So last September, the hives were too weak from drought to split. Not enough numbers or brood.
After Pennsic I took too long to get back to them and the July splits in the outyard died during the drought. The last swarm died as well from predator pressure, as I was left under the trap. Skunk most likely dwindled its numbers down. I’ll come back in 3 weeks.
I equalized the remaining 4 hives at the outyard yesterday. Fed 3 of them 2 gal of 1:1. One of them, a Corey queen, was really strong, 8 frames, I went ahead and split that. Used only 3 frames. I saw the queen on one of the frames, but never saw her again. The queenless hive retained the majority of the bees and the position. I also noted 6 extra deeps and tops and bottoms are available. I think I have 20 mediums for honeyflow this summer.
Home hives were all fed. All 4. The fifth looked week in November and was merged with a hive to retain the drawn comb and improve the odds. I used up the majority of my free wood to make 7 deeps, 1 medium, 7 lids, and 1 nuc box.
