For sun shade and installation in winter

Set out quart jar of Apivar-tainted honey from last year. Gone in a day. Placed the jar on opposite end of property from the hives.

Hives look good. Lots of bearding on Hive A. Honey super about half drawn out. Lots of laying and comb building in Hive B (captured swarm). Hive C looks healthy and fill of bees. Added entrance reducers to all hives .. yellowjackets ...

I was fortunate to see the new queen mating flight this afternoon! At first, I thought the hive was swarming again!

Hive C swarmed and settled in our Yoshino cherry tree...

This is the second full hive treatment with oxalic acid to combat mites. Normally I would do a third but not sure - the mite levels are likely within acceptable levels now.  Bear in mind that I had rhubarb leaves in the hives already prior to two doses of acid and my smoker contains rhubarb leaves. The bees have been exposed to steady levels of oxalic. I'll evaluate next week. Thus far, the hives seem to be doing well with no immediately evident negative impacts of treatment to the hives.

It's been hot - in the mid 90's and the bees have been bearding during the day and night. Added ventilation to the tops of the hives.

Successfully did an oxalic acid vapor treatment of both hives. This is best done when there is no brood or honey supers. I do have brood but I did it now as I missed the window of opportunity earlier. I will do another followup treatment in a week or so to catch other emerging brood. After that, I'll wait until just before winter when the queen isn't laying. No real issues or lessons learned, except maybe to have a real clock out there instead of a cell phone. Or a kitchen timer type of thing.