yipee, 3 for 3

[pistolpete]

Good things seem to be happening in 3's for me this year.  I wintered 3 out of 3 hives.  I got 3 laying queens out of the 3 I set out to raise using OTS.  I bought 3 queens and they are all accepted and laying.

Now I have to hope that my luck holds out and I get honey from all 3 hives.   I'm not entirely sure that will happen, because I made up a total of 7 Nucs from my 3 hives and a couple of them are not much stronger than a Nuc now.   It's up to the weather now.   It will take these hives until the middle of July to get to full strength.  If we get rain in August, they should still produce about 100 lbs. each.

[Intheswamp]

Congratulations Pete!!!  That's a right good percentage there!!! 

I haven't committed yet to which method of queen raising I'm going to try.  I've been focusing on grafting and will probably go that route, but looks like your results are great!

Ed

[apisbees]

3 over wintered
3 raised queens
3 bought and introduced
Less 1 requeen the original 2 year old queen
I get 8
Great success Pete

[pistolpete]

Actually I re-queened all of my wintered hives, even though they all had one year old queens.  Two hives raised their own replacement, and one got a purchased queen.  I'm a big fan of the queens I get from John Gates in your neighbourhood.  So this year I get to try them out side by side with my own and see how they compare.  I'm keeping 3 hives and one Nuc with my best 2 year old queen that will be used to donate brood to the other hives for a stronger foraging force. 

[jb63]

Good to hear your success Pete.I think it's going to be a good honey year here in the Pacific North West. Some of my hives have 3 supers on them and black berries are just  starting.   

[blueblood]

Good deal Pete!