Mom and dad were in Richmond and were headed down to Mathews today... so I hitched a ride. It had been a full two weeks since the last hive check and I wanted to make sure they weren't getting too crowded and threatening to swarm. It looks like they did a pretty good job drawing out a sixth comb and were starting (just a bit) on a seventh. The first five frames were all just about completely drawn out. Also, I wanted to flip the entrance reducer around to allow more of an entranceway for the bees to get in and out... since they had only the smallest opening for the first few months. The other thing I wanted to do was add a more substantial feeder and try to use some HoneyBHealthy in the sugar syrup. I'll continue to feed them through the fall since they're still getting their numbers up.
Bottom line: We saw the queen first hand (didn't get any good close up photos of her this time though) and she appears to be doing a fine job of laying eggs. There were quite a few bees in the hive and quite a few more on the way. It's likely that they will need a new deep hive body with more frames to fill out within the next two or three weeks. So far.... so good.
Lots of capped brood getting ready to hatch.
Growing larva in the center of this frame.
It seems like a spotty laying pattern, but
I think they may just be hatching intermittently.
Some open cells from brood that's recently hatched.
Fairly recently drawn out comb. Some brood
Very new drawn comb with very small eggs. Nice Job!
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