Beltane Early Growth Moon
The bees have taken a second hive box, which means the queen has laid sufficient brood in the original box to sustain move into second story accommodations. In caring for bees the American way it’s all about air rights. The aim is to build up and up and up, putting on a third hive box for a colony you expect to over winter, then honey supers as far up as the little darlings will climb with their honey.
The more honey supers filled, the more honey to harvest. The third hive box, twice the size of a honey super is for honey storage necessary to overwinter the colony. Anything beyond that is superfluous to the colony’s needs and can be safely harvested. That’s one of the wonderful aspects about beekeeping, nobody gets hurt. Sort of like dairy cattle, I imagine. Well, I did get my first sting of the season today, but other than that.
Here’s a video I discovered that shows the immediate effect of planting corn seeds coated with Bayer’s neonicotinoid pesticides. Note that this is this month and in Minnesota. Here’s a link to a Mother Jones article that talks about this problem.
