I'm a member of the Nebraska Beekeepers and this year I've taken on two young boys as apprentice beekeepers. They are brothers who are both recipients of a beekeeping scholarship from our club which includes everything they will need to get started with beekeeping. If they fulfill their end of the agreement everything they received becomes theirs after one year. The program has been a great success and I'm very glad to be a part of it.
They got their bees the same day I got my packages (April 17), and from the same place! These were big packages, advertised as 4 lb packages but in reality they were about 4.5 lbs. Most packages are 3 lbs so these hives will start up even faster than what I'm used to. They put the packages into their boxes on their own on the 18th and I stopped by to answer questions and check on their queen yesterday. We had planned on doing it earlier but the weather has been very windy and rainy.
The good news is that both of their queens are laying and they both have some capped brood already (bees who are about a week old) so both hives are doing perfectly well. One hive had 8 frames fully drawn and full of brood, pollen, or nectar already. That means they need a second box and I recommended they stay well ahead of the bees with boxes. Their location has an abundance of everything a hive needs and I'm predicting a big challenge in keeping open comb in the hive to prevent swarming and another challenge in harvesting the abundance of honey they'll be getting.
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