Went through colony 1 with Mrs FG today.
There didn't seem to be as many bees there as usual, although quite a few drones. I'm hoping this is because this was the middle of the day and I normally get to inspect early evening.
Good news: I saw more eggs, there was still a lot of stores in there, no queen cups, queen cells, or funny dead stuff.
Less good news: I was expecting a lot to have changed and it hadn't. We have had some bad weather recently, but not whole days of no flying so I presumed the stores would be piling in and they'd running out of room almost by now. The bottom box (with starter strips) is now more occupied, but still only a token effort really. The new comb is mainly being used for nectar storage, although there's a little bit of brood rearing going on too.
The bottom empty frames experiment is looking OK so far: they are happy to use them, the comb they build looks beautiful, but they aren't very straight and there's some bracing across between them which I've had to part gently with the hive tool.
The top box is getting too heavy to lift on my own, so I need to get stronger.
My technique today was clumsy and tentative, resulting in needing lots of smoke, grumpy bees, a few squished ones, some stinging attempts and even a half-dropped frame :-( This wasn't my best ever performance, so I hope it doesn't put me off for tomorrow when I look at colony 2.
Video might be available at some point, but it's probably only fit for a "let's spot the mistakes" instructional film . . .
I was going to steal, sorry harvest, one of the stores frames from the top box and let them make it up before Winter. As they didn't seem to be making the progress I'd hoped for, I left them with it all for now.
I'll wait until they sort things out from this inspection, then do a sticky board check for varroa: maybe they are being held back by that?
FG
There didn't seem to be as many bees there as usual, although quite a few drones. I'm hoping this is because this was the middle of the day and I normally get to inspect early evening.
Good news: I saw more eggs, there was still a lot of stores in there, no queen cups, queen cells, or funny dead stuff.
Less good news: I was expecting a lot to have changed and it hadn't. We have had some bad weather recently, but not whole days of no flying so I presumed the stores would be piling in and they'd running out of room almost by now. The bottom box (with starter strips) is now more occupied, but still only a token effort really. The new comb is mainly being used for nectar storage, although there's a little bit of brood rearing going on too.
The bottom empty frames experiment is looking OK so far: they are happy to use them, the comb they build looks beautiful, but they aren't very straight and there's some bracing across between them which I've had to part gently with the hive tool.
The top box is getting too heavy to lift on my own, so I need to get stronger.
My technique today was clumsy and tentative, resulting in needing lots of smoke, grumpy bees, a few squished ones, some stinging attempts and even a half-dropped frame :-( This wasn't my best ever performance, so I hope it doesn't put me off for tomorrow when I look at colony 2.
Video might be available at some point, but it's probably only fit for a "let's spot the mistakes" instructional film . . .
I was going to steal, sorry harvest, one of the stores frames from the top box and let them make it up before Winter. As they didn't seem to be making the progress I'd hoped for, I left them with it all for now.
I'll wait until they sort things out from this inspection, then do a sticky board check for varroa: maybe they are being held back by that?
FG
