Mrs FG and I just went through our first colony to see how they were doing.
Answer: very well - loads of capped honey and nectar in preparation for more.
The top box (where the bees were) is now mostly capped stores, and very heavy. There was still some brood-rearing going on, but it seemed that nearly all available cells has nectar/honey in, including those that had larvae in the bottom.
We saw quite a few larvae, some small, some quite big. We saw lots of capped brood, although they seem to be using lots of new wax which looks very pale and hard to differentiate from capped stores. I couldn't see any eggs :-( The light wasn't great - the glade is getting well grown over at tree level and keeps the hives in the shade except in the early morning.
A few of the frames were so full and thick with honey, they were glued together. The frame on the edge was originally half foundation only and is now fully capped stores. We were very tempted to whip it out and harvest the beautiful white comb, especially the lower half that had no wires in
The bees weren't very impressed with all this, and two stung my gloves :-( Smoke was needed to keep them down during the frame removals . . .
We closed up the top box (plastic cover and roof), then moved it between us off to one side. It was very heavy
The bottom box is now under occupation, big time! Lots of lovely white, natural comb, just like a TBH but (mainly) within the removal frames. They are mainly using this new comb for yet more nectar storage, but there was a little patch of brood rearing going on too.
The lower box combs looked quite delicate, and I didn't try anything but properly vertical with them. I hope they get stronger as they fill the frames.
We didn't see any play cups or queen cells anywhere. Maybe we weren't looking properly and missed one or two, but there definitely weren't lots of them. There seems to be lots of drone comb, mostly capped. Do the bees use this for honey storage once they get bored with raising drones? Is the difference easy to spot between capped drone larvae and capped honey in a drone-sized cell?
Overall, they seem to be filling up lots of space with stores, whilst keeping some brood rearing going and building new space to use.
We didn't see the queen - reckon GWW and Widders gave us an invisible one but there's still larvae about at small to big sizes and probably eggs if I could see them.
I think the inspection routine is a bit risky for the queen with double brood boxes: quite a few 'crunch points' when moving boxes around and putting them back. Not sure if this is something we have to live with or if there's a better way to do things.
Video didn't go well today, so I will put one up but it won't be brill.
New colony wasn't inspected today, but they've started foraging big time and we'll have a proper look at them tomorrow.
FG
Answer: very well - loads of capped honey and nectar in preparation for more.
The top box (where the bees were) is now mostly capped stores, and very heavy. There was still some brood-rearing going on, but it seemed that nearly all available cells has nectar/honey in, including those that had larvae in the bottom.
We saw quite a few larvae, some small, some quite big. We saw lots of capped brood, although they seem to be using lots of new wax which looks very pale and hard to differentiate from capped stores. I couldn't see any eggs :-( The light wasn't great - the glade is getting well grown over at tree level and keeps the hives in the shade except in the early morning.
A few of the frames were so full and thick with honey, they were glued together. The frame on the edge was originally half foundation only and is now fully capped stores. We were very tempted to whip it out and harvest the beautiful white comb, especially the lower half that had no wires in
The bees weren't very impressed with all this, and two stung my gloves :-( Smoke was needed to keep them down during the frame removals . . .
We closed up the top box (plastic cover and roof), then moved it between us off to one side. It was very heavy
The bottom box is now under occupation, big time! Lots of lovely white, natural comb, just like a TBH but (mainly) within the removal frames. They are mainly using this new comb for yet more nectar storage, but there was a little patch of brood rearing going on too.
The lower box combs looked quite delicate, and I didn't try anything but properly vertical with them. I hope they get stronger as they fill the frames.
We didn't see any play cups or queen cells anywhere. Maybe we weren't looking properly and missed one or two, but there definitely weren't lots of them. There seems to be lots of drone comb, mostly capped. Do the bees use this for honey storage once they get bored with raising drones? Is the difference easy to spot between capped drone larvae and capped honey in a drone-sized cell?
Overall, they seem to be filling up lots of space with stores, whilst keeping some brood rearing going and building new space to use.
We didn't see the queen - reckon GWW and Widders gave us an invisible one
but there's still larvae about at small to big sizes and probably eggs if I could see them.I think the inspection routine is a bit risky for the queen with double brood boxes: quite a few 'crunch points' when moving boxes around and putting them back. Not sure if this is something we have to live with or if there's a better way to do things.
Video didn't go well today, so I will put one up but it won't be brill.
New colony wasn't inspected today, but they've started foraging big time and we'll have a proper look at them tomorrow.
FG
