Sunny Saturday

No pictures this time. Took some but haven't downloaded them yet.

Went with Reese on Saturday to check out the girls. Nice sunny day. There was lots of activity around both hives. Bright orange pollen, dark green and some electric yellow. We saw some large ants walking in and out of the hive. The bees tended to repel them but the ants were persistent enough to walk in. We'll watch that next weekend to see if it continues. Maybe put some cinnamon down around the hive.

Reese's hive had about 5 frames nicely drawn. 3 of the were nice and heavy. He did have some buckling of the foundation on one frame which resulted in huge piece of burr comb with capped brood, etc on it. We moved that out so that it faced the exterior edge of the hive. Not sure that was the right move since burr comb is only going to get worse. We just felt bad to destroy that huge piece.

My hive seemed a little further along. The bees were very gentle and a few puffs of smoke had them tamed down below. 6 or 7 frames nicely drawn with 4-5 full frames. Capped brood, and some honey cells. Lots of big fat brood hanging out in their cells. Still no sign of the queen but at this point, we know she is around and we'll let her be. No pun intended...

Both hives had eaten a good amount of syrup but only 1/2 to 2/3 of the pail. We switched the pails out and wondered if that was the last time we fed them. Dandelions are out as well as a ton of other flowering plants.

Other Notes
Matt Smith dropped by with his friend. He reported that his hive was doing ok and he hadn't really opened it a lot recently.
Harry Peper said that he applied the powdered sugar last weekend and it was a colossal mess. He said it got everywhere and was a bit of a logistical nightmare. The powdered sugar is part of an attempt to stem the onset of the Varoa Mite. Apparently they can't cling on as well to the bees with the sugar on top. Otherwise, his hive was ok.