Was working the colonies the other day and saw the most beautiful drones emerging, oh they looked already looking for a virgin queen, their eyes just about bugging right out of their great big heads. The queen was doing her thing, the bees doing their thing looking after her. She is a busy gal and a gangbuster for brood rearing and this colony is gathering lots of nectar. This is the old, original Carniolan colony that I had babied over the winter before last with a terrarium heater. The one that swarmed last year, evening after having performed a cut down split.
From this colony this year I have made two nucs, taken honey from to give to other colonies. I made another cut down split, that split is going gangbusters. I also made another cut down split from that original colony because they were going to swarm again. They are so big I just don't know what to do.
Very obviously this original colony has swarming tendences, moreso than my others, but that is OK, I am on top of them and using them to my advantage. This is an amazing colony.
We'll see what my New World Carniolan colonies do this year and next year. Perhaps they won't be swarmy like my other Carniolan one. Time will tell that tale. Have the most beautiful life in this most wonderful day. Cindi
(http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/4710/emergingdronebroodbe8.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
(http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/6907/emergingdronebrood2pk3.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
(http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/9981/emergingdronebroodsqueeoz9.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
Great pic's I enjoy all of your post's they are fun to read. :-D
Cindi,
Great pics. Is that last one your queen? Boy she is dark. My queens have all been very light.
My workers are all dark like yours, by my queens look like they don't get much sun for sure.
F
Very nice Queen shot showing the circle. Well done!
Nice pics Cindi!!!
...JP
Sorry to be naive, but what exactly is involved in a cut down split?
Thanks for all the great comments. The queen that is in this picture is the one that they recently raised, she is only about recently started laying, about two weeks ago, as I said, is a baby making machine, just like her mother. The original mother was Carniolan, imported from Australia. The queen may have been superceded since that time, who knows, so the mother queen may not be the original mother queen. But regardless, these genes of loving to create babies is amazing, gotta love our bees.
Madscientist, a cut down split is what I learned from the site of Michael Bush. You must go there if you really want to learn alot of good stuff, he is an amazing man with his learning site. A cut down split is what can be performed when queen cells are present and one is of the belief that they did not practice well enough, the art of swarm prevention (that be me, I go to that school of hard knocks and lessons constantly, hee, hee). The queen is found in the colony that one wishes to make that cut down split with, she, along with a good part of the capped brood is put into a new home, along with lots of the honey. The intention here is to create a thought in the colony that this colony has swarmed. They will be so busy rearing a new queen as soon as they detect their queen is gone (within the hour) and from the young, young, larvae they will create queen cells. Within one month or so this new queen that they have raised will be mated and laying her eggs. This colony will still have a great opportunity to gather honey because the bees do not have an awful lot of brood to look after. They have about one month where they will be working in their colony without any new brood to look after. Some say this type of split will make an exceptional amount of honey.
Oh yes, these girls love their queen, you saw in the picture how they adore her and gather around here, she is the most important thing in their world, and they do indeed treat her like a queen, hee, hee ;) :) :) :) :mrgreen:
That is my understanding of the "cut down split". I am pretty sure that my understanding is correct. But honestly, for all those new beekeepers (and yep, yep, I still consider myself a new beekeeper), go that site of Michael Bush and do some reading and studying. He has worked hard to create this beautiful space in time, and there is so much knowledge that is so user friendly to be gleaned, you will never look back. Have that most wonderful and beautifully great and awesome day, Cindi