Jean Luc Bee-card

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River Yard

Jean Luc was collected from a street-side tree located near Fulton and Diamond in Midtown Grand Rapids. A passerby spotted the swarm in flight and called it in when it landed. This very gentle swarm was collected within the hour and were all too happy to move into their new home. They built up incredibly fast, having reached full strength in just four weeks. Usually, a fresh swarm spends its first year getting ready for winter, collecting just enough resources with little to spare. Jean Luc, on the other hand, filled out its brood boxes and two supers before the summer dearth hit for a total of 60 pounds of extra honey available for harvesting.
2022 ended up being a bit of a slower year with only about 26 pounds of honey. It's always better to harvest less honey to leave more for the bees to allow them to get through winter without extra feeding.