Michael Bush and TWT: Did you read my post well.
"I have no brood, larva or eggs, and believe I found hatched queen cells but I still have no eggs" Thats as of Tuesday last week. They could have swarmed almost a month ago for all I know.
Sunday I went through one and still no eggs. In the morning (Tue.) I will attempt to go through the other two. If I find no eggs Im tempted to order 6 Queens, take next day off work, make six deep super nuc's, move them 4-5 miles, pick up queens, and introduce queens next morning.
Does this sound like good Idea. Even If I find eggs I still want to make at least one split unless it is a bad thing to do. Please help me with this. I really would appreciate it.
Again, money spent and honey is not on a list for me to worry about right now. Learning and Apiary growth is my top priority.
luven honey: Two reasons I will not make walk away splits right now.
1 - I have no eggs or even larva so they would have no means to make a queen.
2 - I dont like the sound of walk away splits because you may get a poor queen. You also need lots of drones to insure your queen has enough sperm to make it through winter. My hives have a low drone count which I find amazing being that they swarmed. I would rather raise queens or buy them so I have eggs that were destined to be queens from the moment they are laid.
To whom it may concern: I grew up in the area I have my bees. I know what plants grow there plus have the knowledge of my elders who farmed there and have the knowledge that they learned and from there elders when they grew up. Every area is different but Trees depending on the area can give you nectar and pollen in huge amounts. Farmers need hay crops, grow soybeans, and hopefully have clover. Wetlands tend to have lots of bloom in late summer and fall like Golden Rod. In my area I have field thistle which blooms till frost. My uncle used to let a commercial beekeeper put his bees there in fall. The beekeeper claimed that he could take all his honey and the bees could put up enough honey off the field thistle to survive the winter. I guess he said "when I found field thistle I thought I was going to be rich" then laughed. I'm sure he never realized his riches and is why he laughed. He has now passed away so I guess all the field thistle is mine. Anyway I guess my point is, if there are any old guys around, preferably farmers, I would get to know them if you can because from them you could learn more in a week what grows around your area then you may on your own in a lifetime. For you local WI beeks just search nectar sources in google and you should find a link for norther nectar sources. If you don't know what they are the old boys should. Then you know some of what You got and what to expect.