All things BEES

I inspected my hives this weekend for two things, the large ones for swarming, and the smaller ones for needing more boxes.

Well i used a few deeps, removed feeders on some, and installed a number of mediums... all in all they are building wonderfully. The big hives do not show signs of swarming like they once did. most have laid in my super above the brood nest on a few pieces. I am wondering if what i did stopped the swarming instinct? Basically on 4 hives i removed about 2 brood frames to asist other weaker hives and installed foundation there, i had always an empty super above them and then any honey supers above that, that had honey in them, and i cut swarm cells out for 2 weeks in a row. Now they seem happy to stay although i will keep an eye on them. I now also see no signs of backfilling like a few weeks ago. I belive removing 2 brood frames, cutting swarm cells, and always having an empty super above them worked!!! we will find out again next year.

One other thing of note is the fact that i have 2 hives at my father-in-laws about a miles through the woods. I have made 3 rounds of splits up there and ever generation gets "darker" to the point they are now almost all black from what i have seen this past week. They are also some of my most defensive bees as well. The others i can work wit no smoke etc, but these without smoke will explode on you. If you use smoke they are very workable and calm down. So they are not that bad.

In my opinion there has got to be some feral hives past his house away from mine in which the queens are mating with and the ones at my home are not. I do not see this change at my home.

They are def. showing the traits of the so called german black bees or Apis Melifera Melifera.

I am wondering what to do with them to be honest and that yard... i do know they build up wonderfully and have been some of my strongest and best bee and wax producing splits i make...