Or something like that….
It’s four years later and I’m back to this beekeeping blog idea. The cutout in 2018 never did really get established, and they didn’t even make it through the late fall. In 2019, I had a small late swarm move into the empty hive, but once again they didn’t really have time to get established and they also did not make it through the winter.
In 2020, a friend had one of her colonies swarm in the spring and she didn’t have an empty hive for it, so she brought it to me. That colony did make themselves at home and built out most of two deeps that year. They survived the winter, and I didn’t manage for swarms well enough in the early spring of 2021, and they ended up swarming. The swarm settled into a tree in my yard, only about 20 feet from the hive (and about 15 feet off the ground). I cut them down and installed them in a second hive – that adventure will probably be a later post. I kept a closer eye on both hives through the summer, and they both built out nicely but since it was a fairly dry summer without great nectar flows, I didn’t try to encourage the production of any surplus honey to harvest.
Both of those hives came into 2022 fairly strong. In mid-April, I thought that the older colony was preparing to swarm, and I got the necessary supplies to split it, but when I got inside I didn’t find as much brood as I expected and I wasn’t comfortable taking half of it. Just a few days later, I did have a swarm – from the newer (and, I thought, smaller) hive. That’s what I get for thinking I know what I’m doing, I guess. Once again, they only flew about 20 feet from the hive and landed in the other significant tree in my back yard. This time only about 10 feet off the ground. I like that my bees are low-effort swarmers. I installed them in a nucleus box, and they’re currently residing in my yard until I make sure all three colonies are happy and queenright before I decide what to do with them. I’ve added honey supers to both and I am hoping to have my first honey harvest this year.
Stay tuned, as I do intend to maintain the blog this time around. I don’t know a lot about beekeeping, and I’m sure that I’ll do (and post) some things that are unusual, questionable, ill-advised or even just plain wrong, but I am learning and I want to share that journey with other beekeepers – maybe someone else can learn from my successes and mistakes.