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I've been on a mini-rampage. I've done an additional cutouts, caught another swarm in a trap and got another swarm last night. I've got more bees than I have equipment, so I think I'm going to buy 8 more hives of equipment from one of the guys on my old bee team that is out of the mood.
2 of the cutouts I did, including the one my son got his ass kicked didn't have signs of queens, and I couldn't even find the queen cells I put into those hives? I found that odd, but couldn't see a queen, the bees were agitated and no eggs or brood. I had one hive that has more bees than chinamen in china it seems. I pulled a couple of really full frames of brood that had queen cells on them and installed those to try again to queen the two cutouts. If I don't see sings of queens in 10-14 days I'll buy some.
The hive that was my strongest and best producer last year has really slowed down this year. I'm not sure if the queen is old or if it's just weather related. Still early so I'm not freaking out save one thing.....There have been a lot of black ants in that hive on top of inner cover. Any suggestions on ant control?
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