OA treatment on Hive 6
Successful OA treatment. About fifty angry bees met me at the hive entrance. I consider that to be a good sign!
Successful OA treatment. About fifty angry bees met me at the hive entrance. I consider that to be a good sign!
Lost two of my strongest hives, most likely due to poor moisture control. I know the hives were strong a couple of weeks ago. Sad loss, but harvested a LOT of honey.
Inspected all three hives. All are strong with plenty of brood. All have honey but no solid frames of honey - all have brood in the middle and honey around the edges. Some solid frames of honey are in the works and some stored sugar water. I have no reason for alarm with anything I saw today. On the contrary, everything looks good. I was suprised at how strong hive 3 is - that's the one that swarmed several times.
Added robber screens to all hives as a precaution during the dearth. As always, took the bees a while to figure out what was going on ...
This hive swarmed again this afternoon for the second time this year. The swarm split in half and formed two clusters high up in a fir tree. The next morning, they all flew away ...
Several scout bees are actively checking out my backyard garden shed ... I would say three or four actively checking it out for hours today, and several yesterday, as well. They seem focused on the hole in the bird house over the door. I put a nuc inside with several drawn frames ...
Hive 3, my strongest hive, the one out front, swarmed 30 feet up into a fir tree today. I was not able to recover the bees. :(
This morning (in the wee hours) I did an OA mite treatment to Hive 3. This is my most active hive. The bees were not happy, but all but a few got treated. Overcast and misting slightly but not enough to hinder or stop the work.
Hive 3 (out front): Added a honey super. This was the hive I added one to some weeks ago and then took it off as it wasn't ready. Today it's ready. Also pulled some frames and saw a nice brood pattern.
Hive 4: Added a second deep to it. The first deep is filled out nicely with brood and honey. Not all the way to the edges as the end frames aren't drawn, but there is enough congestion to merit it.
Hive 3 (C) - This is a strong hive out in front of the house. I put a super on it the other day in preparation for the nectar flow but then realized that I hadn't really checked to see how full the supers were. Today I saw lots of healthy capped brood in the brood chamber and some frames of sugar water stored in the upper super but that's it. I removed the empty super. Hive looks very healthy.