Sunday, May 29, 2011

checked a bee yard

I checked a bee yard on Sat evening. I haven't been there since I checked for queen acceptance. I started with 3 lb - Hygienic Italians on the first load, I put them in on April 26th. They are all on drawn comb and there was no honey in the frames when I installed them. I fed all of them a gallon of Pro-Sweet syrup when I put them in. Being I have been swamped with the second load of bees, selling queens and my day job working long hours, also the weather has been bad when I wanted to check them. I thought they may have starved on me. Lucky for me they all looked great. The Pro-Sweet syrup is more concentrated than regular 1:1 sugar syrup and I know that saved my bacon. The dandelion and fruit bloom covered me until yesterday. I added a second box to all of them and they needed it. I also checked for swarm cells and found none. I added a pail of Pro-Sweet syrup, hopefully this will cover me for 10 days. I will check their food supplies then. They may need one more pail to get me to the main nectar flow. The queens in this yard are Hygienic Italians. I know all of the queens work well and anyone can lead to success, but I usually prefer Carniolans for their gentle behavior. I know the Hygienic Italians will put away the most amount of honey, but I do find Carniolans for the most part are the gentlest breed out there.