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Monday, May 18, 2009

Queen Cells

My two backyard hives came through winter GANG BUSTERS this year. I noted a "slowing" of pollen the last couple of weeks...and last weekend's check confirms they're making queen cells - and LOTS of them! Swarm and Supercedure. Hive one was split last weekend. Hive two will be split as soon as I put together some empty frames (or I'm hoping to catch them if they swarm).

I opted to use an empty DEEP as my "nuc" for hive one's split. Yesterday, during the inspection of hive 3 (the new hive), I heard PIPING! (that's the newly emerged queen's "rally call") THAT WAS WAY COOL.

Here's a youtube link I found - where you can hear an example of PIPING. (looks like this guy was cutting queen cells out - there's a bunch of them in his box)

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