And They Are Gone

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It has been a roller coaster ride with my one hive that has been so aggressive and large. I worried that they were too large to make it over the winter, but they made it. I worried they they were too aggressive to handle, and at times they have been. I worried that they were going to swarm, and at first I was able tot thwart a swarming but now they have gone.


Good news is my other hive is thriving. When a hive swarms they take the queen and half the worker bees with them and look for a new place with larger accommodations. I believe that the bees that were left in my strong hive joined the other hive making it much stronger, because my strong hive is dead.

I checked on it this week and there were very few bees left and no brood. Good news they left me a bunch of capped honey. So I quickly harvested that honey before it gets robbed or hive beetles destroy it. I could see some beetle larvae already. Without the workers to take care of the hive it will be destroyed. I also took some of the hive parts with uncapped honey and put them in freezers to kill anything and preserve them for the next colony I will place in them. I am not sure right now where I will get that colony, maybe I will do a split or catch a swarm or buy a nuc.


Liquid gold left as a rental fee for the use of my hive equipment 😀 I got about 20lbs of honey.




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