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2025 Beekeeping records

Feb 10: I have inspected all hives except for Vallejo, which I'm planning to visit this weekend (probably)

So only one colony has collapsed in winter (Vermillion  Foxes). That makes losses 40%, which is more than I would have liked, but better than average for California this year

That also puts an end to the Foxes gene line

The hives south of Santa Rosa all have a bit of an ant problem; I'll see if they manage it as the colonies gain strength, or if they'll need help. I have ant resistant stand for 1 hive, I should probably start working on making more. On the other hand, ants seem to be stealing honey from the edges of frames, and are not interested in brood, so I don't think the ant problem is urgent

Also, hives south of Santa Rosa have drone brood and 

Unfortunately there's no pictures this time, I tried to record a video of inspecting the Cyanide Sharks, but my head camera was pointing above the frames I was inspecting, so the video is useless. I'll try again next time

Cyanide Sharks had an episode of dhiarrea the day after inspection; But it seems to have been a one time thing. Not sure what the issue was, but i suspect it was caused by stress from the inspection (same as with humans)

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Feb 17: I checked Ethanol Woodpeckers this weekend. Bery strong colony, lots of brood, healthy looking queen. Saw a couple drones and some drone brood. They'll need to be split soon, probably in early March. I knew they would be strong, but it's good to be certain

Today it's pretty chilly in Lake county, only around 10C/50F, but Cyanide Sharks are very active. Proper spring starts this Thurdsay, I imagine they'll be gaining strength quickly. Unfortunately I won't be able to split them till at least mid March, here in the mountains spring starts a little later, so there are no drones yet, but I'm close to being ready to set up a new apiary in Upper Lake on my own land

Some footage of Cyanide Sharks

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Mar 21: I've been neglecting the logs, but I've been busy

First of all, I've prepared 3 new hives at the new site in Upper Lake (first time I'm actually beekeeping on my own land)

I'll call those hives Hydrogen, Helium, and Lithium

I've also done some splits:

• Ethanol Woodpeckers were split on Feb 28; Original queen was left in the Ethanol hive, most of the brood went into the empty Copper hive
• Cobalt Badgers were split on Mar 06, queen was left in the Cobalt hive, most of the brood went into Vermillion hive. This is not the normal way to split hives, the foragers would keep returning to the original hive, but I assumed most of the bees on frames were nurses who have never been outside their hive, and would not return. We'll see if it works out. If not then.. well Badgers are meaner than other colonies I have, I'm not sure if i want more of this genetics, at least the original hive will have a brood break
• Ammonia Bears have been split on Mar 06, most of the brood stayed in Ammonia hive, queen went into Hydrogen hive
• Cyanide Sharks have been split on Mar 08, most of the brood stayed in Cyanide hive, the queen went into Lithium hive

I've made a video of Cyanide Sharks split: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_ctZ4eLT98

A few days after splitting Cobalt Badgers I've got a call from the land owner that there was a swarm next to the hives; It's unlikely that the swarm came from elsewhere, so it must have been Cobalt Badgers that swarmed

The swarm was a bit too high to reach comfortably, so the best I could do was leave a swarm trap nearby. I'll see if there's any bees in the box this Sunday Mar 23

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Mar 23: Checked Santa Rosa hives today

The swarm at the Longer Table farm didn't move into the box; I believe they have already decided on a place by the time I placed the swarm trap. Both hives seem active on the outside, so I believe they should be able to requeen

Silver Porcupines were very full, and I think I saw some queen cells (uncapped). Took all the frames where I found queen cells, but not the queen, I think; Hard to be certain, the split was a little chaotic given how many bees there were; but, given the circumstances, they behaved very well. Moved the presumably queenless split into Helium hive in Upper Lake

Methane Wolves have grown stronger, but I decided the split could wait 2-3 more weeks. Gave them some extra frames

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Mar 24: Went to Highland Springs to check my swarm traps; no swarms, no scout activity for now. On the other hand, the known wild bee colony is alive and active. I'm sure swarms will start soon

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Mar 30: I checked Copper Woodpeckers yesterday; Unfortunately, looks like the split did not succeed - the hive had a queen and maybe 2 dozen bees, no brood. My explaination would be that they raised too many queens and swarmed several times, not leaving enough bees inside. I hope they established a good colony somewhere

I was on my way to Vallejo and didn't have all the tools I needed with me. I took 1 frame of brood and nurse bees from the Methane Wolves hive, and moved it into the Copper hive. There's a chance they'll accept the queen, though I'm not sure - I didn't even have any anis water to spray on them to prevent fighting. I'm not sure what the chances are of them not killing the queen, but i felt like it was the best I could do

I also saw some queen cells in the Methane Wolves hive; I don't think I saw any larvae in the cells I checked, but not sure. Maybe it was a mistake not to split them last week. I didn't have a box for the split with me, and I won't be able to visit them for 2 weeks or so.. so we'll see how it goes

Ethanol Woodpeckers are looking pretty good, the queen is very active, lots of brood Here's a picture of their queen