Here's a look at one of the two bee hives that we have on the property. It's been about a year since we caught two swarms - one in Jefferson Davis Parish and one out at the farm in Allen Parish. I took this video, but wish I would've gotten film of the bees' activity today. The video below is really tame compared to all the bees this afternoon.
We plan on expanding in the bee business this year. We'd like to put out some additional swarm traps to see if we could be successful in catching more that way. Primarily, though, we'd like to expand by making splits. If your hive is healthy enough, you can make a split by taking a frame of eggs/larvae, a frame of honey and pollen and plenty of nurse bees from the existing hive and placing them in the center of another box surrounded by frames.
What happens is remarkable. The bees immediately know that there is no queen. They begin "making" a queen. (You can also purchase a queen cell to speed things up.) The queen will hatch, make her virgin flight, be bred by drones and return to the "new" box and begin laying eggs. This will be a first for us. We'll see if we're successful.
First, we need more equipment: boxes, frames, bottom boards and tops. Russ has a friend in a nearby town that had some new frames for sale. We drove over last weekend and picked them up. They came in pieces, requiring assembly.
I got some wood glue and put the frames together. Once the glue had dried, Tricia began popping the foundation in place. The foundation is coated with beeswax.
In a jiffy we had the 20 deep frames put together. On Thursday afternoon, we'll head to Lacassine to purchase some boxes, bottom boards, and tops from a gentleman in our beekeeping club. Then we'll be ready to go - either put up swarm traps OR make splits. Our beekeeping club will be making splits in early March, so we'll try to glean as much knowledge as we can.
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