May in the Honeybee Yards
Mid May is when we check all of our Honeybee yards. They are at various farms and orchards that also sell our honey when they are open in the fall.
All the new packages that were installed are checked to see if the queen is laying eggs and usually another brood box is added for them to grow into.
The wintered over colonies are also checked and split if necessary. If a colony gets too large too early it will swarm. Most of the honeybees will leave and the beekeeper is left with a small colony that will not be large enough to produce honey.
So - we try to head that off by splitting the colony into two parts, leaving one in the original space and moving the other to a new spot. The bees will make a new queen if necessary by feeding day old larvae royal jelly - this will change the character of the young bee and changing her from a worker bee to a queen bee.
"Swarm Season is usually from mid-May through June. This is when you see a large cloud of bees flying around. They are usually quite harmless - they are just looking for a new home."
The images directly below were from our honeybees at Big Red Orchard in Romeo.
The top covers are off so we can see the bees.
We will now check to see if the queen is ok - by seeing if eggs are present.
Storm Damage at one of our Bee Yards
The tree destroyed some boxes.
A few of the supers took a direct hit.
Most of the live colonies were on the left - not under the tree.
I thought I had a lot of cleanup to do - but on the next trip to this yard the homeowner had completely removed the tree.
LATE BREAKING NEWS!
Due to popularity the Honey Sale has been EXTENDED UNTIL JUNE 31!
Other Interesting Links Below:
A more detailed look at what we do in the honeybee yards all year.
Click here...
Replacement honeybees are ordered in advance and are shipped in screened boxes.
Click here...
