Comment

Comment by James G. Blackburn II on May 5, 2013 at 8:18pm

Hi all,

     Just got a call from NM  Game & Fish. The person delivering the fences, Gerry, has a family emergency  and will not be delivering the fences this week . We have tentatively  rescheduled for May 29th in Ruidoso and May 30th in Cloudcroft.     Hope the  bears find other attractions until then...

Jim

Comment by James H DAWDY on May 5, 2013 at 6:08pm

I have a serious case of hive envy

Comment by James H DAWDY on May 5, 2013 at 6:02pm

Found two queens today.  One is almost certainly the emergency queen from the cutout/combine I posted about.  Man, she's HUGE- looks like she's aiming for crickethood.  This was the one that wasn't laying for a long time- I think she finally had a successful mating flight.  The other is a virgin in my Beeweaver hive.  On the 16th of April there was a marked BW queen.  Now there is an unmarked virgin.  Surprised that happened.  Still need 2 queens though.

Mesquite and creosote here have a lot of blooms, but I don't see any indications of flow.  Forager numbers are pretty low.  We need a rain BAD.

Comment by Diana Calkins on May 5, 2013 at 4:32pm

Appreciate the reminder.  I'd spaced it!

Comment by Rob Shepler on May 5, 2013 at 4:28pm

Just a reminder that tomorrow is Bear Fence Day if you are in Ruidoso. Bear Fence Day comes to a town near you,Cloudcrodft, the very next morning! Cloudcroft pick up is at the Ranger Station.

Jim's original message below.

 

Talked with Gerry @ NM Game & Fish. He has scheduled May 6th for delivery of the bear fence to Smokey Bear Ranger Station at 901 Mechem in Ruidoso at 3PM.

He will then make the delivery to Cloudcroft / Mayhill at 9AM on Tuesday May 7th. Location to be determined.

Note: Each person wanting a Bear Fence needs to be available at the pick-up site so that the necessary paperwork can be signed by each individual.

Comment by Paul McCarty on May 4, 2013 at 7:33pm

Well it makes raising queens very frustrating. I find I can only do it with any real success in June.

Comment by Diana Calkins on May 4, 2013 at 7:16pm

Actually, this type of weather change is common up here.  I've seen it many times.  Not every year, thank goodness.  One year, the latest hard freeze we experienced was on May 16.  When Robert was a boy in the early 50's, he saw snow in the early part of June.  Interesting though, we've had pears every year since planting our tree, even when the apples didn't make, and this is the first year the pear blossoms froze and didn't bloom.  No pears.

Comment by Paul McCarty on May 4, 2013 at 6:13pm

My breeding nucs were due to hatch three days ago - so I checked them today. Lot's of frozen bees. I opened up a few Queen cells and they were frozen and dead. I combined them all into one big nuc and gave them a living queen. I will try again later. I still have an 8 frame raising queens that probably made it. I will let them go through their cycle.

The problem is that the queen cells were along the bottom edge of the comb. When the bees clustered, the queen cells were not in the cluster. This is a problem up here, but usually later in the year near Fall. We have a very narrow window to grow queens adequately, and it seems to be getting narrower. One would think there wouldn't be 28 degree freezes in May, followed by 86 degree weather.

Comment by Rob Shepler on May 4, 2013 at 5:47pm

Diana, I think your split will be fine. You have a lot of bees and honey to keep your queen cells warm and safe through the cold nights. Where you can run into problems is in small hives like a 2 bar breeding nuc, not enough bees to keep all of the brood warm. I had cells ready to hatch and set one up yesterday, hope they made it!

Comment by Diana Calkins on May 4, 2013 at 5:00pm

Would the freeze kill the queen cells inside a hive box?  I hope not.  How do you know they are dead?  Has the appearance changed?  Or did they not hatch when they were supposed to?

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