Inspections of /Three Hives

Early this afternoon I did a brief inspection of each of the langstroth hives.

I first opened Bee Glad..., the hive I used as a cell starter and finisher using a Cloake Board. Last week, I Composeused many of its frames to start nucs from the queen cells produced in this hive. This splitting left the colony with one box full of bees and brood. On top of this,  I placed a box filled with mostly undrawn plastic frames and a few frames filled with honey and pollen. I was surprised when I inspected this second box today. Within a week, the bees have pretty much drawn the 8 empty frames I placed in the box last week. This is a very strong colony. Now I need to buy some more frames for adding a possible third box next week.

Lib-BEE-taria was a little less productive this week, at least in my eyes. It is healthy, just smaller, probably the result of its carniolan ancestry. I had put a honey super on last week and the bees have not drawn anything out in that box. I sprayed some sugar water on the frames and will see if that helps the bees work in it.

Worker Bees... are starting to build in the third box I placed on last week. This is, by far, the gentlest of the langstroth hives and the one I grafted larvae from. I placed a top entrance on the third box today. All goes well in that one as well.

NOTE: I failed to mention my activities from yesterday. I picked up two 3 lb. packages from B & B and helped a friend and colleague (John) install these bees in his backyard. He lives about a mile from my apiary so this will provide a little more genetic diversity in the area. The second package I sold to friends Chris and Jenny. They installed theirs at their farm in Rushford.