3Reds and I have been watching a couple of our hives because the queen had quit laying in one, and the bees kept ejecting the brood in the other. We fed, treated, and added brood to the hives, but apparently we didn't have the right combination or good timing. Last week we were inspecting our hives and three colonies were gone. No dead bodies, just gone.
We use our bees for our Agriculture valuation for the property, and now we needed to add two hives to stay in compliance.
We talked about needing to split a couple of hives in the Spring or catch a swarm or two, but realized there really is nothing we can do until Spring.
That was Monday. Thursday, I found bees bring pollen into one of our swarm traps. This is a crazy time of year to find bees swarming, but there they were. The queen was not marked, so it is doubtful she came from one of our hives.
Anyway, we feel like God was listening, and answered our need.
The swarm is pretty small, but the queen has started laying and the bees are finding nectar and a ton of pollen. We marked the queen today and moved the bees into a 10 frame hive with a feeder.
