Each weekend, I like to perform a little cursory inspection of the B-Haven Apiary.
Keep an eye on what’s going on. On Saturday, October 27, I noticed that there was no activity in front of the swarm hive.  If you will recall, B-Haven Apiary currently consists of 5 hives and a Nucleus.  Four of the hives were started from bee packages and the remaining hive was started from a friendly swarm. The Nucleus was started from a bee package.

On April 14, we picked up five new queen bees packages from Honey Bee Genetics.  Our intent was to kick of 2012 for B-Haven Apiary.  But first I had to get the apiary ready for the new beehives. If you will recall from B-Haven’s 2011 Annual Report, all four of last years hives died; they did not make it through the Winter and Spring. As a result I decided to employ a Hive Nucleus in the apiary.

I just finished reading the February 2012 edition of the American Bee Journal.   In this edition, I discovered a most interesting article:  “The Half-Hive: Setting Up and Managing a Nucleus Hive“. The author, Larry Connor, does a wonderful job of explaining the proper use of a Hive Nucleus in an apiary. I have never really understood the purpose before. Mr. Connor does such a fine job,  that I am now totally motivated to build and use a nucleus in my apiary thisyear.