Queen released

While I was away this weekend, Deno went to check the colony. The queen has been released from the cage and we already have some brood being sealed. Another two weeks and we'll have the new bees hatching and the colony will be out of danger.

Agnes is laying in the upper hive body which has me a little concerned because it will limit the space they have to store their winter supplies. If the brood does not move lower as the fall progresses, I think we'll have to take steps to rearrange the brood ourselves. Either by switching hive bodies or by moving a frame with the queen into the lower chamber and putting a queen excluder over it to keep her laying in the lower hive body until the upper hive bodies brood can hatch and the cells filled with nectar and pollen.

In California it is probably not a real crisis if there is less than 50 lbs of honey when they go into their winter cluser. Last year, they had about 70 lbs of surplus honey stored in the hive bodies for themselves when we put the entrance reducer on for the winter and when we first checked them in February they still had nearly 60 lbs remaining so they clearly were continually able to find nectar sources. However, if we have a long rainy spell they will have to depend on their stores. We need to plan for a wet winter just in case and make sure they have enough stores which means making room in the upper hive body while they still have time to collect nectar.

They have continued to bring in more fresh honey even without the queen and have filled the super that we have remaining about 1/3 with honey so far, although they have not started capping it yet so it is clearly not cured fully. Another month or so and we should be able to take of the last honey super with whatever extra honey they have placed in it.

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