Weather update:
Friday 18 may 2018: Temperatures did not reach 18°CSaturday 19 may 2018: Checked the beehives early (10:20) still cold outside - 11°C
Hive report:
Split (SS 1 2018): No activity whatsoever. I was hoping to see at least some bees come out in the time I made the observation, but no... Nothing. Tapped the hive and only a light buzz came out. This could mean to few bees, or a queencell is in the making. I do think all forager bees went out and returned to the motherhive. Hoping this split makes it. On the outside there are some signs of my bees having the shits... So not optimistic.Trapout number one (TO 1 2018): I went out to a beekeeper that cut out some queencells on wednesday 16 may 2018. The cells look dried up and dead but I took them anyway, not knowing how the status would be at trapout number 1. Arriving at the scene I was pleased to see no activity near the cone, but some activity near the hivebox. I placed the ladder and opened up the hive. Bees were all very calm, I put in the queencells (even though I don't think anything is in there) There might be a queen in there - even though I did not check. When I tap the hive only a wave of buzzing bees follows, not a roar like I'd expect from a queenless hive. I did see some bees leave the cone (a total of 4 in 20 minutes) but no bees came back through there. So I'm hoping the trap-out worked and they got a queen going. I did not pull out any frames but saw bees on 4 of them and there is building going on.
My hive (Simplex Nuc): Normal activity, looking through the windows I can see building going on in box 2 (middle box) and no activity on the bottom box. I'll leave them on 3 boxes (As I plan on doing year round) and hope the summer flow comes sooner than later.
Bob Out
