Things are really looking good. Frau Imkerin and I went through all five hives today, so strap in, this is a long journal. One of the best things we observed about all the hives is that we saw zero small hive beetles. Compared to past years that was really encouraging. I also randomly checked some drone brood with the magnifying glass headset and didn’t see any verroa mites. It all sounds too good to be true but we’ll know for sure when we mite test in July.
All the girls have been very busy and were mostly mellow today, except for Carny. They got kind of pissy when I got into the brood box. I guess some Homo sapien girls may like to be squeezed, but Apis millifera ligustica not so much. As usual, it was my fault. Always be sure to look at your tools before you pick them up!
On to better things … Below is the journal of the condition of all the hives in the order we checked them today.
(Note: This journal is a little different than the past. Since we did a deep inspection today, most of the photos of frames will open full-sized in a new window when you click on them. This allows us to zoom in for a closer look.)
Middle
I owe this swarm virgin queen an apology after having doubts about her in the past. If you remember from the 6/2 journal eight days ago I was worried because I saw solid larvae on one side of the frame but spotty drone brood on the opposite side. When I checked it again today I realized the capped drone brood was probably from the frame of starter brood I initially gave them from another hive. Today showed she’s doing a fantastic job. Here are some photos of her laying pattern with lots of capped brood. It’s only been three weeks since I captured and installed this swarm on 5/15/19.
It looks like it’s time to add another brood box and honey super. It was inspiring to start with this hive and see the progress. Maybe we are getting closer to being real beekeepers?
Eastern
Another healthy hive. We only went through the top brood box after seeing the nice brood pattern.
I swapped out a frame of drone brood with a new green foundation frame. It’s destined for the freezer.
Eastern doesn’t appear to have a lot of bees in the top brood box looking at the photos, but the bottom box (that I didn’t go through) was covered on the top of the bars. They are building comb and packing in honey on the new frames in the super I just added last week. It’s almost ready for a third box.
Carny
Our only 10-frame box is packing on the honey. There has been amazing progress on the new super I just added three days ago. They are building comb and seem to like the new open, frames I added.
There aren’t many pictures after this. After seeing they seemed to be productive, and taking the hit in the hand that I mentioned at the start of this journal, I decided to just put everything together and move on. I may try to sneak another super on top if they settle down soon.
