Post by Jeremy Kosciuch on May 17, 2010 17:42:55 GMT -5
This hive had to be a freak of nature, she wanted to swarm bad and I cut dozens of swarm cells fro her all april last year. At one point It was 7 boxes high full of bees. Mind you, it drew 5 of these out 1 in march and 4 in april. after I took the first box away I decided to do the first split, taking the queen away and giving her a few bees and some comb. in 3 months she was larger than my other colonies, which I split off her daughter and her again. so many bees! I ended up doing that the first day I saw a sparkleberry flower. Best honey in the world. 3 weeks later they had a box of pure sparkleberry as well. just an awesome hive. 1 of my homegrown daughter queens absconded, 1 got robbed out and i lost a Berry queen in the war, and the mother queen never quit laying, and despite ample stores, nearly a box, starved to death in the drought. I dont like feeding my bees, but I did, it just wasn't enough. 7 med supers full of bees. 7 I figure 20 00 a super maybe, i hived a package and 10000 bees doesnt half fill one. so 7 times 20 = freak of nature, too bad about the deformed wings and not calming the laying down though. It gets dry here, and there is herdly any nectar mid june thru mid sept.