I’ve removed the queen excluder in the Fall, the last 3 years. I think it’s a smart move. It allows the queen to move around over the Winter and camp out where the honey is. I do still like the queen excluder during the honey flow, to make it easier to extract honey and to check the hives. The trick is to get in there early enough in the Spring to find the queen and make sure she’s in the brood chamber. When I checked them two weeks ago I couldn’t find the queens, but I was pretty sure they weren’t in the top honey supers. Well, one of them was, and she’s laid a lot of eggs. We moved her down today, and I think we’ll be OK. Once those bees hatch they’ll repurpose the cells for honey and we’ll be on our way. There is plenty of honey already and we’ll be adding honey supers next week.
The fruit trees and bushes are blooming, so far apricots, pears, and blueberries. Lianne is adding in flowers this year. We hope to create some beautiful bouquets. She’s most excited about the ranunculus, which is tricky to grow. We’ve also got tulips, daffodils, various carnations, zinnias, and plans for a large sunflower field. We’re looking forward to sharing these flowers with everyone, both through pictures and in person.
