Both mother colonies which have lost their old Queens due to me making splits have raised new Queens :) They are not virgins anymore since they have started laying eggs :) so happy about it :) They look very long and absolutely beautiful :)
The first two splits have 3 year old Queens and they are developing nicely. I gave them more space (empty top bar on each side of the brood nest and spacing in the honey area).
I have also made 2 queenless nucleus hives and one has a gorgeous Virgin Queen (not yet mated) and the other one has a very short Queen which very much looks like a Worker Bee. Such Queen is called an Intercast Queen which was made from a worker larvae older than 3 days resulting in a inferior Queen. Such Queen can start laying only Drone eggs but in some cases beekeepers report that she will also lay worker eggs and the bees will supersede her after a couple of month. I will get a few 2 year old Queens from my bee inspector for free and will very likely re-queen this nucleus and make one or two more depending on how many mated Queens I get from him.
All in all Im happy with the results so far :)
Here you can see how I rearranged the honey comb to encourage the bees to continue building them faster. I always try to have one whole honey comb at the end so to avoid cross-combing. Usually I would place one empty top bar just before the last comb but this time I spaced the brood nest also so I didn't want to create too much work for my ladies
Borage has begun to flower. I hope the bees will find it
I have found this flowering plant on one field nearby and decided to plant it around our property. I have seen a few bees on these flowers. I don't know this plants name but it seems to be a perennial plant?
Betty seems interested in the flowers ...
Hi, I've been following your blog for awhile, but just kind of lurking. I really do enjoy and look forward to your posts, though. I used to have a lot of that yellow flower in my garden. I believe that it is a type of primrose. :-)
ReplyDeleteHi Julie,
DeleteIm not sure. Will ask the locals they will sure know what it is. I dont mind if I dont know its name. Whats important is that bees seem to love it :)
I will collect as many local perennial plants as I can find and keep propagating them.
Well, I'm not sure from your photos, but it does look like Yellow primrose/evening primrose (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oenothera_biennis). When most people think of primrose, they think of primula, but in English, at least, the name is used for this flower, too. But check around. I'd be interested to hear what it is.
ReplyDeleteI checked some more images and you are right on the money :) it is an Evening Primrose :)
DeleteThank you for the ID