Today we inspected Hive #2.
This hive is our larger one. It started as a new package of bees. This hive also has 1 honey super (a shallow box) installed on the top. The bees have started to collect extra nectar to fill the honey super – Wahoo! Honey Production has started!
What are looking for:
- Brood: Are there Capped, Larva, and/or Eggs?
- Comb: Comb drawn on all frames?
- Nectar, Honey, Pollen: Have they started filling the comb?
- Pattern: Does it have they typical brood in the middle with food at the edges?
- Crowding: How many frames have bees?
- Temperament and Sound: Calm, Angry, Quiet, Loud?
What we found:
- Brood:
- We have capped brood, new bees emerging, larva in some cells, and eggs found on a few of the frames – mostly at the edges.
- Comb:
- The bees have moved completely to the other side of the hive, avoiding the undrawn frames.
- They ave abandoned the area that they were practicing making new comb on and instead focused their efforts on filling the honey supers, and populating the pre-drawn areas.
- They are building burr comb on the bottoms of the middle frames to house new eggs
- Nectar and/or honey:
- Yes, nectar is present on the frames.
- The bees are actively brining back pollen to feed the new baby bees.
- Pattern:
- Looks typical, with some spots open where bees have emerged from the cells.
- Empty cells have yet to be repopulated with new eggs
- Crowding: No
- Bees are comfortably occupying 7 of the 10 brood frames.
- Overflow bees are moving into the honey super as needed
- Temperament:
- Defensive
- Notes:
- The queen was spotted in the hive
- Some eggs were found. We were expecting faster growth given the population size and ability to collect nectar and pollen
- Removed burr comb, or comb that was built off of the bottom of frames
- Cooler weather, lots of rain and poor flower timing maybe stressing the hive
