Reverie


Reverie - n. a state of being pleasantly lost in one's thoughts; a daydream or fantasy; a visionary or impractical idea

"To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,—
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.

The revery alone will do
If bees are few." - Emily Dickinson

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Luscious queens and micro-colonies

My Old Sol queen arrived today, so what better time to try out our new western nucs?  The majority of my hives are all westerns, meaning I use western hive boxes for both brood and honey supers.  The problem with this system (only ONE of many according to deep fans) is that standard deep nucs are useless if we want to make splits or keep a queen on reserve. 

First I made triple-sure the queen wasn't on a frame I was taking from the existing colony.  Look at that Italian queen.  Large and slow and sexy (isn't beekeeping great?).  You wait right here, ma'am.

I pulled a few frames of solid capped brood covered with nurse bees, shook a couple frames of extra bees in for good measure, added a frame of honey and pollen, and placed the queen cage. 

The western nuc!  And just like that, one colony becomes two, and I have a premium queen on reserve if I need her. 
 
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3 comments:

  1. Kelly JJune 25, 2013 at 7:21 PM

    I just found your blog and love it! I'm a new beekeeper and am chronicling my journey on my own blog - www.countrybackyard.blogspot.com. Your style of writing is great, your photos are beautiful...thank you for sharing your experiences! You put my blog to shame! :) Happy beekeeping!

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  2. Jen LarsenJune 26, 2013 at 11:27 PM

    Thanks so much Kelly - I'll check you out!

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  3. meemsnycMay 16, 2014 at 11:00 PM

    I'm using a Nuc to raise Queens for the first time by bringing over fresh uncapped brood frames to a nuc box. Have you tried raising Queens with this method before?

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