Inspection 6-11-2010

I had a chance to inspect the home hives on Sunday. Sorry for no pictures - I am in between cameras (the one I was using is being held together by a rubber band).

The Gray Nuc and the Brown Nuc both showed a lot of bearding. I think that was primarily due to the heat, because when I opened them up, there didn't appear to be a lack of space for bees. Also, there was plenty of room for the queen to lay.

In fact, in the brown nuc the queen was in the upper section and had laid some eggs, as I had planned for her to do. The upper super has medium frames, and the bees'll draw out the foundation like I want.

The White Nuc didn't show any bearding - that's primarily because I built that nuc with a screened bottom board. There was plenty of ventilation available for the bees.

When I took a look in the Green Hive, I saw some good patterns of laying eggs. But I also found some more swarm cells. The bees hadn't brought in any more honey than before, and still have just a frame or 2 of uncapped nectar in the super.

The Brown Hive continues to limp along, with no activity in the honey super, but some good laying in the hive bodies.

I was talking to my wife about what to do about the green hive's desire to swarm. She had a good suggestion: move some frames of brood and bees from the green hive to the brown hive; this will take some pressure off of the green hive, and give the brown hive a boost as well. I also thought to take the queen excluders off of the hives to see if the bees will start using the honey supers. I don't mind at this time if the queen gets up there or not - maybe it'll encourage the bees to do something.

This weekend is the WCBA bee club annual summer picnic. Maybe I'll pick the brains of some of the people there about my problem.