All the hives have swarm cells though. This is completely confusing. There is plenty to do, the queens all have space to lay and yet there are swarm cells?? hmmm.
Perhaps they don't have enough to do or are just in wax making mode without a genuine outlet. Well, I gave them outlet. I took out five frames that were the oldest frames in the top boxes and let the girls start fresh with foundation. So they have plenty to do. As soon as these get going well, I will do it again and again so that each hive has between 25 and 33% fresh frames. As the wax gets older, it not only accumulates pesticides and other nasty chemical, it also gets just plain dirty.
And the big news - we saw our first Dandelion in the yard - two bright yellow faces that had already been pollinated so the bees already got there. This means it is time to give the girls some people honey frames!
Yay for honey!
I honestly believe that when we have periods of daily rain where the bees can't go out, that they get a form of "cabin fever" and feel cramped enough to think they want to swarm. This happened to me 2 years ago after a similar week of drizzly non-stop rain...
ReplyDeleteI agree Steven, and I was chatting with folks last night at beeschool - the bees could be genuinely ready to swarm, so it is still best to keep on top of it. The queen may be feeling a bit honey bound too. I don't think they've moved in to the bottom boxes in all the hives.
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