BeeYard Work & Another Swarm

Today I spent the day working in the beeyard, inspecting the hives, and creating a new beeyard.  The first thing I noticed was that the four nucs from Tom Laue extraction had condenced into two nucs via drift, so I combined the remaining bees and frames and we'll see what happens.  I did see what looked like a virgin queen that may have hatched since the installation.  The Ellis swarm appears to have a false queen as evidenced by multiple eggs in many cells, ranging from 2-5 eggs, so I decided to combine the Ellis Swarm with the Sauers Swarm and see if they can make a stronger hive.  Regarding the new beeyard, it is near of the farmstead of my great-grandfather, Henry Quicksall, who had bees during the 1920s and 1930s.  I set up two hive boxes and in the left one I installed the Virg-N-Mary Niebruggee swarm from last night. 

Later that evening, around 9pm, I received a phone call from Don Cordes of Mattoon who reported a swarm in the tree of his 91 year old next door neighbor, Mr. Coffey.  He was hoping I could help him out and remove the swarm, so Dawn & I took off and met a couple of friends who are new to beekeeping at the house to help out with the swarm capture.  The swarm was up in a tree, and I used the neighbors ladder to get me up there.  After the capture Dawn & I headed out to the farm and installed the swarm right next to the Virg-N-Mary swarm in the Henry Quicksall Beeyard.

Virg-N-Mary & Cordes/Coffey Hives

Here is an update on the various hives:

BeeYard #1
#1 - Original West Hive (2010) - strong & grumpy - honey super on top.
#2 - Kelley Swarm (2012)
#3 - Ellis/Sauers Combined Swarms (2012)
#4 - Original East Hive (2010) - strong - honey super on top.
#5 - Courthouse Swarm (2011) - weak hive with poor queen.
#6 - Doedtman Swarm (2011) - strong with honey super on top.
#7 - Split from #4 in March (2012)
#8 - unoccupied
#9 - Silver Lake Swarm (2012)
#10 - Dale Laue Swarm (2012)
#11 - Graft from #4 (2011) - strong - honey super on top.
#12 - Tom Laue Swarm A (2012)
#13 - Tom Laue Swarm B (2012)

Aaron's Hive #2 - Funkhouser Swarm (2012)

BeeYard #2 - Henry Quicksall BeeYard
#1 - Virg-N-Mary Niebrugge Swarm (2012)
#2 - Cordes/Coffey Swarm (2012)