Two more hives installed…

Last week, the Abita Honey Co. bee yard gained two more new hives. This time the new colonies are the product of splits performed by a local beekeeper earlier this spring. In the last blog post we talked about the different ways to start a new hive, and we talked about the possibility of obtaining “nucs” from local beekeepers. This is by far the easiest way to start a new hive. Our two new “nucs” come from a very well established bee yard on the Westbank of New Orleans.

In order to prevent the loss of bees that occurs when a colony divides and a portion “swarms” away to start a new hive, beekeepers perform “splits” of existing hives to help this process along but while retaining the new colony – albeit in a separate hive. The beekeeper who provided our two newest colonies has over 100 hives and performs splits in the spring and sells those new colonies to others looking to expand their bee yard.

The nucs we received and installed last week are all settled in and really multiplying fast. Meanwhile, the swarm nucs installed just one week prior are a little further along in that process. In fact, one of the swarm nucs has already filled its hive box and needed a second deep box installed to allow for continued expansion.

We will likely not be collecting honey from these hives this year as we really want each of these colonies to be fully established in two full deep hive boxes with enough honey for their own use for the winter. If we get lucky and have a longer honey flow this year, maybe, just maybe, our advanced swarm nuc might have enough to share this year but we shall see. The bees come first!