Hive 1: This hive is doing well, healthy brood. Not a lot of honey stored, but there was nectar falling from the combs during my inspection, indicating that they just hit a nectar flow. I cut out some old comb and added 2 empty bars to the brood space-slowly shifting older comb to the back. I noticed that the older brood comb has slightly spotty brood, while the newer comb has solid healthy brood.
Hive 2: This hive was full from front to back. It has expanded tremendously the past 2 weeks. I did a split. The queen laid in some swarm cells yesterday and
today—the eggs were still standing up. Those bars are labeled. This hive may
need to be split again. I added two blank bars to the brood space and one to the
front. This colony is building comb very quickly.
Hive 3: This colony is on a heavy nectar flow. I had to straighten and butter a lot of comb. The queen was seen. They are drawing new comb quickly. I placed 2 new bars in the brood area.
Hive 4: It is now clear why this colony did not want the queen I installed during their prior inspection. A newly mated queen had just arrived back to the hive. She’s easy to see now and has been laying well. The brood looks healthy and so do the bees. They are beginning to store a good amount of honey.
