Zone 5b hardy dwarf. Planted late last spring. Blossomed and fruited with 30 or so mini green fruits. Seems to be growing fine but noticed a few leaf curls and one in this photo.
I have been trying to diagnose a problem hive for about 10 days. It overwintered as a single deep. The population increased dramatically and I put another deep and a super on. I moved the hive about 8 days ago after an inspection that showed no queen cells and noticed some fighting at the landing board that looked like bees ejecting other bees from inside the hive. This corresponded with every morning for the past 5 days of about 30-50 bees dead in front of the hive. Three days ago I thought it had swarmed but it did not so I inspected it again and still did not find a queen or eggs. Yesterday I inspected yet again and still no queen or eggs so I assessed as queenless and inserted a buckfast queen yesterday afternoon. It was about to rain so I scraped a section of brood off a frame to make room for the queen cage. A white liquid ran down the frame. I didn’t think anything of it. I woke up at 2am realizing capped brood cells shouldn’t be liquified and spent hours looking at AFB images and my old class notes. I went back into the hive this morning about 9am to look specifically for AFB. These are the frames. I pulled larvae from 5 different locations on both sides of the frames and no roping or foul smell. I brushed the bees from the queen cage a couple times and no aggression so released her. She dove right in and the hive is now calmer at the entrance. Rabbit holes at 2am are no fun.
Anyone else run their equipment through the dishwasher prior to use for the season?
Zone 5b west of Chicago. All nine hives including the single deep overwintered. The early pollen came in with the first warm spell in March. The spring weather here has fluctuated considerably with periods of highs to 80F and lows to upper 30s. I attempted a Demaree on one hive on 13 April. It ended up a split and fortunately the original made a queen from an introduced frame of eggs and brood. On 22 April four of the remaining 8 hives swarmed. I was able to catch two of them. One 30 feet up in a fir and the other in a honeysuckle at my host farm. The other two from the farm I never saw. On 23 April two more at the farm swarmed. I was able to catch one in the same honeysuckle as the one the day before. I used all my supers to house these swarms. I inspected the two remaining hives on a day it wasn’t raining. I missed a QC in one and assessed the other as a supercedure. Welp. One swarmed yesterday 29 April and I put it in my Nuc box while I bought and painted two hives. Today 30 April the remaining hive swarmed onto a low hanging linden branch in the overcast drizzle. I was able to put that one in my last remaining box and transferred the Nuc box to the other painted hive.
Eight of my nine hives swarmed and today I hear piping from six hives (the original from the split has one). I just ordered more hive boxes. This is getting expensive. This is the new addition to my apiary. The two latest swarms haven’t been placed yet. I need to put up another rail.