Oak Orchard Honey

I didn't have any fresh eggs to place in the trapout, so I contacted Jill at www. bloomfieldhoney .com/ ‎. She was great and sold me a laying queen so I was able to get things all set up. Here is the video of what was done. I'm going to go over and remove the cone from the tree to allow the new established hive to rob-out the old hive in the tree. I assume there is a lot of honey left behind and I want this new hive to build up enough stores to make it through winter. With only one hive really established back at our apiary, we won't have much honey to harvest this year. Hopefully, if we continue to grow we will be able to split some hives in the future.

Well, the winter went okay except we lost one of the two hives... the Washington. As you may know, I've decided to name the hives after the US presidents to help me learn them as I go - ha! Time to try a trapout from a beehive in a tree out in Bergen, NY. The owner is highly allergic to bee stings and would like to walk along his wooded path without worry. He is glad to have the bees taken to a new home. So, I set up the trapout and was ready to pull a frame of fresh eggs out of the Jefferson hive, but... no eggs. I knew the numbers had dropped after a predicted swarm, but I thought the old queen would still be doing her job. Not from what I saw. The whole brood box was empty and clean. Lots of bees though. The numbers looked strong. So, I called Jill at Bloomfield Honey Farm and she set me up with two laying survivor stock queens for $30 a piece. She will have them for us today in queen cages with attendants so I can go out tomorrow and get the trapout started as well as re