Revitalizing Bermuda

Bermuda makes me sad - the bees are barely there, but they are surviving and there is a good brood pattern and a laying queen, but they are slow to get up and go. Today I gave them their third sugar shake of the spring. I hope this will clean off most of the mites. I 'll wait now for a couple of weeks before starting again.

Upon inspection, Bermuda is not building in the lower deep, so to remove some of their stress, I removed the deep. It looks quite pitiful with only the medium hive body, but maybe this will allow them to rebuild their strength. My only fear was that the queen was in the deep since I didn't see her, but I set it on its side in front of Bermuda and by nightfall, most of the bees had returned to the now tiny hive.

















Bees around the feeder at Bermuda - the one at the corner has a nice load of pollen on her legs.

















Here is Bermuda reduced to a single medium box with the deep on its side to invite the bees to return to the mother ship. I don't have another medium, but do have the old hive bodies that a friend gave me from his beekeeping 20 years or so ago. I may take one of the mediums and burn out the inside - after all I do need to initiate my propane torch - and use it for Bermuda's second story after they grow a little. I also may take a medium frame of capped brood, when one is available, from Proteus since it is growing so fast and add it to Bermuda.