Walking Drones | Beekeeping in Richmond, Virginia

Nuc Creation in Full Swing

Although I started a couple of Nucs last weekend, this weekend it was Game On! I am not extremely confident that the earlier Nucs will produce quality queens, I am much more confident about the handful that were created this weekend.

Frame of capped drone brood — Lots of capped drone brood!

When I first started beekeeping, I followed the conventional wisdom of looking for Walking Drones before I started creating my Nucs. In those days, I was always biting at the bit to get some Nucs created asap. But, after a few years of looking at the numbers, I discovered that I needed to wait a little longer than that. I now wait not just for walking drones, but for large patches of capped drone brood in lots of hives. I found it in droves this weekend.

(The frame to the left came from the outside of a brood next in one of my hives – although there is some worker brood (mainly under the bees), most of the brood is capped drone brood!))

I have also found that those hives that really go overboard with the drone brood are the ones most likely to swarm (for me, anyway.) Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately!), I only found two hives that had this appearance. Both of these hives will create lots of Nucs for me between this weekend and the coming weekend. Hopefully, I can dissuade them:)

On a more general observation note, my bees are chock full of honey. I do not feed, so I can only imagine that we will have tons of swarms this year. Some folks still feed and, based on reports and other second-hand sources, “fed bees” seem to swarm a lot earlier than my hives. I am guessing the first swarms have happened and it will ramp up over the next week or two. On that note, I made sure all of my Nucs received plenty of honey. Three or four years ago, I lost several Nucs due to starvation (lack of honey at initial creation.) I hope to not repeat that mistake!

Whoa, doggie!

In my last post, I asserted that this past weekend would be the beginning of a Nuc or two in my yard. This was all based on my discovery of drones walking on the brood nest in the Larry Hive on Friday. If I had walking drones, then 14 or 15 days later (when my virgins would emerge from the walkaway splits) drones would definitely be flying about and ready to mate. Fortunately, I went out to do a full Spring breakdown inspection on both of the hives at Westover (Curly and Apache.) I found no drones in either hive and Curly is a sister hive (similar genetics) to Larry. Being conservative, I decided to wait one more week.

When I arrived at Westover Plantation, the first thing I checked was the old knot hole where my Westover Hive (and subsequently the William Byrd Hive) originated in a swarm last April. I had yet to see any real activity until Saturday. It was alive with bees, going to and fro, bringing in some of the bright yellow pollen that my two hives were bringing in, no doubt. It was good to see that they were still alive and doing well. I hope to get up two swarm traps within the next week or two to take advantage of any other casts that they make.

I have taken some scrap wood and built Nuc-sized boxes that can hang on a tree. Within it, I am placing a frame of comb and several frames of foundation. Finally, a drop or two of lemongrass oil at the entrance and it’s good to go. The beauty of this trap is that the drawn comb makes it appealing and they will immediately start to draw out frames that I can put into a Deep once I discover that the trap is full. Last year, I didn’t get them built until late May, so they didn’t have a good shot. I am very hopeful this year!

Both of the hives on the grounds were doing well. Apache was the hive that went queenless last September (for reasons that I have no idea of). I combined them with my Apache Nuc (laden with the young hygienic queen from out near Farmville). As one might expect, the bees took up residence in the upper Deep where the Apache queen was laying last Fall. The bottom deep was full of nectar and the top medium was full of capped honey (sugar syrup based, for the most part.) I simply swapped the Deeps and removed the medium (and also replaced the old bottom board with a newly painted SBB – insert in place for now.) They were bringing in a ton of bright yellow pollen (compared to the dull gray of most of my yards), which I now believe was due to the dandelions. After setting up a new yard near Shirley Plantation this weekend, I can see that the lands near the river are about a week ahead of the yards inland, on bloom season. They have tons of dandelions in bloom, as opposed to a basic start inland.

It was a good weekend, to be sure. The bees are bringing in tons of supplies and should really ramp up over the next 3 weeks. There should be a lot of opportunities to prep my mediocre hives for honey build and my stellar hives for increase. It is even looking good for my queen rearing experiment, as I should have a hive or two to use for the Starter and Finisher hives. Well, back to churning out more frames! This weekend I start a trap out and attempt a smoke out. Both will be adventures, I am sure.