Saturday, April 24, 2010

Inspection #1 in Gold Bar (Hive#1)

I received an IM from Gold Bar saying that the bees were all over the hive. That hive hasn't been inspected since October, and since swarm season is now on, I got worried. I went to Gold Bar this afternoon after taking care of my Warres, for the first inspection of the year on hive#1. Weather was colder today that it was yesterday (mid 50s). Here is a pic of the hive when I arrived:

The entrance was still reduced, I forgot about that. In a warm day, the bees did not have enough room to go back in, and were crowding in front of the entrance. I removed the roof and quilt, and the first body. Combs were attaching the first and second body together, so here is what I saw when I removed the first body:

Those are not Wax Moth Larvae, as can be seen in the close up below:

Yep, those are bee larvae. Overall, the hive is doing really good. I found almost no dead bees on the bottom of the hive. There was two blocked out frames in the lower body (for tighter cluster and better insulation), so I removed them and replaced them with frames. Here are the bees that came off of those frames:

The smoker got all those bees to fly off and go back into the hive. They were helped by the fanners visible on the pic below. A few foragers are also visible, carrying their load of pollen.

The hive appears strong. No traces of wax moth, no visible queen cells, I think I arrived on time. I added two supers at the bottom, the hive now has 5 mediums. Seeing how strong it is compared to my newly hived packages, I hope to have a good harvest this year.

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