I can not believe it has been 2 months since I posted. Sorry. I have visited the hives twice since the last post.
Beginning of August: looking to make sure there was enough work and room for all the hives. All were very active and full. I added another deep super with 10 frames that when filled will be their winter's food supply.
The bees with "tude are the queens of propolis, they use it to seal up the inside of the hive. They were more than happy to have more space. The cosmic hive is becoming my standard for they are tooling along in a nice steady way but not extreme in anyway.
Top bar hive was full- needed more bars to add or to take honey. All of the combs had honey on top, then brood at bottom. According to the book, they should be putting in full combs of honey by now. I also noted they had drones cells mid comb in almost all the the combs I checked. This is unusual. The drones are often found at the bottom of a frame or comb and at this time of the season, drone population should be decreasing. What could it mean? One comb broke off when I moved it so I gather some honey for landlords. Put it in a really cute honey pot I purchased at Betterbee in Greenwich. They have a small store in front where you can buy honey and gifts if interested.
Beginning of September:
looking to see if there will be enough honey and the health of the hives, looking for deformed wings which indicates mites, anything unusual
Bees with 'tude hive is overloaded. Photo shows them hanging outside the hive in the morning. I am so glad I have goatskin gloves now when working with them. They still have attitude, still love propolis and are such workers. I am amazed they have not swarmed but am grateful. Noted drone cells in the middle of the honey frames here too.
Cosmic hive is plugging along - not quite enough honey so should feed them especially with nectar flow slowing with the fall. Will make bee candy to place in the hive so other hives do not rob this hive or fight over the food since both hives are next to each other.
Top Bar hive must have swarmed. They were not teeming and the combs are no longer have drone cells but not many are full of honey. Put a feeder in the field near them but it didn't seal so the bee tea just drained out into the grass. Bee candy for them too until the winter comes. I put all the bars into the hive so they have lots of work to do. One more reason to feed them. If they do not fill all the bars, I will need to pull the empty ones before winter. I feel they are okay but need a boost. I do not know how to tell with them as well as the Langstroth hives.
All hives will need to be revisited before winter again. I will remove the shallow supers from the Langstroth hives and any empty deep frames from next deep super so they don't travel up in winter to an empty frame and starve.
Thanks, Jane for helping.
