Inspection Report 05/30/2020

OVERVIEW

This inspection was to release the queen that was added to the newly split colony.

COLONY 1 - West Facing

Several things happened with the West Facing colony in the last two visits (5/23 and 5/30). The following was done.

Inspect overall condition of colony
Split bees into a new colony
Add box to give space
Feed New Colony

INSPECT OVERALL CONDITION OF COLONY

The inspection of the colony showed that there is a very healthy colony growing. The population was very large and evidence inside the hive showed that it was time to split them back into two colonies. You may remember that in the fall I combined the two colonies to ensure they would make it through the winter.

I determined it was now time to split into another colony

SPLIT BEES INTO A NEW COLONY

Because there were a lot of bees in the West facing colony, it was time to split back into two colonies. You might remember that last fall we combined the two colonies into one in order to help them get through the winter. The idea being that two medium colonies can become one strong one. This worked as anticipated and now we can move them back into two. This does create a small issue where the “split” colony will be queenless for a period of time. This can be dealt with by either letting the split colony create a new queen (which takes about a month), or to introduce a queen that’s ready to go. I used the latter method.

In the two following videos you will see the West facing colony with it’s huge population, and then the split that was made and moved to the North facing area. The queen has been added to the colony and you will see the bees convalescing around her.

ADD BOX TO GIVE SPACE

I also determined that the West facing colony will need some more space to grow into in order to keep them uncrowded and happy. This is easy to do with a new box. Unfortunately I do not have smaller boxes to add so went with a bigger one, but this will work for now.

West facing colony with extra box - getting tall!!

COLONY 2 - North Facing (new)

The North facing colony is back now after the split!! There is not a lot to report on this colony other than I added a queen and then came back a week later to release her. I wait a week so that they get used to her smell and won’t try to kill her. Waiting a week gives ample time for them to get used to her.

ROOFTOP LAYOUT

In case you have not been up to see the bees, here is the layout of where they are in proximity to each other. SORRY FOR THE VERTICAL VIDEO!! Not sure how that happened.

Inspection Report - 05/30/2020