Pictured below is my new bee yard. Actually it’s not so new anymore and this post is a bit out of order as this picture was taken last April. I was approached this spring by my wifes insurance agent for her business about placing some bees on his property. It’s a beautiful location on a high (20-30′) bank above a river well outside of the floodplain with large groves of locust and catalpa within eyesight, as well as alfalfa fields planted by local farmers. It will be interesting to compare how well these hives do, and their honey as the forage available here is considerably different than that available near my other apiaries.
Simply because it was easier, I started this yard completely with package bees and drawn foundation (and honey from deadouts). They were installed this past Saturday as previously mentioned. It also proved a good yard to test the effect of queen excluders on honey production, but more about that later…
