Progress in the Bee Yard

After all the rain last week, we finally had a chance to get out in the apiary to check out the hives and do some work.  All the hives at the farm are thriving and busy.  We then headed down the road to visit the offsite hives we started and relocated last weekend.  The sole purpose of this weekend's visit was to visually determine if there were signs of life in the two new hives.  Our visit revealed success.  At least for now.  One of the two nucs we started is from a hive that was thriving last fall, but had weakened over winter to the point where there were only a few frames of bees.  We were able to locate the queen so we determined the best chance this hive had for survival was to add a few frames of bees and brood from another strong hive.  It did appear the queen had started laying, but not a strong brood pattern.  Not wanting to disturb them this weekend, we will take a look inside the hive next weekend to see how things going and to determine if the queen is laying a and better pattern.  The other nuc we relocated is also another experiment for us as third year beekeepers.  For that nuc we removed a few strong frames full of bees, eggs, larva, and pupa.  We did not add a queen.  Hives without a queen will raise a new queen from one of the eggs in the hive.  It will be interesting to see how this turns out as well.  Stay tune for more details to follow soon!