Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Sting!

I popped the telescoping cover off of the Ambrosium today to see whether I could peer through the crown cover's hole and see whether there was any drawn comb on the upper super (the superior?) I couldn't see a thing because the there so many bees there. So I closed up and walked away. I didn't pry off the crown cover since I wasn't geared up, had no smoker, and had no hive tool. As I walked away an ambrosiana got me on the hand. It made a big dark bruise.

Friday, June 17, 2016

More Pollen

I spotted pollen going into the Salomium today. Wow. That queen must have arrived almost ready to lay.

Friday, June 10, 2016

Pollen

We have pollen going into the Josephium and Lucium already! I'm glad that the bee kill last month did not wipe out the Josephium's brood.

Sunday, June 5, 2016

Update (and a sting)

A lot has been going on in the last month, but I have been a negligent logger.

We caught the swarm and put it in the the old Benedictium, now rechristened the Lucium. Now we had no hive for our new package due at the end of the May, so we hurriedly purchased another for them. The apiaria  decided that it should be pink, so we bought some pink paint, and the apiarella and apiariulus painted it for her, which we named after Saint Salome.

We moved the Josephium and Lucium to a new location after plugging up the entrances with grass. The next day the Josephians had already made their escape, and they suffered a bee-kill. What an odd coincidence. The Lucium seemed fine.

We left for vacation, and Joachim installed the package (Russians) into the Salomium for us in our absence. That was on Friday 27 May. Four pounds of sugar were placed into the attic, along with the  feed which came from the package. He went back on Saturday to check on the queen, and got a sting for his troubles.

We got back yesterday, and seemed to have four happy hives.