Mary-Grace and I went out on Sunday to take a look at the hive.\u00a0 The weather has been warm for the last two weeks with temperatures in the 80’s and 90’s.\u00a0 It’s been very dry and I put a jar of water out, which the bees do not appear to have touched.\u00a0 I guess they’ve got other sources in this land of lawn sprinklers.<\/p>\n
I didn’t use any smoke, but this inspection was very difficult for me for other reasons.\u00a0 There were so many frames with plenty of bees and I didn’t have a place to put the frames pose inspection.\u00a0 I put one leaning on the platform on either side of the hive to make room to slide the rest.\u00a0 Still there wasn’t enough room and my gloves got very sticky and covered with bees resulting in some bumps as I disengaged from the frames.\u00a0 Bees don’t like bumps and there were some angry flights at my hood.\u00a0 I’m going to have to have Bill and Art come over to tutor me the next time and maybe get another hive body so I can swap back and forth each inspection.<\/p>\n
Getting to the frames underneath is also troublesome and I hate crushing bees as I put the top box back on the bottom box.<\/p>\n
Frame 1 (out): About 10 bees crawling around two weeks ago, about 40 bees this time.\u00a0 The foundation on this frame is not straight, it bows out.<\/p>\n
Frame 1 (in): 4 bees crawling -> 70 bees crawling<\/p>\n
Frame 2 (out): About 150 bees crawling around on this side.<\/p>\n
Frame 2 (in): There were only about 20 bees crawling around two weeks ago.\u00a0 This time, there’s comb and capped honey in a band across the top.\u00a0 The comb hasn’t reached the bottom of the frame, but there’s liquid in the cells that have been built.<\/p>\n
Frame 3 (out): The progress on this frame in two weeks is marvelous.\u00a0 There’s comb to the bottom of the frame, a band of honey at the top and the bees are in the process of sealing in some larvae in the middle of the frame.<\/p>\n
Frame 3 (in): A good number of bees.\u00a0 A band of honey at the top and a band of larvae in the middle.<\/p>\n
Frame 4 (out): The holes in the comb have been partly repaired.\u00a0 The whole comb, except for a band of honey at the top is sealed brood, dotted with larvae and nectar.<\/p>\n
Frame 4 (in): Like the other side of the frame, this one is full of brood, dotted with nectar and larvae with a strip of honey at the top.<\/p>\n
Frame 5 (out): Most of the brood cells are now occupied by larvae, so we’re on the next generation of bees from the last inspection.<\/p>\n
Frame 5 (in): A mix of nectar, larvae and sealed brood.\u00a0 The queen’s down on the lower right of the frame.<\/p>\n
Frame 6 (in): More bees than two weeks ago.\u00a0 A mix of sealed brood, larvae and nectar.<\/p>\n
Frame 6 (out): Like frame 5 and the inside of 6, there’s less sealed brood and more larvae and nectar.<\/p>\n
Frame 7 (in): About the same amount of sealed brood but more larvae here this time.<\/p>\n
Frame 7 (out): Some honey around the top here this time.\u00a0 A mix of larvae and sealed brood on the rest of the comb.<\/p>\n
Frame 8 (in): Like frame 3, this frame’s gone from comb activity to honey at the top with mostly sealed brood and some larvae on the rest of the comb.<\/p>\n
Frame 8 (out): Honey at the top, sealed brood in a band across the middle.<\/p>\n
Frame 9 (in): Few bees last time, band of honey with nectar down below the half-way mark on the frame.<\/p>\n
Frame 9 (out): The comb is starting to develop here now.<\/p>\n
Frame 10 (in): A few dozen bees crawling about.\u00a0 No development.
\nFrame 10 (out): A few bees crawling about.\u00a0 No development.<\/p>\n
Frames 11-14:\u00a0 Added 3 frames last time.\u00a0 These frames are wired on both sides of the foundation as an experiment (and to avoid using an embedder).\u00a0 There are bees crawling up and down these frames, but there appears (I didn’t really look too hard) to be no construction work going on.\u00a0 These frames are between the door and the frames above, so maybe they’re just commuting to work?<\/p>\n