We had some excitement last week with the bees. This is where we are currently.
Hive from the left to the right:
The brown hive has Russian bees.
The white box has Carniolan bees.
The decorative box with the cute roof has Carniolan bees. This is the hive that swarmed last week.
The hive on the right will be full of Russians after Paul splits the brown hive. That is if they haven’t swarmed and left already. We received another phone call saying the bees were spotted swarming again and then flew off to the North. Paul told the bees, “Good luck.” He doesn’t like working with the Russian bees because they are aggressive. Apparently the other breeds are calmer.
Paul doesn’t like the Russians and I don’t like the Saskatraz. Last year both our Saskatraz hives picked up and left around October. They took every drop of honey with them!
The two smaller hives in our backyard didn’t make it through the winter. Paul was diligent in brining them into the garage during the coldest part of the winter and we thought they were good. Two weeks before spring the warm weather tricked the bees and the cold snap that followed froze them. Paul said he won’t replace them until we move, because he doesn’t like mowing around them. I’m going to miss having a hive in our yard this summer.
We will have to see how our three hives do this summer and which hive makes it through the winter.