Saturday, July 18, 2009

7/18/09: Seventh Inspection - Italian Hive only

Conditions: Partly Cloudy, 68F
Present: Bud F. and I
Equipment: No changes.
Activities: Smoked hive about 3:15pm. Inspected all frames.
Observations: Observed no eggs, larvae, or capped brood. On a recommendation from an experienced beekeeper, we did this inspection after seeing the same thing about a week ago. We had hoped she was just a bit delayed in resuming laying after preparing to swarm. The workers had actually started back-filling the empty brood nest with nectar and pollen. We did not see the Italian queen this time, though she was present last time. This was judgement day for the Italian queen and she had not performed. Time to re-queen. The good thing is there were still a lot of bees left in the hive, so the population hasn't significantly declined yet. Even if we get a strong laying new queen, the population will drop. Hopefully it won't drop too much or during a nectar flow.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.