OK, so I've been lazy this year. A combination of bad weather and lots of work stuff has meant I've just kept an eye on my two colonies and left them to it (so far).
I have a pale yellow colony (from GWW) in two Lang brood boxes. I have a darker colony in one Lang brood box (from PH).
Last year the pale colony took ages replacing their queen. This year they seem happy and are currently foraging like mad.
Last year the darker colony took a while to start building up, then swarmed when I wasn't watching carefully/often enough. The new queen seems to have taken over well, though, and they've been foraging well this year when the weather allowed. I've been meaning to add another brood box with some frames for honey gathering, but haven't got around to it yet.
This morning, the darker colony was almost entirely on the outside of the hive (!!!). It seems my laziness has caught me out and they're going to swarm. I have lots of other kit around and have rapidly put out some bait hives in case they can't find anything better.
I have a new hive stand all ready, near the swarming one, so could do an artificial swarm, if it's still worth it (although I've never done one before!). Any suggestions on what I should do?
FG
I have a pale yellow colony (from GWW) in two Lang brood boxes. I have a darker colony in one Lang brood box (from PH).
Last year the pale colony took ages replacing their queen. This year they seem happy and are currently foraging like mad.
Last year the darker colony took a while to start building up, then swarmed when I wasn't watching carefully/often enough. The new queen seems to have taken over well, though, and they've been foraging well this year when the weather allowed. I've been meaning to add another brood box with some frames for honey gathering, but haven't got around to it yet.
This morning, the darker colony was almost entirely on the outside of the hive (!!!). It seems my laziness has caught me out and they're going to swarm. I have lots of other kit around and have rapidly put out some bait hives in case they can't find anything better.
I have a new hive stand all ready, near the swarming one, so could do an artificial swarm, if it's still worth it (although I've never done one before!). Any suggestions on what I should do?
FG
