Blog one

Long overdue, even though it's the first.

Pointers from the last visit to the hive(s).

Hive #1

For some reason the amount of drones appeared to be huge compared to what there normally is. Almost 4/10 is a fair guess. The main purpose of the visit was to put the Queen Excluder on and to do so I had to make sure that the Queen was on the bottom apartment. It took some time and a close inspection of almost every frame to find the Queen. If my memory serves me right, the Queen on hive #1 had a green dot. Could not find her though. After a good solid 30 minutes I think I found our new Queen. Please take a moment to acknowledge the solid effort of our first Queen. The long stinger. The lack of stripes on her back. Had to be her. Our new Queen. Of great concern, firstly, was the lack of honey throughout the bottom apartment. The upper apartment seemed quite full yet the bottom seemed quite empty. Additionally, on the bottom, there were very few babies. The ladies also built between the frames a brand new comb, full size, which did contain babies. So, it's not all bad news. Unfortunately the new comb was also removed.

My theory is that the increase in drones and their need to be fed is what is causing the decrease in honey. But what do I know.

The mite problem did not appear to be as evident as it would have seemed after cleaning the mite catcher during the last visit to the hive with Q and K, with K being stung.

Hive #3

Inserted the tenth frame. But with the frame on the furthest right, part of the comb had become torn and only attached by a small piece at the top. Unfortunately, it had to be severed.

With the severed piece of comb from hive #3 as well as the new comb built by the ladies from hive #1 quite a bit of honey was made available.

And what do we like?

Honey!