Dear Friends and Beekeepers,
Our bee colonies are growing rapidly now and we see abundant pollen coming into the hives and a moderate honey flow in both Guadalupe County and Medina County. The wild persimmon is starting to bloom heavily and this often is a forerunner to our main honey flow. The year continues to look promising – especially if we can get some rain soon.
We are finishing up our mite treatment using Apiguard. I am considering putting Hopguard strips into the hives when I put honey supers on just to knock down the mites one more time before the honey flow begins.
We received our first batch of queens this week so we are now busy dividing our colonies and installing new queen into the divides. We do this every year, but it is always satisfying to create new colonies that we can share with others or use to grow our apiary.
BEEKEEPING WORKSHOP
Our free beekeeping workshop on Saturday is “
Evaluating a Colony for Possible Dividing
.”
We will open and examine one of our colonies and I will show you what I look for as I make the decision to divide or not to divide. As part of the workshop, I will go ahead and divide the colony if it passes muster. Please bring your protective gear if you would like to participate in the workshop. We begin the workshop at 9 and it is free. We hope to see you there!
Your friend,
Mark
