Understanding / Fixing A Laying Worker Colony (Drone Layers)
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 28. 08. 2018
- A laying worker hive is a colony that only produces drones. These colonies are doomed if not corrected in a timely manner. In this video, I discuss what a laying worker colony is and how to fix it. A laying worker colony is something all beekeepers must learn to deal with and if you raise queens, it happens more than we like.
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I've been around bees for over 20 years. I was told so many times that you can't fix a laying worker hive. Don't waste your time. I try to keep an open mind. Im glad to see you've successfully demonstrated 'fixing' a laying worker hive.
Anything is possible if you keep at it! Glad you enjoyed it.
Thanks for sharing with new beekeepers! I was ready to shake the bees out of a working layer colony after looking for a solution without any luck until I saw your video. I did as you instructed on this video ( I used a mated queen) and I checked the hive after 5 days and so far so good. I saw the queen walking amongst the rest of the bees!
I'm glad it's working for you. Thanks for letting me know it works with a mated queen, I have yet to try one but figured it would work. Best of luck with your bees!
I wish I had seen this about 2 months ago. Nice job.
Vino Farm czcams.com/video/r74vRT0z_2U/video.html ....simpler version I posted a couple weeks ago
The sad part is the video has been ready to upload for 2 months I've just been too busy. Sorry but at least now you know. Best of luck!
Yeah, I was following your progress on yours as well.
Vinofarm I just copied link and was going to post on your channel. Good to see you. Glad you watched this.
Haha definitely would have saved you from another queen, cursed nucs, and 3 months of time. Just watched your saga, this video would have definitely made it easier for you.
Hi Jason
I am not a beekeeper. but I am interested in learning. I have learnt a few useful tips from this video. So I just wanted to say thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you! Think your method is the best, educate, demonstrate, and result.
Excellent teaching in this video! Iâm soaking it up like a sponge.
Dang it, dang. Thank you very much for this vid. I have had laying worker hives 3 or 4 times in past. None of my efforts worked. This one makes complete sense. Thanks a ton.
Thank you so much for posting this video! Perfect timing for me. Sept 1 I introduced a supposed Sakratraz mated queen. Just checked the girls and I have multi eggs in some cells but the eggs are in the center and slightly leaning. Now I am not sure what my next step is. uuuurrrg! Another one of my hives: Queen Monique hive well not sure where she went. She she was marked before her mating flight and came back. That was a incredible site to see. Oh my gosh it was like a swarm. But back to the subject she is now gone. 2 queens have hatched no idea where they are at. Bee Drama Here! I am a new bee keeper and in the last 4 month have been crazy. I also have a Russian hive that has dual queens laying for over 3 months now.
Thank You for comprehensive video from beginning right to the endđ
I usually shake all the bees out and stick one frame with brood in the middle and let them make a new queen
Really nice job on correcting the laying worker hive and thanks for the great information!
What an excellent video! Nice job Jason. Thank you.
thank you for the lesson
Enjoyed this very much. Good, solid info.
Thank you for taking the time to document this process from start to finnish. All too often people make videos and we never see the results. This video alone deserves a like and sub.
Great video. I learned a lot. I have been combining them with a strong hive.
Thanks so much. We are heading into spring here in New Zealand and I am planning on making some NUCs and grafting queens, so now I have an idea of what to do if things go wrong. I love your videos especially the ones you did on rearing queens.
Check out Alan Teske from Australia has some 200+ videos inc one on drone laying worker fix, 61 years of bee keping and he's 81 years old, amazing info and under acknowledged resorse of great practicle and well explained info like Jasons great Chanel czcams.com/video/FRoDDPaJkHs/video.html.
Awesome Jason! I appreciate this knowledge.
Nice job thanks for sharing really appreciated Learning a lot on your CZcams channel
Excellent video Jason. I'm going to be using this technique this week. Thank you sir.
Great video Jason! Nicely done!
Excellent video Jason. Iâve heard shake out doesnât work, but this variation is different with the good brood/eggs and a queen. Iâll give this a try next year if it happens and I have a queen available. In the past Iâve done screened combines and they superceed the queen after the screen is removed. So, then you have to wait for that queen to get going. Thanks for showing this. Take care.
Thanks for the information and I hope this works for me as of today. Keep up the good work , you are smart!
Excellent process, nice job! Have got to do the same thing this week and appreciate your video. Well done! Only wish I had more normal brood but only have two hives. Weâll see how it goes. Thanks again.
Update! I used some of your technique, but with limitations. Didnât have brood from another colony so tried something a little different. I removed all of the drone brood frames from the laying worker nuk, shook off all the bees about 30 feet away, put the frames in the deep freezer over night, took the clean drawn frames (some had nectar in them) out and put them in a new deep box. Removed the nuk box from the area and replaced it with the new box containing the new queen in her cage.
Next day, I pulled the drone frames (they had honey, nectar and pollen in them, let them defrost and returned them to the new hive. The queen was well on her way to be released. Closed the hive up. Checked it 2 days later and the queen was released and moving over the brood frames freely with workers acting normally. Seems like it was a successful save so far. Am now feeding them sugar water and pollen patties to help them build up.
Thanks for the ideas! Appears to be some options available, just need to take a shot!
Great video! just what i was looking for. Thanks
Good Fix. Thank you!
Nice work thanks for sharing
I will try this 1 day, hopefully I'll never have too. Thank you.
Very cool. I've built a hive but I don't have bees yet. It's nice to learn this stuff ahead of time.
Great video. I just stumbled across it. Wish I would have seen this before I lost my working layer hive. What is the logic of releasing the queen from her cage within hours of establishing the new hive? I thought you should allow 3-4 days of protection so the workers would adjust to her pheromones. In my case, I would use a mated queen which you said would work too if I followed all the other steps you showed in your video.
Absolutely fascinating đ
I have never seen a bad video from you too level please keep it up very interesting and informative
Great video Jason. Very informative and great to know. Thanks and take care.
Jason this was such a great video, one of your best. Keep up the great work, take care
Great Video! I do see a bit of drone brood on that frame.
I've been using this method for a while the only difference is I don't shake them out just changed the frames over
From a Queen right colony put the drone laid frames in a good hive and put the good frames fertile queen colony
in the drone laying workers colony worked every time they will make a queen and sort themselves out.
thank you
A good informative video. This will work here in Australia just the same. I like your style of presentation too. Thanks.
Glad it was helpful!
Hey Jason, another way which i think gives more predicted results is to 1- shake the bees a few hundred meters from the original hive as less laying workers will get back due to their ovaries size and weight 2- use a mated queen under a push-in cage and allow her eggs/then larvae to suppress any remaining laying workers and after the mated queen is released in the hive usually the bees will take care of any remaining laying worker who tries to get to the queen... different way but yours could also work just fine
Without asking Jason, I think the primary reason he didnât shake them out a couple of hundred yards/meters away is that the young nurse bees that havenât started to fly would all be lost
Yes i get your point, thanks for pointing out
Ahmad Abdi Laying worker hive has been queenless for weeks. There should be no young nurse bees present. When I have shaken bees at a distance, on checking that site an hour later I have never seen bees remaining.
Nice video! I like your approach here Jason.
Glad you liked it!
Nice ..Thanks!
Jason, you bring new meaning to the phrase - " thinking outside of the box " . your awesome!!!!
Great information! Fortunately we haven't had to deal with a laying worker colony yet, but I'll give this a try when it happens. BTW, the NUC we got from you is booming.
Glad to hear you have avoid the laying worker situation thus far. It's nothing any beekeeper looks forward too. lol
I am also glad to hear the nuc is doing good. Did they manage to get plenty of stores built up for winter? Have you treated for mites or what's your approach there?
Hello I did this with a mated queen and it worked perfectly. Took two frames from a good hive and added to an 8 frame deep. Frozen everything and reinstalled.
Awesome!!
Fantastic, and very interesting! I remember seeing pictures of you doing this before, but the video just made it all the better. When they decided to go in that nuc, they sure piled in there! Amazing!! Fun to see the queen laying an egg like that too!
Will this method only work with a virgin queen? Thanks for sharing JC!
I am glad you enjoyed it. I can't say for sure but I do think a mated queen would work as long as she is caged and all the other steps are followed.
Good job Jason! That's not normally an easy situation to fix. I don't have it happen very often but I have had success with doing it that way as well as pulling a laying queen on her frame with her workers and turning the frame so she's next to the wall. I don't always have extra queens around or queen cells so pulling a queen on her frame and letting the good colony build a queen has worked pretty good for me and they are less likely to kill a queen that's actively laying.
Vinofarm had this problem a while back, as far as I know it's still ongoing with him trying to fix it.
Oh, hi Brent!
Hey Jim, hows it going?
Brent OK. Latest update will be up soon. Iâve gone full circle.
Thanks Brent! Sooner of later every beekeeper will battle this so I thought a video would be helpful. Glad you found a way that works for you. Raising queens it happens more than I like.
great success
Thanks for showing this at various intervals
Good job Bro I love this video from India
Excellent... Will try this out as not been successful before. But yes changing the brood box over and frames to eradicate the laying worker pheromone makes sense, plus new queen. Though wonder if putting in a frame with some queen cells would also work....?
Have shaken them out before a few yds away.... hoping the laying worker wont know her way home... but not successful. Tks
Great video
Grate video đđœ iv got a mated queen on its way. Which Iâm putting in a drone layer hive. As soon as it turns up Iâm trying this đ€đœ
Awesome. Your gonna love this little trick!
@@JCsBees manipulation all done and frames in the freezer Iv not let the queen out yet but they seemed fine with her no balling her. So hoping this works for me as this is a massive colony and was my first hive I started with đ đ€đœ
@@TheBritishbeeman Best of luck!
I found your video very informative. Thank you. I am blown away that an infertile worker can lay a living egg! It turns into a larva! How can that be?!? After seeing several videos on this (I'm trying to learn all I can before I start my own hives) I got to thinking. Those laying workers are doing everything in their little bug capacity to produce a queen. I am wondering...what would happen if someone took some of those drones and put them in queen cups? Would that hatch out a queen? Those bees are making so many miracles I am tempted to think this could happen. I am hoping someone conducts this experiment. I don't have bees myself or I would just pop a drone larva into a queen cup just to see what came out! Thanks again for your video.
good video/swedish beekeeper
Thanks!
Hi Jason, love your videos!
I just discovered my oldest and strongest colony of 5 years has a problem. I canât find a queen, there are mostly all drone brood, some occasional rare flat
If your memory is anything like mine has been lately you'll be cleaning all the comb out of frame number five's position in a few weeks. LOL
I spoke too soon. You got it covered. :)
Oh trust me, I would have surely forgotten to add the frame if it weren't for making this video. lol
@@JCsBees LOL that right there is funny! thank you for these vids. and that goes for 628 also!
as a first year bee buyer ( I will let you know in the spring if I am a bee keeper ;) ) I have found them priceless!
Hilarious
Also from my comment below, I have seen her walking on the frame with an egg hanging out...? This hive was a swarm I caught.
Phil Janik Jr late reply. That wasnât an egg hanging out. Sheâs been mated and thatâs a drones âman partsâ hanging out.
She looked marked in the cage! Reason you didn't mark her before her first release? Worried a marked virgin queen might be affected by the paint in flight? Drone refusal?
As is typical in Beekeeping, there is more than one way to skin a cat. I didn't have access to virgin queens...nor extra queens...so I literally just combined my laying worker nuc with a laying queen nuc with queen excluder and newspaper and in a few days all was good....they worked on tearing out all the drone comb and larvae and meanwhile the queen was laying...I combined three this year like this...one was a drone laying queen (newly mated) and two were just worker colonies.....one of them I just gave a mated queen and they accepted her with no problem..
Kevin McMahon hello been missing your videos Iâm a newbee and need all the help I can get
ronnie holloway not a lot to show recently that I thought would be video worthy...I did one vid just talking beekeeping had it all done and editing program crashed at the end and I lost it all...didn't feel like redoing all my work...lol
Very interesting video, have never seen this approach before, surprised they accept the new queen so quickly.
Jason why did you not use a mated queen, typically I would use a mated queen with several frames of brood above the laying worker separated by a sheet of newspaper, pretty much works every time. But then again I always have nucs for back up! Obviously the biggest challenge with a laying worker is having spare âqueens and brood â for most folks. I would caution folks about trying to fix a laying worker colony without both. Often the laying worker will kill an introduced queen or virgin if not accompanied by additional eggs, brood and workers. Possibly the virgin technique works well because the virgin does not have the pheromones of a mated queen, I need to check that out some. Nicely done though, more options is always a plus.
Hi J man. Good vid thank you, just a couple of questions from this 2 year nubee. 1. Is there any special reason that you added a virgin queen instead of a mated queen? 2. Why dump the whole hive in front of the nuc box instead of right in it Thanks .
Jason I have this problem now in one of my colonies, found a bunch of drone brood in the second box just wondering would the queen bee lay drone brewed to maybe try to keep the hive warm. Or should I just go ahead and shake it out give them a frame of eggs, and brewed and let them make their own queen?
Hello great video. I'm about to do this but with a mated queen. Wondering should I leave some bees on the doner frames from another hive? So the brood have some nurse bees?
Also what should I do if there aggressive towards the queen? Any way to help that?
At 2:00. Look how he plays in the bees with his bare fingers!
What's wrong with that? Bees won't sting unless they feel threatened. Try it sometime!
@@JCsBees newbie here. Not quite that confident yet, but getting there
Ive been donated a mated Queen and a frame of BIAS with nurse bees for my current DLQ hive. I went into the hive today and found and killed the DLQ ready for tomorrows introduction so they should definetly be Q- after 24 hours.
Plan is to move the Q- hive to one side and have a new hive positioned on the original space with the BIAS, nurse bees and caged Queen sandwiched adjacent.
Then shake out a frame at a time from the Q- hive and hopefully let them walk back in. At the same time I'll check for any other Qs. Provide some 2:1 syrup.
Does this sound right???
TIA.
This is very informative on the subject. Is there a reason you are shaking them at the entrance instead of inside the box? Is there a reason you are using a virgin queen instead of a mated one? Do you let the freezer frame come up to room temp before you re introduce it to the colony? Thanks
Yes, to shake the bees back into the box would have fixed nothing, there is something to them marching back in and the new queens smell that makes this work. I used a virgin just because that's what I had free at the time. The same efforts would work with a mated queen though. Yes, always let the frame warm up before giving it back to bees.
I currently have a laying worker hive consisting of two med supers which they are covering. Would hate to lose it . I only have 3 hives the other two might have a queen cell ,I have no extra reared queens . Do you think this might work ? As for dumping them out that close to the hive doesn't that give the laying worker(s) a good chance of walking back in to set up shop? Though I guess they may attack the queen cells ?
Kameron
Fl.
Donât you think marking the queen helps in spotting her more easily? I thank you for teaching on this subject.
I do think marking helps to spot the queen. It's also a great way to keep track of their age if you use the queen marking coloring system. Last year was yellow, this year is red, etc...
I really found this video interesting! I am trying to alleviate a laying worker issue right now. I took a different approach and placed the laying worker box on top of a queen right box with newspaper between them. Iâm hoping they will pick up on the smell of a queen right box and stop the laying worker. This was recommended by a local mentor, as well as what Iâve seen from a university program in Ontario. But what you did here was interesting, and I could take these steps after awhile, once they stop the laying worker. Questions about a few things i noticed.... you have all these 5 frame nuc boxes. Is that what you do, produce nuts? Do you get any honey from these hives at all? Iâve never seen anyone combine deep frames with mediums, but Iâm new to this. Finally, do you find the 5 frame boxes are easier to over-winter? Are you located where winters are easy or as harsh as northern Illinois? Thanks for posting this, I found it really helpful and interesting. Take care.
Best of luck with the laying workers. And yes there is more than 1 worker laying in most cases. Yes, I sell nucs. I could get honey from them if I wanted but I do not push honey sales, I'd rather the bees eat their honey so I don't have to feed them plus the honey is better for them then sugar water. I can't say that nucs are easier to overwinter as they take the same preparation as any colony but they can survive our Ohio winters.
Glad you enjoyed the video. Thanks for stopping in and commenting!
great video, but your manner of making the video is superb. it shows the process from start to finish over a few weeks. Often you only see the start of the process and are left with questions of how to proceed from there since it is a one time shot only.
also, what will dissolve wax on clothing that can't be placed in boiling water?
I personally used a iron with a paper towel. I have heard that using news paper works but I have not tried it.
Awesome, thank you. Has anyone ever told you , you sound just like Mr. Rogers? :-)
Glad you enjoyed it. I have never been told I sounds like Mr. Rogers. lol That's new one! It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood! đ
Thank you! Why did you have the bees walk into the hive instead of shaking them in the top?
To shake them back into the hive would have done nothing. They need to feel homeless.
Jason, thanks for the videos. On the laying worker fix, what is the aim of shaking out the bees if you are doing it right in front of the box? If any laying workers are there, they can presumably just walk back in. One traditional fix is to shake them out at a distance. I see the logic of that as you are hoping the laying workers cannot find their way back. Cheers.
@Rob H I can't honestly say why it works shaking them out right as the base of the hive but I can say if you don't do it the added queens doesn't stand much of a chance, at least in my experience. I'm not sure if the walking back in triggers something causes the layers to stop or what but this method has worked every single time for me.
@@JCsBees thanks Jason. Interesting. maybe the shake-out causes a kind of reset. I am trying to help a friend fix a laying worker situation. Planning to try the adding a queenright brood comb method.
Good luck!
Will this work if I put a queen right nuc in the laying worker hives location and shake the bees like you did, but have the mated queen caged in the nuc?
frame in the nuk hive where you shake bees , is capped brood frame from another hive ?
Hey Jason, I have a hive go queen less, and I tried giving them brood and even put a mates queen, think they killed her. I have a super strong hive next to them, do you think I could just combine the two hive and correct the laying worker issue I have with the weak hive?
Yes you can combine them easy enough with newspaper. Can I ask though, when you added a frame of brood and your queen did you shake all the bees out and make them walk back in? That is a very important step.
Jason Chrisman At the time I add the brood and even when I have them a marked queen. I thought the hive was just queenless. So I didnât shake them out of the hive. Even after the kill the queen, I found a large capped queen cell. Which totally confused me. The only thing I can think is that there are laying workers.
Spray the solution of Esential Oil Lemon Grass ,the bees ,get inside ,quick and that smel will save the new queen.
Are those cattle tags? great idea!!
Yes, I have a video on using them. They work very nice!
as far as i can tell this worked. I used a Carni queen an have a heck of a time finding them, but i see eggs, larva,
Glad to hear the good news! Now to find her and get her marked.
I captured a swarm and in a hurry I used brood frames and super frames in same box now itâs a mess. Comb is everywhere. Do you have any suggestions on how to fix this? Thanks
Hi Jasson, I have a laying worker colony, but I don't have brood fram. If I following your steps, Is it going to work?
Thanks for another great video. I like your veil. Where did you get it?
beeaccessories.co.nz/#products
Any idea how long you have to try this method? I've been fighting a laying worker hive for a little over a month and I have about given up.
This worked the first time both times I used it this season. Try it save your hive. If you can use a mated queen to save time but follow all the other steps. Best of luck!
Shared this video with my FB groups. I have never tried this approach but it looks great. I assume it would also work with a mated queen, or will her strong pheromones cause the laying workers to try to kill her?
Thanks for sharing! As mentioned in another comment, I can't say for sure but I do think a mated queen would work as long as she is caged and all the other steps are followed. Best of luck!
I am seeing drones Iâm in Northern California temps in 50s 40s at night
Please help. Top box, deep, no queen excluder, has only honey. Bottom box has drone brood galore, with some honey but no regular worker brood, eggs, or larva. Started pulling frames and found the marked queen right where you would expect, about three or four frames in, walking around as if nothing was wrong!! Any ideas?
@Jason Emery Sounds like you have a bad queen. She is what's called a drone laying queen. She will never go back to normal. I'd replace her asap. Best of luck!
Hi Jason. Great videos thanks for sharing. On your fixing laying worker colony you used a virgin. Would the process be any different with a proven mated queen?
Thanks
It's that same process for a mated queen. Matter a fact, part 2 of this video is with a laying queen.
Not quite on topic, but it has to do with queens getting mated: If I only have one hive and I want to do a walk away split, will the new virgin queen make with drones from her former colony?
Another trick in the box.
What if I have drone comb in my hive? And have lots of drones in hive but have lots of brood. As well I believe itâs a drone congregation area. So if I have many drones in 1 of my colonies does this mean itâs a bad hive and going to fail? Just curious. Because there are still drones.
Does this colony have any worker comb or is it all drone? If it does it kinda sounds like you have a drone laying queen. Basically her eggs are not fully fertilized. I would replace her if she was mine.
Yes, drones are great to have but drone colonies for mating take a lot of work. Drones only take from the hives resources, so you always having to feed them.
Thank you for this video....glad that it worked.
I was wondering if it would have made a difference if instead of a Virgin Queen you would have put an already mated queen?
Here's a video I made using the same approach but with a mated queen. Hope it helps czcams.com/video/R2-icgJ8_qw/video.html
@@JCsBees Thanks.
Hey JC, how did they do long term? Do you have to use an unmated queen, or is that just what you had on hand? My bee group ran into multiple laying worker hives last summer, including two of my own. Would love to have something in the tool kit to salvage the hive. Thanks.
Hey Charles, They have done great since this video. Now they just need to pull through winter. I think a mated queen would work as long as the same steps were taken to install her. Best of luck!
Jason Chrisman thanks, Iâll share with my group next week. We are a sub group of the county bee keepers assoc that does continuing education year round. Last week I held a wooden ware class to build nucs for spring. Queen rearing is up next.
I have been toying with a laying worker with a queen present...? Sugestions
Nice work Jason. Looks like you got your system down to a science. I really enjoyed this video. Will you be doing one on winterizing them? Take care, Tim
Glad you enjoyed it! This method worked very well for me.
A few year back I put together a little wintering series but have thought about doing a new one. I have changed a few of the things I do now. I guess it will depend on how much time I have available. Thanks for watchin'!
Yes, I understand about the time issue. I am sure with all the things happening around you, you barely have time for the bee videos. Take care and talk to you soon. Tim
8
So Iâm going to try this tomorrow. I have my frames in the freezer tonight. Whatâs your advice in regard to all those capped drones cells ~ Will the queen lay in them (once they are cleaned out) and will the nurse bees create another drone in its place? BTW, Iâll be installing a mated queen. That shouldnât make a difference, should it?
I really appreciate your videos. You always do such a good job!
1wildwackywoman Laying workers lay eggs in worker-sized cells; itâs only the capping that is mushroomed. Once the cap is removed, along with the dead larva, the bees will tidy up the edges and the cell will be ready for worker eggs to be laid.
Paul Christu thx for the info
What prevents the laying worker from re-entering the hive after the shake-off?
Nothing prevents them, it more that the desire to lay is suppressed
I just used this for a drone laying broodless colony. I made up a 3 frame nuc in a 5 fr box with one drawn honey store frame and a undrawn foundation frame with just a few bees in it I ADD MATED QUEEN CAGE WITH FULL CANDY PLUG PUT LID ON AND WALK AWAY after I put it where the drone laying colony was take the drone laying colony about 25 metters away through long grass and blow it all out then notice many of the bees swarming on tyhe nuc box trying to work out what's going on. I assume when they go in they will get the mated queen and nuc worker brood pheramone and get busy with the new vibe. I hope it works. Doing another one later. I kept all the frames from drone colony and will put them on a hive as a super in the next days. Any comments please. The idea is the drone laying worker will not get into the new nuc but the field force ands nurse bees and some drones will
Hi Jason. I enjoyed this video when you first published it. But haven't had to utilize the content until now. I have a fairly large Laying Worker Colony. You said the method you used is fairly consistent in it's success? My hive consists of one 8 Frame DEEP, and two 8 frame MEDIUMS. In your opinion, Should I just SHAKE them ALL out or try to combine with, like three other colonies using newspaper? Still am enjoying your videos Central Ohio Beekeeper! Blessings!
That's for you to decide. Do you care if you lose one of your hive numbers? If not, then combined them. If you don't want to lose a colony they start shaking them out. There is still plenty of time in the season, if it were me I would shake them but I hate losing hive numbers when I am trying to grow.
While checking on our hive the middle of June we found no brood. We re-queened on June 15, two weeks later we checked and still found no brood. We also didnât see many drones. We re-queened again on July 3. We just did a hive check July 19 and there is still no brood and no drone present. Canât find the queen. So nothing is laying eggs. Do we just wait and buy new bees next spring? At this point our hive has been without a queen for over 4 weeks. Do you think we have time to shake them out and try to introduce another queen? We live in Colorado if that helps.
@Marilyn Nielsen I am not sure when you start experiencing cold weather but you may be further ahead to wait until next spring to start over. At this point in the season it would be a lot of work for a colony to build up in time. Sorry it didn't work out for you this year but I am glad to hear your not stopping.
Jason Chrisman Thanks! Yes, we plan on getting 2 packages of bees delivered in the spring. As it is, the bees have provided us with double the amount of honey in the supers than what we harvested last year and there is still plenty of honey stores in the deeps on both hives for the new girls to start off with next spring. We actually lost our other hive early on this spring and really had hoped weâd catch a swarm. Last year we caught 2. We had weird rainy weather this year so we never had any come in the yard. We do have a 3rd hive we can set up if we do see a swarm, fingers crossed.