Yesterday was a beautiful day. Cool, breezy, sunny-just perfect. A great day for harvesting honey.
We have two hives that we've been caring for all summer. This is only our second year trying bees, and last year our harvest was a bit disappointing because of the "drought". Digging into the first hive looked promising, but the bees were a bit peeved at me and so I let them rest while I started on the second hive. Surprise! Hardly any bees were in the second hive. I think that they swarmed about two weeks ago. My son saw a swarm way up in a tree, I checked the bees, they looked fine and healthy and like they were all there. (Couldn't see a queen.) Didn't think anything of it until yesterday. Live and learn? The second hive had no capped comb on it at all. All of the brood left in it was just emerging and very sluggish. No new brood. No sign of any disease. So was this caused by a swarm? I'm thinking the bee "thing" might not be for me.
Any bee keepers out there who could shed some insight? Advice?
Thanks.
Sep 7, 2010
Beekeeping info needed
Yesterday was a beautiful day. Cool, breezy, sunny-just perfect. A great day for harvesting honey.
We have two hives that we've been caring for all summer. This is only our second year trying bees, and last year our harvest was a bit disappointing because of the "drought". Digging into the first hive looked promising, but the bees were a bit peeved at me and so I let them rest while I started on the second hive. Surprise! Hardly any bees were in the second hive. I think that they swarmed about two weeks ago. My son saw a swarm way up in a tree, I checked the bees, they looked fine and healthy and like they were all there. (Couldn't see a queen.) Didn't think anything of it until yesterday. Live and learn? The second hive had no capped comb on it at all. All of the brood left in it was just emerging and very sluggish. No new brood. No sign of any disease. So was this caused by a swarm? I'm thinking the bee "thing" might not be for me.
Any bee keepers out there who could shed some insight? Advice?
Thanks.
We have two hives that we've been caring for all summer. This is only our second year trying bees, and last year our harvest was a bit disappointing because of the "drought". Digging into the first hive looked promising, but the bees were a bit peeved at me and so I let them rest while I started on the second hive. Surprise! Hardly any bees were in the second hive. I think that they swarmed about two weeks ago. My son saw a swarm way up in a tree, I checked the bees, they looked fine and healthy and like they were all there. (Couldn't see a queen.) Didn't think anything of it until yesterday. Live and learn? The second hive had no capped comb on it at all. All of the brood left in it was just emerging and very sluggish. No new brood. No sign of any disease. So was this caused by a swarm? I'm thinking the bee "thing" might not be for me.
Any bee keepers out there who could shed some insight? Advice?
Thanks.
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