it's best not to go into the hive frequently unless there are problems or illnesses to take care of. we haven't gone into the hive in a few weeks to look around, we do open the top to feed them 2-3 times a week but that is about it. today we decided to do a hive inspection and check on the progress of our girls. boy have they been busy!!!
they have completely drawn out all of the frames in both boxes. they were a bit cramped for space and started to draw out come in the feeder-that is the what the diagonal white line in the screen is. we were ready for this and we had a new box of frames to add.
this was one of the frames in the top box. when they draw out the comb, they generally start in the center of the box and work out to the sides. if the frames on the outside are full-as this one is, it is time to add a new box. don't know what you see here? in the top corners of the frame, the whitish cells are capped honey. the dark open cells are most likely pollen-their only source of protein. the yellow capped cells are brood-the next generation of workers(females). if there were some larger, bullet shaped cells, they would be drones-males, but i do not see any on this frame.
in order to get them started, we took one frame from the full box and replaced it with an empty frame from the new box and then put that full frame into the center of the new box. we then placed the new box on the top of the hive. here you see the girls, orienting themselves on the full frame in the new box. that big black stripe in the frame is a beetle blaster. we are lucky to say that our hive beetle population is under control. we do have them but not so many that we are in danger of losing our hive. we have a friend who lost her hive to the beetles last week.
what the hive looks like now, 3 (8) frame-medium (or illinois) supers.
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