This is a brief explanation of a bear fence. How to build one is at the MN DNR
website on how to build a bear fence.

A Honey Bound Hive

Extractor set up in the beeyard to extract out a honeybound hive.

A beekeeper e-mailed me about not being able to split due to his hive was honey bound. Plugged with honey and no place for the queen to lay. This presents the problem that the hive will decline and the nectar flow will be a bust.
The colony had a good population but not much brood.
I suggested that he extract out the frames to give the queen a place to lay.
As the photo suggests he brought his extractor out to his hive and made it happen. He now has a hive with great potential and maybe some honey for his troubles.

Overcrowded Hive, A Prelude To A Swarm click photo to enlarge

Overcrowded Hive, A Prelude To A Swarm click photo to enlarge

This hive is obviously overcrowded

I switched hives. I put a weak hive where the overcrowded hive was and the overcrowded hive where the weak hive was.

A quick check for swarm cell. And there was none.

I scooped bees off the face of the overcrowded hive.

I dumped them in front of the weak colony They walked in a few minutes later.. Now I made two hives better and stopped a swarm that would have happened in short order.

I had a single box hive that was terribly overcrowded. It was a swarm waiting to happen.
This same technique I use when I have a hive with active swarm cells. I am talking a swarm cell with milk, not empty queen cups. Remove the swarm cells to stop the swarm, then move the colonies. Weak one where the strong one is, strong one where the weak one was. This way the swarm will stop.

Swarming and Bears

A beekeeper sent me this photo. She was planning a divide and missed a swarm cell. She was disappointed because the divide was going to happen that day.

A ladder would not have helped.

This week with the warm weather swarming will kick into high gear. It is important to remove all entrance reducers from strong colonies. Also keep looking for swarm cells in the strong colonies.
If the over wintered colonies have not been divided, now is the time to do it.
Adding another box to a strong colony will not stop swarming.
Yesterday I was checking my colonies and noticed a swarm had moved into some deeps I had sitting there. All of my hives there where packages, so I thank the beekeeper whose bees moved in for the new colony.
Bears have been moving around leaving a path of destruction in their wake.
I live in northern Washington County. This is now bear country as is Anoka County according to the MN DNR.
Most of my bee yards are electrified. It works and they will stop a bear.
Two beekeepers living just north of me have been hit in the last week. They both put up an electric fence ATB (after the bear). One of them bought an electric fencer that is used on buffalo. Now that is my kind of beekeeper.
If you live where there is bears, even an occasional bear, you will get hit at sometime. It will be at a time when the bees are at their best and will be an emotional let down.
My suggestion is to put up a bear fence before the bears hit or you will pay for the fence and new equipment ATB.

First Load package bees

The cold weather of recent days has probably slowed the expansion of all bee colonies in general. The package bees that were installed on April 10th should be having emerging brood and the colonies populations will be expanding.
With the increase in population the bees will be drawing out the foundation quicker. When the bees have drawn out 8 of the 10 frames it will be time to add a second box.
When adding a second box, take a frame that the bees are working on and move it from the bottom box to the second box. The bottom box will have 9 frames and the top box will have 10. Continue feeding syrup if foundation is still needing to be drawn out.
If the bees were installed on drawn comb they may be ready for another box by this weekend.

My queen acceptance

I put in 25 Carniolan packages so far this season.
I checked them all for queen acceptance. I was 25 for 25.
One was on the fence. I put them in a week ago last Sunday. I did not see any eggs when I checked.
I looked again on Wed and she was laying up a storm. She was laying two eggs in many cells. This is normal when a queen starts laying. She should settle down by this Sunday and should be hitting all the cells on the frames.
Queen may take 10 - 12 days to start laying. This happened to several beekeepers this year who were concerned they were queenless. Most of the queens started laying after two - three more days in the colony.
Between the two loads of bees there was very little queen problems. Most being fly-aways. Out of 800 beekeepers maybe 20 had queen problems that needed a new queen due to the queen not being present after 12 days.

First check on my package on Sunday

I checked my package on Sunday. Everything was going great. The bees are building comb and the queen is laying.
On my second package I have a queen that is not laying and I will check it again on Wed.