again. I don't want them to run out of space ;)
