The bee keeper diaries

[Iowanian]

A guy showed me a trick I'm going to start using now that you mention queen cells.

Drill a 1" hole in a 2x4 and make a 3 1/2" mark.
Cut a 3.5x3.5 square of 1/8th hardware cloth.
Lay the square over the hole, punch it through with a dowel rod.

It makes a mesh "cup" that you can put over those cells..and if you get in there when they emerge, you can save some of those virgin queens before they get killed. pull them, mark them, add them to a small nuc for a "reserve" queen. I'm going to start doing this, but didn't see any cells when I went through hives yesterday.

I wish you were closer...I'd love to have a frame of that many cells. that's awesome.

This is the first year I've used formic pro and I'm putting it on every single swarm I catch. My hives and the nucs I'm buying have been treated. The way it smells, I feel like I'm putting a nuclear waste patty in the hives, and the bees react like you just showed them a photo of their mama naked...they hate it.