Oh those varroa mites! Paramount nursery
September 25, 2019
Paramount Nursery
We went through each frame of each of the four hives. The Cecilio hive (“our star” hive this year) had a couple of queen cups which we removed. Good pollen, capped brood and several frames with some capped honey. No nectar.
The Paloma2 hive was next. There was plenty of larva, capped brood, pollen and honey. No nectar!
The Lino hive also looked great! These queens are not slowing down! Found larva, capped brood, a lot of nectar(!), capped honey on several frames.
Jeff’s hive had minimal varroa last check. He was worried since he had few honey stores last time. This time: beautiful capped honey and lots of nectar! He us happy! Tons of capped brood and larva!
We saw our green marked queens (2019) in all three of four hives but all had lots of larva so we know she is there! One interesting thing we noticed was that the Lino hive and Jeff’s hive had tons of nectar. The other adjacent hives had none! Interesting!! Bees were flying in with yellow and orange pollen baskets.
We powdered sugar dusted each frame of the four hives. In a week, we will do it again and then repeat our varroa test the following week.
One thing I forgot to mention is that yesterday a bee got inside my veil but luckily I saw it right away and squished it. Today a bee got in a tiny opening at Jeff’s suit where the zippers come together and before he could get it, it stung him on the forehead! Hopefully he is building up resistance to stings!
Stay tuned! Thanks for following along!
Inspection board