Weather: Sunny with some clouds, 65 degrees, 30 minutes of rain at one point in the afternoon
We decided to open the hives to check on the sugar water in Hives B & C and also remove the wooden cage from Hive B. Both hives had some sugar water left and the solution was turning murky. At some point next week we will either remove it altogether or clean out the feeder and add new sugar water.
When we opened Hive C we noticed that bees were still getting stuck in the pollen trap so we both decided to remove it, paint it and put it on at some later date. They handled the removal fine.
When we opened Hive C we noticed that bees were still getting stuck in the pollen trap so we both decided to remove it, paint it and put it on at some later date. They handled the removal fine.
Hive B was a bit of concern because upon lifting the feeder the honey bees had built comb from the bottom of the feeder into the brood super. This all happened because we were one frame short in the brood super. Jim and I were trying to figure out how we had an extra frame in the barn and at that point realized where it belonged! We quickly shaved off the beautiful comb that they worked so hard to create and installed the correct frame in the super.
Jim then noticed on the Alpha Hive that we never removed a piece of plywood that we kept at the bottom of the landing board to protect the inside of the hive from the chilly evening weather. As we both lift the hive a bit and pulled the board out we noticed a WAX MOTH Larvae squirming around in wax and pollen remnants. We realized then that there really wasn’t anything to worry about because the colony is VERY strong and would have corrected anything wrong and there was also protective barrier made of a wire screen where nothing could have gotten into the main hive. We crouched down to view under the hive and Jim noticed some odd peanut shaped comb at the bottom of some frames. This meant that the colony in the Alpha Hive was crammed and they were preparing to hive. Although swarming is a good thing because it means the hive is very healthy and it wants to replicate, we don’t want them to swarm so we’ll have a nice honey stream this year. We then opened up the hive and shaved off each of the swarm cells. Inside were Queen pupae with quite a bit of creamy white royal jelly. We’ll continue to add honey supers and shave off any swarm cells but all it takes is to miss one and half the hive will leave with her.
Who knows what will happen next week….stay tuned!
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