Last year was not a year for blogging, apparently, but we
are still keeping bees. The hive with last year's captured swarm died
over the winter, but the two remaining hives were busting at the seams
on Sunday.
We
overwintered an odd configuration of a super on the bottom and two
deeps on top. Sunday the two deeps of both hives were chock full of
bees. The
hive to the left has a mason jar feeder on the top with a deep box
around it. The right hive has had plenty of their own honey and we
haven't fed them.
You
can see the beautiful "peanut butter smear pattern" of the capped brood
on this frame. The yellow spots around the edges are pollen. The
larger caps on the top left and the bottom center are drone cells, or
baby boys.
We got brave on Sunday and made two
splits. We took 3 frames of brood and a frame of honey out of the right
hive; four frames of brood and a frame of honey out of the left hive.
If these two new hives successfully make their own queens and survive,
they are bound for hives at UNCA. At the very least, the two original
hives now have five frames of drawn out empty comb to work with as they
continue to build up for spring.
