First Hive (Bea):
Not much change in the supers, they're building up the empty frames nicely though.
Similar situation in the brood box - they haven't started building up these end frames yet but the tops of all the frames are covered again. We scrape it off every time to stop it building up too much as the weeks pass.
Something looks suspect on this frame above...
... and shaking the bees off reveals some damage to the brood.
This is known as 'bald brood'. Some of the cell coverings have been partially removed before the larvae are ready to emerge and, although the pupae could develop fine, there is a much higher risk of them being damaged or infected, especially in the eyes. I think this has probably been caused by a wax moth larvae, nibbling at the wax.They should be able to sort this problem out quite easily by themselves because wax moths are practically a constant pest. The moth lays her eggs in tiny crevices on the outside of the hive and the grubs follow the scent of beeswax and eat what they can until the house bees turf them out.
If the infestation is too bad (usually a result of giving the bees too many supers as they do not have the resources to monitor every frame well enough) the larvae will not be removed before they eat their fill and spin cocoons. These cocoons have tough skins which set hard like concrete and the bees will never be able to remove them. Hundreds of wax moths hatch out and head off to target other bee hives.
This looked odd - there were two heads wiggling for ages, obviously drones trying to hatch out. It must be a tight fit as their bodies are so much larger than the worker bees'.
They squirmed around for so long that we finally gave up waiting for them to come out - I'm sure they'll manage it eventually!.
Second Hive (Charlie):
The weeds are growing up fast now - I'll have to remember to come along one evening and hack these back a bit.
Everything looked very healthy in this hive. The queen was seen and there was an ideal range of brood in all stages, the stores are building up (though slowly) and the bees were very calm - they didn't even seem to notice we were there.
A good clear photograph of a new egg standing up in a chunk of brace comb. The three large capped cells contain drone bees and there is a large larva in a cell now ready to be sealed too.
Very cute photo - these bees aren't kissing though, they're sharing nectar. They pass nectar from one bee to another as one of the processes involved in making honey. Converting nectar into honey is a very complicated process and there are some parts of it which humans still do not fully understand. Complete scientific analyis of honey still has a tiny percentage which cannot yet be properly identified - I think I've seen it referred to as 'bee essence', though in lab reports it's usually called 'unidentifiable'!
