Well, it has been a disappointing year at the apiary so far. First, I lost three of my colonies (50%) over the winter, so I knew the 2019 harvest would be rather low. Second, the weather in May was very cool and wet. The bees started out great in April with developing, but then with the cold May, nectar collection took a hit. Two of the three colonies have barely brought in any amounts of honey. Only one colony has a pretty full honey super. I plan to harvest Sunday morning (June 30th) and then we will see how it goes from there. I may give the bees a few more weeks after that to see if we can scrape out some more honey before staring the varroa treatments. An interesting note: last year on the 30th of June we harvested for the second time with a total of 80kgs (130kgs combined with the first harvest).
This time of the year, the bees are really starting to bust out of the seams of their hives. Stronger colonies are in full swing, while weaker colonies are trying to build up their numbers to at least become stronger by seasons end. Curiously enough, both situations can also spark swarm behavior for both types of colonies,especially in Carniolans (Apis mellifera carnica). Carniolans have a higher tendency to swarm than, say, Italians or Buckfasts, so of course keeping Carniolans can be a bit tricky and nerve wracking. A few words about swarming. The act of swarming is a natural occurrence, and is necessary for the propagation of honey bees. Since the queen mates only once in her lifetime and each colony only has once queen at any given time, the ability to procreate depends on building a colony to a sizable amount and then by splitting the colony in two. Honey bees, of course, have a brilliant way of doing this. The first thing that needs to happen before a colony can swarm is they n...
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