Sorry I've been away, been busy

[Beeboy01]

Hi everybody, things have pulled me away for the last six months. Still have bees and will be back joining in over the next few weeks. Missed all of you.

Ed

[Nock]

Hope all is well.

[Beeboy01]

Everything is fine, just took a short detour during the last few months. Hitting my hives today for their second big inspection of the year. The Covid-19 shutdown has really turned me into a solitary bee keeper. The local club isn't meeting every month which makes it hard to keep the interest up.

[Ben Framed]

I am glad to see you back, I have missed your post and input.

Phillip Hall

[van from Arkansas]

I was wondering about you.  I missed the pics of flowers last February.  Glad to see you back, BeeBoy.

Van

[Beeboy01]

Got the inspection in and four out of five of my hives are doing well. One crashed and from the remains it looks like the hive threw multiple small swarms. Must of been at least five or six swarm cells along the bottom of the frames. Checking the records from last year and found that the hive had a bad tendency to throw multiple small swarms and was aggressive, probably was a little Africanized. Can't say I'm sorry to see it go, lost a queen in it last year while trying to change it's genetics. Stacked the boxes and frames next to the yard so they can get robbed out. The rest are bringing in honey and #5 which was a late July nuc from last year has some of the prettiest yellow/orange bees I've seen in a while, need to take some pictures. Felt good to get back with the bees. 

[Bob Wilson]

Hmm. A swarmy queen. I guess it is better she goes. I caught a swarm last year. That same queen swarmed this spring (March). I caught her, but now that new colony, with the same original queen I suppose, swarmed again yesterday.
Of course, I believe it was HoneyPump who said a swarmy hive was usually a productive hive, or something to that effect.

[TheHoneyPump]

Welcome back BB
Sounds like that nasty colony is better off gone! You still have bees in the others and now you have some empty equipment to play with.  Win-Win.

To Bobs comment:   Yeah, BUT:
A high performing queen can quickly get ahead of the beekeeper and seem swarmy. Doing the right things at the right time she stays happy and will reward with a massive colony.
There are other queens that no matter what was done or when they will swarm anyways.  Just up and take off.  Those are better off gone and left to freeze in the trees. Do not chase them and lose no sleep over them.
Which of the two types you have is written in the combs.  The keeper has sheet after sheet of brood on the go, nest is well organized, and a packed hive.  Give her a-lot of space, she will fill it.  The other type has an moderate amount of brood, resources a bit scattered, plenty of room dispersed, overall basically none too special, yet swarm cells everywhere ? Pinch that witch hard.

[Beeboy01]

I was nursing that hive for a few years, it was the last survivor of the great die off that hit my yard about six years ago. The genetics of the hive always had it building up a lot of brood early with no honey getting stored then throwing swarms. It had it's uses in the yard mainly for supporting other hives with frames of brood for early buildup and brood frames for nucs. It always would give me at least one sting during inspection. Four hives doesn't sound like a lot but it's where I want to be right now as a hobby. Probably will start a replacement hive just to keep the equipment in service and as a backup.   

[Bob Wilson]

HoneyPump. Thanks for the advice. I will tell you Saturday, when I inspect again. Oops. .. I need to leave the new virgin queen alone for 10 days, right? So I will stay out of the hive til the next Saturday.