Since I last checked in, all of the equipment I ordered has come in and has been painted. In the backyard, there are two resource hives, a green one and an orange and blue one. The orange and blue one will henceforth be known as the Auburn hive (War Eagle!). There are also three full-sized hives, a light green, a white, and an orange. I ended up switching a few boxes around just to make the boxes match (green with green, orange with orange, etc). What can I say? I'm weird like that.
So, lets get to it, eh? First, the green nuc (resource hive). You might remember that this was the hive that got the queen and another frame of brood from the white hive earlier in the year. They have drawn out the two frames of foundation that they were given. I saw the queen and an entire frame of eggs/young larvae. I added the second story with 4 frames of foundation. If these get drawn and filled before the summer solstice then I'll use them as brood bombs for other hives.
The Auburn nuc contains the smaller of the two colonies with a new queen. They have 4 frames of drawn out comb with 4 frames of foundation up top. Interestingly enough, when I changed out the bottom boards I found what appears to be the bottom of two queen cells, torn open from the side. The marked queen is still present and the number of bees is not consistent with a hive that has recently swarmed. Perhaps the queen took out some of her rivals upon being uncaged. I'm starting to see foragers coming and going from that hive, so it looks like the population is starting to sort itself out. That's what I love about bees. They will do what they do and can correct a lot of my mistakes.
The light green hive, which contains one of the new queens, are starting to draw out foundation in the top box. There is open brood, so the new queen seems to have been accepted. Foragers have started flying. I've still got the entrance reduced to the smallest opening until they build up their population.
I didn't open the white hive today. They should be very close to being broodless in the next few days, so I think I'll take that opportunity to treat them with oxalic acid vapor.
The orange hive, which contains the queen from the old green hive (which is really the hive that started the year as a nuc, confused yet?) almost look like they are in early swarm prep mode. I saw a few queen cups. They are dry with no eggs, so they could be practice cups, but the hive does look like it's getting a little crowded though. I opened the broodnest up by giving them some frames that are half empty (deep frames with shallow foundation). I also gave them a second box of foundation. A couple of those frames are also half frames (I'm out of deep foundation). I'll keep an eye on this hive to make sure that they aren't planning to swarm and may open up the broodnest again using these frames depending on what I see.
A few other things to note. The cinnamon stick thing seems to have worked on the Auburn nuc, so I'm going to try it on the white hive as well since they are being harassed by
Most concerning, I've noticed bees crawling outside the hive. It's not exactly the right time of year for tracheal mites and I'm not seeing K-wing. It's not a concerning number yet. Usually less than a dozen a day. If it doesn't clear up after the OAV next week then I'll reassess the situation.
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