Inspection Report - 05/10/2020 and 05/25/2020

Inspection Report 5/10/2020 and 5/25/2020




OVERVIEW

There were two main visits to Google Fremont in May. The following is a report on what I did and what happened.

SPLIT COLONY INTO TWO

You might remember that last fall we combined the two colonies into one. This was done to give the bees a better chance of making it through the winter as one strong colony as opposed to two medium strength ones. Now that spring is here, I waited for them to build up in numbers, and then decided on 5/10 it was time to split them back into two.

To split a colony, the following happens:

  1. Inspect hive to determine how many bees are in the colony

  2. Start to take “frames” of bees from “main” colony and place in new hive of “split”

  3. Once 5 to 10 frames are moved, add empty frames into main colony

  4. Put new caged queen into split colony (they will not have one). Caged queens are in a small cage that allows the bees to get used to her smell.

  5. Close up both hives

Main colony with bees

Main colony with bees

SPLITTING RESULT

After the 5/10 splitting of the colony, I returned on 5/15 to release the queen that was in the cage. This gave them ample time to get used to her smell. The purpose for this is that if you release her too soon, there is a chance they will kill her as they don’t recognize her. I released her into the colony and I closed things up.

I returned again on 5/25 to determine how she was doing and to provide sugar water feeding. Upon inspection, I saw that the new queen was laying eggs and working away. This is a great sign!

Below is a short video of the main colony and the new split!

NEXT VISIT

On the next visit to the Google Bees, I will be doing some cleanup inside both the colonies. Mainly, there are some frames that need to be replaced as the bees are not using them. Sometimes bees do not like the frames they are working with, and will not touch them. This can create an issue if they start to run out of places to build honey and make cells for eggs and baby bees.

By replacing these frames, my hopes are that they start to build up and get good reserves going!









Jason Kardong