Principle 1- Always
wear a veil and use a smoker to calm the bees. You only need to use a few
puffs of smoke to quiet the hive.
Queens released Monday, April
29th.
May 9th, Friday, 1:00 – Steve
driving out with a group for smoker, hive-opening instruction. We will check for comb building and look for eggs or
larvae. We do not have to see the queen, just evidence of the queen’s
activity.
May 16th - Steve leaves for Ireland and is pretty much gone the
rest of the summer.
May 18th or 19th(weekend) – Barbara. Observe some capped brood and comb
building. You may exchange drawn comb that do not have eggs, larvae or
capped brood, moving them from outside in. We want to get the outside
foundation drawn.
May 25th or 26th(weekend) - Claire & Nick. If there are at least six combs drawn, you may
want to add the second brood chamber. You should see about three to four
frames of brood by this time.
REMEMBER, EACH COLONY WILL DEVELOP AT ITS OWN PACE.
June 1st or 2nd(weekend) – Chris and Lauren. If you would
like to observe the queen and the brood, remove top hive body and take a
look. Remember to put back the frames in the order they were.
June 8th or 9th(weekend) –
Lindsay T. Check to see how much honey is in the second hive body by lifting
it. This is your first time to observe the Queen and brood, go
ahead. If the top hive is fairly heavy, add a super to that colony.
AFTER THIS THE GROUP WILL NEED
TO MAKE A SCHEDULE FOR VISITS THE REST OF THE SUMMER. GEETHA SHOULD BE BACK THE WEEK OF JUNE 10TH
AND WILL BE ABLE TO HELP WITH THIS.
The rest of the summer you will be switching foundation with drawn
comb. Always put foundation in the center of the super. This should
keep the queen from laying in the supers.
Sometime in July Arvin will conduct a powered sugar varroa test to
see our level of mites.
