Week 2, second hive check

Today was my second hive check. I felt a lot less nervous and had a lot more fun!

For the past week I’ve been feeding my bees one quart of simple syrup per day/per hive. Collective knowledge sources recommend: “continuously” “one quart every other day” and “one quart every three days.” But what is the appropriate amount?

I’m feeding my bees because these are new hives each with five brand new frames which do not have any drawn comb. (Drawn comb is where baby bees are raised and pollen and honey stored.) I’ve been told that supplemental feeding will help with wax production which in turn will help fill the empty frames faster with honeycomb. I’ve also been told that if overfed the bees will store the nectar in the brood area.

So, here were today’s hive objectives:

1. Look for nectar in the brood area (overfeeding?)
2. Look for eggs
3. Evaluate brood, pollen and honey
4. Learn more about my hives (I am a newbee, after all!)

 

Hive 2 is looking much better this week. I saw a lot of eggs and larva in all stages. The bees have now ventured to the outer frames, but have yet to start drawing out comb. I saw a lot of odd-shaped honeycomb (see bottom of above photo). Not sure why they’re doing that, will have to ask my mentor.

 

 

Hive 1 is looking good as well. It continues to be the stronger of the two hives. Above is an inner frame. Here’s what I think I see: capped honey along the top and upper corners of the frame, pollen below that, then capped brood (babies). I’m thinking that the empty cells in the center of the frame is from previously hatched brood and will soon be filled with a new egg. I see drone brood along the bottom of the frame (cells are sealed with a dome-shaped cap) and again, weird honeycomb blobs on the underneath side of the frame.

This is another frame from Hive 1. I took this picture because the brood pattern looks spotty to me. Not sure, will have to confirm with my mentor.

 

A lot more debris on the bottom boards this week, plus you can see the bees are expanding onto the outer frames.

This does not look good. The bottom board from Hive 1 has mold all along the front of the hive. There were also some dead bees and a couple of ants crawling around. Will definitely have to find out what’s going on!

Hive 2 Stats
Box 1
Did not see queen
Saw lots of eggs
Saw lots of larva in all stages
Saw much more brood, pollen and honey than week before
No drawn comb on outer frames

Hive 1 Stats
Box 1
Hive 1 Stats
Did not see queen
Saw a few eggs, not nearly as many as last week
Saw lots of larva in all stages
Saw lots of capped brood, pollen and honey
Outer frames are starting to be drawn out with comb