Around noon. Mid-80s, no rain for over a week, low humidity.
Hive #1 – queen laying out to frame #2. 9 and 10 not drawn completely yet. Couldn’t identify queen, but did not fins her in mite wash (alcohol) . No mites. Good brood patterns. Brood in all stages.
Hive #2 – no eggs in upper box, but good start on nectar and pollen. Even some capped honey in upper box. Couldn’t identify queen, but she was not present in the mite wash (alcohol). 1 mite in 1/2 cup bees. Queen laying well, good patterns. Brood in all stages.
Hive #1 has visibly more bees and is generally more active. Frames 2-8 are now almost fully drawn. They have started putting nectar and pollen in the wax foundation frames.
Hive #2 is doing very well. Frames 2-8 in upper box are almost fully drawn. No stores or eggs in those frames yet.
Bees from both hives were out on the landing board when I arrived. Waiting until next week to transplant a frame to hive #1.
About 6pm. Bees in hive #2 very active. Fed 1qt 1:1 sugar water to each hive.
Hive #2 looks very good. Very crowded. Some more new drawn comb on frame 10. More stores of honey and pollen in frame 1. Added a medium super. Bees already investigating the upper box by the time I shut it up. I did not move any brood up. Verified I see new eggs laid.
Hive #1 still isn’t drawing the outside frames. There is a little bit more drawn comb. Some more stores of pollen and nectar, but not much more than last time. Continued feeding does seem to be helping them some. Verified I see new eggs laid.
Hive #1, very little change in the past two weeks since I last inspected. Maybe more bees, but not many more. Couldn’t identify queen, but she is laying on all frames that are drawn. There is about 4 square inches of comb drawn on one of the wax-foundation frames, but otherwise they don’t seem to want to work on it at all. I didn’t refill the feeder in between inspections, so they were dry. Larva in all stages, good stores of pollen, nectar and sugar water, though, just not growing very much. Identified brand new bees chewing their way out of their capped cells. Fed <1qt sugar water (what was left in the bottle).
Hive #2, visibly more bees. They had drawn about a 10″ length of comb in the space between the inner cover and outer cover, so I had to scrape that off. There are lots of larva in all stages. Identified queen. All frames except 2-3 have new eggs or larva on them (only 2 are not completely drawn). Lots of pollen, nectar and sugar water stores. This week or next I will probably have to add a new box to them.
Hive 1 hasn’t had much change since last week. Seems to have more bees, but no new drawn comb. Nothing new stored in the comb that was drawn last week. New eggs appearing, though. Fed 1qt sugar water.
Hive 2 has definitely made progress. Definitely has more bees. Two more sides of drawn comb. Some pollen and nectar stores in the new comb from last week. More new eggs in the central frames. There are only three new (wax foundation) frames that don’t have anything on them. Bees on every frame, though. Stopped feeding sugar water.
Hive 1 seems to be doing well. They have some capped honey and more nectar and pollen. They also have new eggs as well. They have drawn comb on one more frame to the right (last black plastic foundation). No drawn comb yet on the wax foundation. They do not have anything stored yet in that frame. Growing, but slowly. Identified queen. Fed 1qt sugar water.
#1 Front
Hive 2 is doing very well. The bees were coming out the inner cover when I opened it. They have more capped honey, more stores of nectar and pollen and more drawn comb including some on two of the new frames with wax foundation. Some stores in that newly drawn comb. Looks like good brood patterns. I’d guess that we’ll see noticeably more bees next week. Identified queen. Identified queen. Fed 1qt sugar water.
7:45pm. Both feeders were empty (and according to video, look like they were empty a couple of days ago). Fed another 1qt each of 1:1 sugar water. Little activity at the hives. Did both feeders without suit.
Around 6pm – about 65 degrees. Some bees flying around both hives, but mostly quiet. Feeders still have about half left.
Replaced batteries in camera with Aldi package and turned on.
Hive #1 – Found queen alive and well. Five frames of brood, nectar and pollen in good patterns. New eggs laid. No new comb drawn on new frames. Some new comb on one side of one empty nuc frame. Brood in various stages.
Hive #2 – Found queen alive and well. Five frames of brood, nectar, and pollen in excellent patterns. Some new eggs laid. Lots of brood in various stages. Some new drawn comb on one side of new frame (second frame on left) and on the rightmost nuc frame (I think 7 from left). Some overbuilt comb between interior nuc frames. More capped honey than was present last Saturday.
Addy, Amber and Anna got a taste of honey! Also collected some wax.
Around 8pm. 88 degrees. Just a little bit of sugar water left in each jar. Added from my storage bottle to fill both jars. The small hive I was able to do without my suit, but the larger hive was still pretty active outside the nest. Did not open the hives.
