I opened the hives today to get an idea of where they stand post swarming. Crosby has many bees, but they are still in the first five frames. They had built a fair amount of comb on the inner cover. Unfortunately, it ripped open when I took off the cover and this upset the bees tremendously. I got a couple of good pictures of them gathered around the open cells in ever widening circles. I decided to put the next brood box with empty frames on to satisfy their vertical urges. I think if I was braver, I would have taken out the bottom frames and alternated empty with full ones. But I’m very nervous about squishing the queen seeing as this hive re-queened itself less than three weeks ago. They are eating the pollen patties I’m putting in, which is better than they were doing in April.
Ovechkin is humming and busy. They are still off the sugar syrup so should be making honey. The multiflora rose bloom is in full swing in the neighborhood so they shouldn’t have any problem finding nectar sources. After half the hive swarmed, we had rainy weather for four or five days. They probably succumbed to hypothermia if they didn’t find a home within the first twenty four hours after leaving. The remaining bees are busy in the first honey super making comb. I noticed that these bees are starting their comb in the middle of the box. I wonder if that makes a difference to how many frames they fill.
Garden update: I’ve been picking strawberries and I have four cucumber seedling started. I’m almost ready for another tire on my potatoes. It’s coming along nicely, I hope.
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