Hive check, north
The box is nicely built out, there were no queen cells but there were drone cells. Did not check for purple-eyed yet since I had not seen any queen cells. I'm ready to split as soon as I see an indication so I will check again next week. The deep on the top had some new wax built out nothing impressive.
They are finally building out the midbar frame very nicely.
Calm nature, lots of stores. I did I mite count on this hive with an alcohol shake, but saw only one mite. However, when I pulled the limetray out there was some sort of creature like a larvae crawling around. Not happy. Could have been an egg of a moth lodged in the corner crevice of the brood box i added. Humnn.
2/23/18 Update. There were three different size larvae in the lime trade this week, but when I visited on Saturday I saw no further signs of them. And no other signs of any pests. I looked at the frames on the upper box. They had white wax and these were beginning to build them out. I stop feeding the mid-week on advice to do so if I wanted to prevent a swarm.
Hive check, west--Michelle's
Went in today to transfer equipment from her 8-frame equipment to my 10-frame. The hive was really full so I put a second deep on top using some of the deep frames from the south hive that had the beginning of build out on them. I'll be feeding all three hives. Michelle is going to be out to treat this hive again on Wednesday. The other hives were treated in late November. I did not do a mite check on it. I looked for queen cells and saw none.
Update 2/23/18 Michelle felt the population was still low, although it's intrance was more active than the North Hive. I took the upper box off to allow them to build out the three empty frames in the lower box. We'll see how they do in the next week. She is finishing up the Api-var life treatment.
Hive check, south
South hive. The hive formerly known as Tracie's. So, I've been slowly rotating off her shallow foundation brood boxes, to use deeps. Today I transferred as much as I could. The bottom of the hive now has a deep brood box but with very little built out foundation.
I put the shallow box with all of the foundation on top, switching the positions. They are beginning to build out white wax. My theory is that soon, the queen will be in the upper, shallow box with lots of room to lay. The workers will build out the deep brood box. In two weeks which will be March 1st, before or after I go to Atlanta, I will rotate the top to the bottom, and the bottom on the top. There should be enough bees by that time to build out the deep, which will be on the top, rapidly.
Once the last of the brood in the shallow box hatch out, I can totally remove the last of the shallow boxes. If the flow is coming on, I can put it can on top.
The hive has plenty of stores, and I saw both capped brood and open larva, but not necessarily in a great pattern.
I did not find any queen cells. Nor did I see any drone brood, yet this is the slow developing hive. I did do a mite check and only caught one mite. But there were a few odd looking bees, so I'll need to be vigilant.
Update 2/23/18
I was hoping that the queen would move up into the upper shallow box where all the frames have pulled out comb. I checked them all. I did not see her, however this being the seventh day I think I saw some curled larvae in the bottom of some of the cells. I will check again next week and then try to leave them bees alone!
