September 2026 Apiary Update

Happy September Everyone!  This past month we worked on re-queening our hives.  If you follow us on Facebook or Instagram I have a multi-part series showing each step of the way so you can really see what is going on.  Why do we re-queen our hives?  Well, it's a practice that not everyone does, but one that we think is valuable for the health of our hives (and a little bit for our sanity!)  When you re-queen yearly you are ensuring the genetics that are in that hive, they are less likely to swarm, and you can even select queens specifically bred to help lower your mite load in your hives.  We ordered ours from California, and were able to purchase 10 Golden West and 7 Italians.  They come shipped in a screened box, with loose attendant bees, much to the chagrin of our local post office!

We first went through our hives and found (and then dispatched) all of our queens.  Then, the new queens were installed in the little boxes that they were shipped in, which have a candy plug in the end.  The idea is that you put a piece of tape over the end of the candy plug, and during the time it takes the queen to eat her way out, the bees are on the outside of that little screened box picking up her pheromones and distributing them throughout the hive.  So, by the time you are ready to release her, the hive believes she's always lived there (that's the theory at least, in practice it doesn't always work).  We went through the hives a few days later, while they were still in their little boxes, and looked for queen cells (which we destroyed) and eggs.  If you find eggs then you know you need to find a queen, but thankfully we didn't find any in our hives.  The last step is to remove her from the box, and hope that she lives a fruitful and productive year in your hives.