Green Check

The hives were doing well last time I checked, except for the Brown hive, which I am purposefully leaving alone so it can complete the process of making a new queen.

But since it's Saturday, it doesn't feel like a weekend unless I do *something* with the hives! :-)

So I suited up (just the coat & veil - I was otherwise wearing shorts) and took a quick peek at the Green hive around 5:30PM tonight.

The hive had finished off the jar of sugar syrup, and during the inspection I noticed lots of nectar in the frames, so I decided not to add more syrup. There are plenty of foragers anyway. Next time I inspect, I'll make sure there is still enough food there. I also saw some good brood patterns - a frame almost fully filled with capped brood. Plus I was lucky enough to see the queen (she was on the 2^nd frame I pulled out - I have good luck finding the queen in hives with a single brood chamber!). There are a couple of frames totally empty, just waiting for the queen to lay, so I don't need to add a 2^nd brood chamber.

So I took off the empty upper chamber (which was just covering up the syrup jar) and buttoned things up for next time. Here's the Green hive:

I also took a peek in the new honey super I put on last week. In my hopes and dreams, the bees will have pulled out all the wax foundation and well on their way to filling it up with honey. Reality is another story - it looked like they haven't touched it. Oh well....

I'll probably go out to Sutton this week - it's been a couple of weeks since I've been out there. Don't want to leave them alone too long, in case I need to take some action. I'll also stop by and see the Gray nuc, to see how it is coming along. Hopefully being all calm and isolated, the queen can start laying.