Field Day

We couldn't have asked for better conditions at the hives for FIELD DAY (this past Saturday). About 12/15? keepers were on hand.

The girls were on their best behavior - no stings....they even SOUNDED happy.

Earlier that morning - I took a 10 frame box and modified it into (2) 5-frame nuc box (you more or less put a divider down the middle and alter the bottom board). So - when we got into the 3 DEEP hive....if the opportunity arose to grab eggs for my NUC - we'd do so....and OPPORTUNITY came.

The top deep of the hive was of course VERY HEAVY - more or less full of honey/food....with a little extension of the 2nd deep's brood nest into it.

In the 2nd deep, we found an AMAZING brood pattern - FULL FRAMES (great queen!) We then found her highness right where she should be - on somewhat empty frames in the middle of the brood nest. We took this frame with her aside...and stole 5 frames from the area for our NUC.

I don't know what's up with these bees - for some reason - THEY ARE FULLY CAPABLE of keeping 3 deeps!!! the boxes are LOADED WITH BEES ON EVERY LEVEL! There were no signs of swarm cells or pre-swarm activity (What are we going to see in this hive if it's getting ready to swarm (besides swarm cells)? ALL CAPPED BROOD - no eggs/larvae...etc AND - we'd have bees that "seem" restless and touchy)

We had a nice discussion about HOW BEES HATE QUEEN EXCLUDERS too.... it was a good day...