I got the chance to open up my swarm hive. This hive is the hive I used to donate 5 frames to make my nuc boxes. It has built up its hive back up incredibly. These are some really good genetics and really good honey flow!
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| Top cover is placed beside the hive box. |
As the pictures indicate, the bees are running out of room and storing honey in every little corner they can find. I need to add another super onto this hive before it swarms on me.
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| Honey was exposed when the top cover was removed |
This is looks like dandelion honey. It would make sense because of the recent long bloom. The bees were really sucking it up. Click on the picture to see their long tongues going into the honey. I need to clean these top bars so that there is no honey or comb in between frames.
At my other bee yard, I removed my honey super and found a fair bit of comb tying the frames together. This is really annoying to any beekeeper. It sticks all the frames together and really impedes on being able to inspect a hive. But this comb obviously serves a purpose to the bees, it is what I would call ladders for them to walk on and get around more quickly throughout the hive. It all secures everything so that the hive is more stable. (They do not realize that the frames are rigid enough to support themselves).
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| Comb built up through the queen excluder |
The return of my horrible frame! It looks like they did another horrible job to my frame. I am going to have to pull it out and recoat it with wax or put in new foundation. What a pain! At least they are having fun.
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| Poor comb building! Wax coated plastic foundation is not always readily accepted by the bees. |
The bees are doing well. I hope my nucs are producing queens. I have yet to find any egg laying.
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