5/30 Checked the combined hive, the new package, and the struggling hive at AL. The combined hive is doing well with lots of honey and really thick honey comb. The thick honeycomb is becoming a problem. Bees are also tending to build comb at 90 deg. The package of bees is doing okay, but seems to be taking a while to build up. The real event of the inspections though was seeing a new queen and eggs in the once queenless hive. This hive had a frame of open brood added on May 3rd - 27 days ago. Bee numbers are really low as this hive has been without a laying queen since the bees swarmed from the tbh on April 5th, 8 weeks ago.
5/13 Jessica checked her TBH as the bee numbers seemed really low. She saw lots of mites and bees struggling with deformed wings. She also saw the queen and she had a mite on her as well!!! A really sad day. We don't really understand the mite situation as this hive has a new queen after the other swarms left, so there should have been a good break in the brood cycle and therefore fewer mites.....
5/12 Checked Lauren's old hive at AL to see if any queen cells had been made using the from of open brood that I introduced 9 days previously. Found seven queen cells along the bottom edge of the medium frame, two on one side and the remainder on the other side!! Looks like this beehive will soon have a new queen after a long break. Also checked the original langstroth hive. Seemed strong with lots of brood. Saw the queen for the first time in this hive. She was blond getting darker towards her rear end and big, although not as big as the queen in the combined hive back at the house. The original langstroth hive now consists of 1 deep and 2 mediums.
5/11 Checked the combined
5/3 Moved Lauren's hive to AL and checked again to see if it had any eggs - none be found. Removed a frame of open brood from the original AL langstroth hive and placed in Lauren's hive.
5/2 Checked Lauren's hive
5/1 Inspected the hives
