Beginner Beekeeper

Beginner Beekeeper
My first hive inspection

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Lost my first hive!

Today I lost my first hive. The inspector came and checked all my hives. I have passed the inspection, but he recommended that I destroy the weak hive. It had hive beetle and waxmoth infestation. Additionally some of the brood seemed like it could have EFB. There was no point trying to save it. The bees were not able to liberate a new queen last week and the hive was so weak that it was overrun by all possible bee pests.
I dug out a hole, placed the brood box with all frames and bees in it. Doused it with gasoline and set on fire :(





Sunday, June 12, 2011

Queen is dead

Well, one of the new queens did not make it. The hive was so weak that they were not able to get through the candy in the queen box. When I did my first inspection after the queen introduction the candy was chewed half way through but the queen and all bees that were with her were dead in the box.
This hive has lot of issues. Hive beetles are running everywhere, waxmoth is taking residence in the super, there is no queen and bees are not motivated to raise one.
I have an inspection scheduled in two days. I'll wait to see what the inspector says.




Saturday, June 4, 2011

New royalty arrived

Today we went to pick up two new queens. we got them from Miksa apiaries. They carry excellent bloodlines.
I installed the queens in my oldest hive and the queenless split. They both were witout a queen for few weeks and did not seem interested raising a new one. No supercedures were visible in either hive