Hive 1:
This hive is doing fair. Expanding a little slower than the others. Brood is spotty, so a mite test should be done soon. I added two new bars to the brood area. This colony has expanded to bar 20, with a few partial bars of honey after that. No signs of brood disease and adult bees seem healthy. There were more dead bees than usual outside the entrance of this hive.
Hive 2:
This hive swarmed despite the split. The bees even made empty supersedure cells (I opened them up). I still see some swarm cells along the edges of 3 combs. Will wait a bit longer. I have a hive at home from this split that can be brought back to OSVC if necessary.
Hive 3:
This hive has continued to expand quickly and is on a heavy nectar flow. Need to harvest honey in a few weeks.
Hive 4:
This colony extends to bar 20, and I added 5 blank bars to the brood area. These bees are doing tremendously well. They have a well mated queen (raised and mated at OSVC!) and healthy bees. Great brood pattern. I expect that this hive will produce some harvestable honey this year.
By 10:30-11 it was getting too hot to work the top bar hives. I would be careful with allowing students to hold bars outside the hive very long. I worked carefully and quickly.
I’ve noticed that the northern most hives in this apiary consistently have the most mites.