Hot, hazy and humid- the girls are loving it. I visited all the hives over the 4th before the heatwave. The hive with 'Tude makes me put the full gear on- veil, gloves, jacket- and it is too hot for long. That hive has almost a full super of honey ready to go so I add a deep super. This gives them more room, more to do so they won't swarm and will be their super of honey for the winter. One deep super full of honey is about 70-80 lbs of honey so they should be fine. In the spring I will pull the lower super out and this super will become part of their hive body.
Top Bar hive is fascinating. They are building honeyed comb onto the feeder board at one end which means the queen is laying enough that they can start storing honey. I add 7 bars for them to build comb and fill. That took me to the end on one side so just 7 more bars and they will be at capacity. Once that happens, I have to take honey, bar at a time, to keep them busy. We should be headed into the lull in nectar and pollen. If you garden you know not many flowers bloom in July. It all starts back up in August.
So mid summer my job is to keep them busy with empty supers or bars, check the hive for strength and mites. I will dust them with powdered sugar so they groom each other and knock the mites off, dropping them onto the ground. Kind of funky going out with a sifter and sugar. They had being disturbed until the sugar hits and then it becomes treats.
Stay cool.
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