Quite a lot to get through today - those bait combs from a fortnight ago need to be removed, we hope to find that any new queens have now mated successfully, and it's possible we'll need to add supers if the honey stores are becoming full.
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Beatrix: 3 mite drop in two weeks
Last time we checked, this hive had one full super and the other one was about three quarters full, though there was still plenty of room in the brood box.
Sure enough, both of these two supers are now completely full. This hive will need another empty super put on today - we didn't bring any out with us but we have enough spare ones back in the house and it will only be a five-minute job to do at the end.
There is still some room in the brood box here - three empty frames on each side of the brood, which fills the six central frames.
I remember being surprised by this last year - a really black pollen being stored in the frames.
I can't remember which flower has this pollen, it might be broad beans - whatever it is, it doesn't look very appetising! There was nothing to concern us in this colony, I just need to remember to add a new super later.
The two nucleus hives next. Each of these contains one frame of bait comb to remove and may also have a laying queen now.
N1 first. The bait frame is in the centre.
Lifting it out shows that most of the eggs and larvae have been sealed over and there is also a queen cell to one side.
A closer view of it here.
Looking at the other side of this frame shows exactly the same thing - mostly sealed brood and another queen cell.
This colony is still clearly queenless - the queen cell I left in there was not successful and they have used a couple of the eggs from the bait frames to attempt to raise a new queen. We can't remove this bait frame now until the new queen has hatched - we'll have to come back in a couple of days and do it then.
N2 next - the bait frame is also here in the centre.
It's very similar to the other one, but no queen cells here.
Looking on another frame shows more sealed brood - this means there must be a laying queen in here somewhere.
Sure enough, here she is with plenty more larvae in all stages. This queen needs marking, but we'll come back and do that another time - there's a whole list of jobs to do already today!
We removed this bait frame and gently brushed off all the bees back into the box...
... then slid the remaining frames together and inserted a new empty frame at one end. Hopefully this colony has now had the vast majority of the varroa mites removed..
Charlie: 15 mite drop in two weeks.
Just a quick look inside this colony - we need to check if this one needs supering up as well.
The two supers on it are each about three quarters full and there is a similar amount of space in the brood box as in Bea's colony. There's no need to add a super just yet but a fortnight of decent weather might change that..
The New Hive: 48 mite drop in two weeks
I need to repair that front step - yet another job to add to the list for another day!
The two bait frames are in the centre again. I pulled out the end frame nearest me first of all and immediately saw the queen on it...
... and she's obviously much larger now than when I watched her hatch a few weeks ago. She's clearly a laying queen now - very fortunate as this is the colony we are planning on keeping and overwintering. We need to start thinking of a name for her now!
Sure enough, there was plenty of developing brood here - this colony looks in fine health now.
We removed the two bait frames and the sheer quantity of bees here is surprising - this colony has effectively 'lost' two swarms already this year (the first when we artificially swarmed Charlie from it and the second when the cast swarm came from it) and it is still in fine strength.
We slid all the frames together and filled the gaps at each end with new empty frames.
Even with those two empty frames in, there isn't much room in this hive. I wasn't expecting to need to add a super to this one so soon but all these bees need something to keep them busy - I'll come out later today and add an empty super to this hive, as well as Bea's.
The Swarm Nuc: Not much to look for in this small colony - the new queen we saw two weeks ago should be happily laying by now.
Sure enough, there is sealed brood already - I'll remove the oldest when a frame is fully sealed and that should take care of any varroa mites that came in with this swarm colony.
We found the queen quickly - she's a really healthy-looking large one.
It's a shame we can't keep all these queens and grow them on but we have to limit ourselves to three colonies for now - it's just taking us far too long to do each inspection (not to mention all this endless blogging!). So long as we can be sure that these nucs are in fine health, there will be other beekeepers in the area glad to give them a good home - we just mustn't become too attached to them first (of course, this is why I am forcing myself to refer to them as N1, N2 and Swarm Nuc - once we've named the queen it would be too hard to let her go!)
