Both boxes are flying, both are bringing in pollen, the one on the right looks a lot stronger. There are plenty of drones around. The new box on the left is heavier. Don't have time to go in them today, need some time to spend an hour to with them. Still feeding a light syrup.
However, who says bees don't work red crimson clover?
Hope to spend a couple of hours with them next Saturday afternoon.
May even do an additional split.
When I started, I thought,"This will be a year in my life, with bees." I would chronicle all the steps and stages, all the trials and tribulation. It would bee my journal and outlet as well as my record of beekeeping. That was February. Now, on the other side of summer, it's October. One of the hives has been slimed by small hive beetles. The ladies have absconded. Perhaps, by keeping a closer journal, I -- and perhaps you, dear reader -- will learn more about beekeeping in North Florida.
Sunday, March 26, 2017
Three weeks later
Sunday, March 5, 2017
Equalizing the population
It was a bit too cloudy to go into the hives today. I was short of time. However, I wanted to balance the populations.
I moved both the white hive and the light blue hive about two feet to the right so that the returning foragers would go back to the white box.
The light blue box seemed to have the larger population. It also has the honey super on top so that even if it lost population, the bees still had food.
To add to the bee confusion I put the empty nuc box (it has drawn foundation in it) all the way down to almost exactly the place that the white box occupied.
Now, the returning bees have a choice, not that they need a choice. Rather, it might help stabilize the population of the newer white hive box.
I will be gone for 10 days at the end of the week. Right before I leave I will swap the boxes, putting then back to their original positions.
Swapping shifts the populations, but it does lead to confusion. Here's what the confusion looks like.