The bottom box held no bees, no brood, no stores. I took it off of the hive. I now have a box of beautiful drawn comb in medium frames to use somewhere else.
The second box looked like this when I opened it. The bees looked good in this hive. It is a very active hive, often flying in temperatures that surprise me. I expect it to have a really good year.
I pulled a frame from the second box and found good examples of what you can see during good brood production. In case you haven't seen them before, the yellow arrow from the yellow number 1 below points to eggs. Seeing these lets me know that the queen is alive and well.
The yellow arrow by the number 2 points to tiny c-shaped larvae. If you click on this photo so you can see it larger, you'll see examples of brood in all stages of development. The arrow from the number 3 points to capped brood. The queen is laying all around the capped brood, filling in the frame.
I didn't see her but I didn't need to because the evidence is so present.
I left the hive smaller but stronger and look forward to adding another box on the top of this hive very soon.
Awesome news!
ReplyDeleteGreat pictures (as usual)!
ReplyDeleteIs the bottom box where the bees started off before Winter and they've moved up? How will you know when to put another brood box on?
Yes, the bees were in this box at the beginning of winter. I'll add another box this weekend because they are using, I think about 6 of the 8 frames in the now bottom box. I'll probably check the honey super as well. It felt pretty full yesterday and I'll put a third box on and move every other honey frame up and add an empty frame in its place (checkerboard pattern).
ReplyDelete