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Post by saltydog on May 14, 2021 5:43:41 GMT -5
This week has been a surprising week for me in the world of bee keeping, as soon as I got home on Mon the neighbor come gets me and says there are a bunch of bee's on one of his stumps. I grab my bee equipment and started collecting bee's. Then on wed I get a txt from my wife telling me there was another swarm of bee's on another stump in the neighbors yard, I figured that the swarm that I got on Mon rejected the hive I put them in and swarmed again. Upon getting home on wed even I checked the first hive that I put the swarm in, they are there buzzing in and out. So Im guess it was a second swarm. I then start collecting the second swarm. All went well, I made a few mistakes,along with getting stung for the first time in 3 years, but Im learning. I have had good mentors along the way (Waynes,Dave Cruser and Jim Farbach). they have helped me into my journey into Bee keeping.
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Post by Mack Apiary Bees on May 14, 2021 6:21:38 GMT -5
That is awesome. Swarming is a big fun issue every spring. I'm up to seven swarms, but only one from my original overwinter 8 hives. I'm now up to 31 hives. it's been a crazy spring with beekeeping. I do have 3 that are queenless and no cells or eggs to make queen cells. I just picked those three up last night. The new keeper made some mistakes and found out that his dog is allergic to stings. The dog went into shock, but is okay now. Two hives of the three are very small and I will combine those two. So those two hives will get eggs or a swarm cell. I need to check another hive for swarm cells. If not I'll take two frames of eggs and put one in each hive. I post a video that I took before I picked up the 3 hives at dark yesterday.
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Post by Mack Apiary Bees on May 14, 2021 6:29:44 GMT -5
Heads up. Secondary swarms will be virgin queens. Most times only the 1st swarm contains the mated original queen. It might swarm a couple more times. You can go into the swarming hive and destroy all but the best two to stop virgin queen swarms. So next time after the 1st swarm go into the hive and either take the frames with cells out to make a new hive (split) or destroy all but two cells. Always leave one or two for that hive.
PS: I've run out of fingers and toes on how many times I've been stung this year. My guess around 30. My body is getting close to not reacting to the stings.
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