Weather: 65, sunny, windy.
Hive #2 doing well. Good brood patterns, 4 brood/food frames in the top box. 2 just nectar/pollen. 2-3 frames with eggs, larva and brood in bottom box.
No capped honey now. Noticeably more bees than last time. Identified queen laying in top box. Lots of pollen. Mostly dull yellow, some bright yellow, some bright oranges and reds.
Went to inspect hives on our first 70-degree day today. Started about 4pm. Hive #2 is dead. Hive #1 has a lot of activity.
Pussy willow tree is blooming as are maples.
Pulled frames from Hive #2 and it appears that they still had plenty of food in there. Noted a number of mites on bees and on comb. Had to do some reading, but I believe the flaky debris in the cells in the comb is Varroa mite fecal matter. There are also cells with what looks like a white, dried, granular sugar slurry. Not sure what this is.
The bottom box (deep) in Hive #2 also had some weird stuff in it. I think the deep yellow stuff is just leftover pollen, but I’m not sure what this brownish-gray slimy stuff is. There is also some bright white slimy stuff in another sealed brood/larva cell.
The bottom board was just plastered with dead bees. The pile of bees has what looks like pieces of pollen all over too.
Hive #1 looks like it’s doing really well. Lots of activity at the front door and inside the inner cover bees are crawling all over the frames and look healthy. I didn’t get any pictures of that hive other than the outside.
Fed each hive 1qt 2:1 sugar water.
Hive #2 looks good. Only identified one beetle in the bottom box and still no larva. Was going to smash it, but it got away. The top box is nearly full of honey (sugar water, I assume) and there is a lot of honey in the bottom box along with a good bit of new pollen.
Hive #1 also looks good with a lot of new honey on top and new pollen as well.
Hive #1. Top box has frames 3-7 partially drawn. No honey or pollen in top. Bottom box has new eggs, larva and sealed brood. Some pollen throughout brood frames. Only one full frame of honey and pollen. Some honey cells elsewhere. Good patterns but hardly any stores. Identified queen.
Hive #2. Top box is basically all drawn and has a good amount of larva and brood. Decent amount of food as well. Didn’t count frames. Bottom box frame 10 had two black beetles and some broken comb. Maybe hive beetles? I took them both out manually and squashed them. Need to look up info on them. Good brood patterns, food throughout brood frames. Identified queen. No activity in queen cups.
Fed each 1qt 1:1 sugar water. Will start feeding 2:1 next feeding.
Fed each 1qt 1:1 sugar syrup.
Hive #1. Identified queen. Looks healthy, seems to be wandering in circles on the frame, though. Identified two queen cups on frames 5 and 7 in the bottom deep box. Some comb drawn in the top box. New eggs, larva in all stages and some bees hatching. Little food reserve.
Hive #2. Did not identify queen. New eggs, larva in all stages and some bees hatching. Good amount of food reserve. Comb mostly drawn in the top box. Swapped frames 9 and 10 to get them to draw 10. Lots of eggs in the top box.
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.
Fed both hives 1qt 1:1 sugar water.
Very humid.
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.
6pm, 87 degrees. Medium humidity.
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.
This was just a quick check inspection.
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.
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.
