Field Day at the "beehouse"

Field day at the "beehouse"...we sure had a nice day for it! You know how it is....YOU JUST GET TOO BUSY sometimes!? ...(naughty beekeeper)...i admit, i've not been in the hives since early April and the hive body switch....(naughty beekeeper)

We examined my 3-high (3 deeps) hive.....as i "wanted" out of this experiment....IT WAS WHOPPING FULL OF BEES! at EVERY level! We found capped brood in 2 levels - solid frames....we also found a good half-dozen of swarm cells....and what didn't we find??? eggs and larvae. THIS HIVE IS IN SWARM MODE...the queen has ceased laying - in her attempt to slim down for the flight.

What did we do? we SPLIT it. we took one layer and started a new hive....we made sure we grabbed two frames (with swarm cells/new queens) and put it in the new split...MADE SURE the existing queen wasn't on these two frames!

What happened after everyone left? The (now) 2 high hive with the queen - was doing some serous BEARDING outside the hive....they're gearing up, i'm afraid.

We also left a couple of swarm cells in the "mother" hive in case of this exodus. remember, the old queen leaves...and if we'd not left SOME swarm cells - this hive could potentially go queenless.

i just hope i can catch them in the act today! (gotta go home for "lunch")

HINDSITE 20/20. this hive was AMAZING in it's population. the beekeeper should have done another HIVE BODY SWITCH 3/4 weeks ago!...and SUPER'd IT!

MY EXPERIMENT....i really wanted to see how many bees i could "get" in a box. with this queen and all the capped brood....i could have made a 4 high hive!

....need to build frames!...more wax foundation on the way!!! i hope it's in the mail today!!!