Summer Waxing Strawberry Moon
I got through 2.5 hive inspections. The package colony has beautiful comb, an excellent egg-laying pattern and is now ready for the third hive box. That’s as far as it needs to go as soon as it fills out at least 8 frames in the new hive box. That should happen over the month of July.
The divide has had three hive boxes for a week now and has begun to fill up frames in the third hive box though they are far from full. I see no evidence that either of these two have swarmed and I saw few swarm cells. Still a bit difficult for me to recognize for sure.
All of the colonies were a bit more aggressive than usual this morning, a surprise to me since it’s sunny and warm, a good day to go gather nectar and pollen. In my opinion there was no need to harass the bee-keeper, but the divide began whacking at me and got me in a tender space right on top of my thumb’s joint. That hurt! I completed that inspection, too, trying to follow the check every frame idea.
When I got to the parent colony, I removed the two empty honey supers I put on last week. Nothing. Nature’s Nectar, a blog about bee-keeping kept up by the guy who sold me my queen and my package, however, said he had little new honey, too. He’s thinking it will pick up this week. It’s nice to have that kind of confirmatory message since it makes me think things are ok here at Artemis Hives.
When I got the honey supers removed, I began my inspection of the top hive box. It is full of bees. Mad bees. I to about half way through the inspection of the top box and the bees had begun to dive bomb my hands as I reached for a frame. Game over. I’m not willing to spend a week with swollen hands.
I’ll go out tomorrow or Saturday to finish the inspection. I don’t know for sure whether the irritation of hive inspections transmits from colony, but if it does, then the parent colony was ready for me. I may try starting with it next time.
Other than that my fears of a foul-brood infection seemed to be misplaced. I saw none of the signs. The egg laying pattern in the parent colony seems uneven to me, where the other two looked more compact. (better) I’m still a long way from feeling sure about what I see and what to do with the information. But, I’m much further along than I was in April.
