Been Away For A While, I Know!

This new job of mine has me working like a dog and I have been unable to attend to the beekeeping as much as I would like.  Also, I leave the area most weekends to see my family who is away for the summer, so there are no opportunities on the weekend to play.  That said, I have been attending to a large number of nucs on my rooftop when I can get the ladder out, and am installing a new hive here and there for new beekeepers.  I also have some new beekeeping observations:

Mirror Hive Part 5, Other Musings, New Conclusions

I was getting tired of having my Mirror Hive be so far behind everyone else and am fortunate enough to have had a spare Russian hive that I set aside as part of my bee addiction.  That hive was doing very well, and was housed in a 2-story 6-frame nuc of my own design and construction.  So I admit to cheating and taking three frames of brood and putting them in the stale hive.  I hope they take!

10 New Packages Arriving Today!

Most of these have been spoken for as we will have six new hives in DC by Thursday (getting us over the 30 new colony mark within the District).

The Mirror Hive, Part 1

I made some adjustments to the Eastern Stand to get it to its final configuration.  I hived the bees from the older double nuc into Westerly, and installed a shiny, new, double deep hive in its place.  This hive is the Mirror Hive, so named because its configuration matches exactly or closely what I have recommended to our soon-to-be beekeepers.