Worldwide Beekeeping
Beekeeping => General Beekeeping => Topic started by: brooksbeefarm on April 04, 2014, 02:26:05 pm
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The weather has been so crazy that i'm afraid to make splits? One or two days of above 65F and then back down in the lower 50's, on the warm days they are hard at it, like yesterday i walked by the cat willow bush and you couldn't hardly see a bloom without a bee on it and a storm came through last night and no bees flying today, cloudy and cold. I have hives that need split, they still have alot of stores and the queen has just about layed in all the open frames and with them at home and running out of room, there's a good chance they are making swarm plans. Don't want to put a super on because if i do get a chance to make splits and steal brood and bees from them it would stress them out trying to raise more brood and protecting there hive with the added room and less bees?? Are some of you making splits anyway? Jack
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I made five splits yesterday but our weather is quite a bit different than yours. I added queens to these five and a sixth i am letting them raise their own queen .
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It's too early for me since I raise my own queens. I haven't been in my double deeps yet. Hopefully this weekend. I've been in all my singles but since their not quite ready for a second box I figured the big ones were ok.
Would liked to look this week but ain't had a chance between work and weather.
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65? fifties? no splits for us right now jack, a foot of snow on the ground and about 35 F.....you know all of us 'up north' with the frozen brain cell syndrome..... :D
i have added a super of foundation to double deeps that needed divided before i could do divides in cooler or crazy weather. (no excluder) it has worked for me in the past to delay or keep them from swarming until the weather permitted. the bees will draw the frames with the flow on, and the queen might and probably will lay up in the center of those, but easily remedied.
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Maples, Locust etc are starting to bloom, bees are JUST starting to find pollen.. but.. like you said.. a nice day scattered in among a LOT of nasty cold and wet days..
I have done some moving about of honey, but have not been able to do an in depth inspection / cleaning / rotation etc yet.. I really NEED to get in and see how they are progressing and make adjustments accordingly, but just haven't had decent enough weather.
Looking ahead, I see where a week ahead in the forcast were going to have a 72 degree day, so I plan on it... two days later the forcast is completely different for that day.. so we get a day they said would be 57 degrees that turns out to be 68 degrees.. but on that day we have 35 mph sustained winds....
Still TRYING to wait patiently.....
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Good frost on here this morning. :sad:
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Same here Woody, but of course your just across the road from me you might say. :D The future forecast is looking good,maybe just maybe ??? i can get my bees layed by. :) Jack
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I thought that flying drones were a good sign as to when to start splitting, rather than the day to day weather.
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Took a peek in my double deeps today. They are certainly not ready to super or open the broodnest yet. It was a little cool to do a complete inspection. Maybe next week I can give them a better look.
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:) I took my 2 triple deeps and split them into 6 singles :)
I cleaned most of the dead bees out of them :'(.
Packages arrive Thursday.
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So they were both dead outs Ray?
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Yup, both dead. Plenty of honey left, just not where they could get to it.