Merioneth Beekeepers' Association

Saturday 12 June 2010

Photograph

Again we were lucky with the weather for our third 'At Home' at Taicynhaeaf. The beekeepers had recently split their only hive into two, but had waited for the meeting before seeing if a queen was present in the new hive. They had not found the existing queen before splitting, so had made sure that there were queen cells with larvae in each of the hives. After the split the hives were moved a couple of feet equidistant from the original hive's position, so returning bees would (hopefully) divide themselves between each hive.

The first hive inspected had the new queen with evidence of eggs in the frames. One of the experienced members was able to mark her. The second hive had slightly more bees with plenty of eggs and larvae. Again the member was able to mark the queen. There was a reasonable amount of honey in the two hives so an additional super was added to each.

The beekeepers had two bait hives some distance away from the active hives - one was an empty wooden box in a tree the other a brood box with frames in the open. Both had swarm lures in them.