Hive Inspection History
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Campus Hives - 4/27/24
Inspected: Hive B
Weather: 55° and sunny
Currently blooming: Maple, crocus, willows, witch hazel
Temperament: very active but calm
Queen seen?: Yes
Eggs seen?: Yes
Mite count: 0
General notes: Hive B is doing well! As spring begins, they are ramping up baby bee production. The hive is filling up top to bottom with brood, much of it already capped. Drone brood is especially visible, which means they'll be ready in a couple weeks to go out and find some queens! There is also lots of pollen collection happening and some frames have nectar. Overall, the Apivar treatment seems to be going well, and there were no mites seen.
Hive B unmarked queen
Campus Hives - 10/25/23
Inspected: All hives
Weather: 70° and cloudy
Currently blooming: Frosted a few days ago, nothing is blooming
Temperament: very calm
Queen seen?: No (hive C) Yes (hives A, E, and B)
Eggs seen?: None (due to time of year)
Mite count:
Hive A: 3 mites
Hive B: 40 mites (picture)
Hive C: 8 mites
Hive E: 6 mites
General notes: Hive C looked good for honey storage, no eggs seen and no queen seen but I’m not worried. Hive E needs to be fed, the top box hasn’t been drawn out and they have very little honey stores in the bottom box. Hive B is good for honey, they seem to be doing very well for their mite counts. The formic pro strips were removed, but were ineffective due to the mite counts we noticed. These hives will be re-treated with oxalic acid. All of the bottom boards were removed, cleaned off, and replaced (first picture). Hive A seems to be chugging along. Some nectar stores between the medium and deep boxes, but not a great amount of honey. We removed a queen cup from the deep box, which was fairly developed (possibly a larva on the cusp of pupating?). After finishing Hive A, all hives were treated with oxalic acid.
Hive B mite count
Queen and queen cap from Hive A
Campus Hives - 10/19/23
Inspected: All four hives!
Weather: ~60° and mostly cloudy, getting darker
Temperament: very calm
Queen seen?: Yes (Hives A and E)
Eggs seen?: No, but larvae spotted
Mite count: n/a
General notes: Not really a hive inspection (we pulled at most two or three frames from each) but a mite treatment. All four hives had passed day 14 of their formic acid treatment, and were ready for a new strip. Hive E seems pretty well off. Isaac spotted their queen and we were able to mark her! (See the pics below :) ) Hive B had decent nectar storage. Hive A looks better than before, and are working on building up their stores. Hive C is also doing well and has a good box of honey/nectar.
Hive E's newly marked queen and frames
Campus Hives - 10/4/23
Weather: 84° F, sunny
Temperament: incredibly calm
Description: 1 medium and 1 deep
Queen seen?: Yes (right at the last minute thanks to Isaac!)
Eggs seen?: No, but newly hatched larvae spotted
Mite count: n/a
General notes: Hive A's condition is less than ideal. Honey and nectar stores are not amazing, and there are several completely empty frames. Pollen is being collected and stored, so that's a plus. A few random brood caps in the top box, and several incomplete brood frames in the deep. Egg-laying pattern ranges from decent to shotgun (not unexpected for this late in the season). The queen was spotted and seems to be doing fine; did not spot any crazy queen cup action like a few weeks ago. Quite a few bees seem to have died while hatching out of their cells, with their tongues sticking out (see the second pic). Hopefully this is just a consequence of the formic pro, but it could be from mites.
Hive A's queen and frames
Campus Hives - 10/3/23
Rather than do an inspection, we did some housekeeping work. Followed the 14 + 7 day treatment plan for the mite strips, which use formic acid (naturally occurs in honey) as a biocide against Varroa mites.
Hive A: added Mite Away strip along with a swifter sheet under the inner cover and on top of the inner cover. I also added a bottom slide.
Hive B: added Mite Away strip along with a swifter sheet under the inner cover and on top of the inner cover. I also added a bottom slide.
Hive C: added Mite Away strip along with a swifter sheet under the inner cover and on top of the inner cover. I also added a bottom slide.
Hive D: finally disassembled the hive and took out all of the frames. I found several wax moth larvae (picture), which underscores the importance of storing your frames well. I also took out 7 drawn-out (or partially drawn-out) frames to be used in hive E. The ratchet strap was also moved to hive E.
Hive E: added Mite Away strip but forgot to add a swifter sheet under the inner cover and on top of the inner cover, so that’ll need to be added on the next inspection. I also added a bottom slide and top feeder to be used to feed them after treatment.
Campus Hives - 5/15/23
Performed by Kira Avery, our summer caretaker.
Weather: 70° F, sunny
Hive C:
Two deeps, one medium
Honey super practically empty
Bottom two boxes full of brood and pollen/nectar
Healthy bustling hives
Several frames in the deep box were mediums with foundation but had been built out to a deep sized frame by the bees
Many queen cells
Split this hive and moved the split to Kira Avery's home apiary
Teal Hive:
Added a 10 frame deep split from Kira Avery's home apiary
5 frames from their home hive, 4 brood/nectar, 1 pollen/nectar
Hive C's queen (lower center)
Campus Hives - 4/12/23
Weather: 71° F, sunny, calm wind
Hive A:
General notes
Saw multiple frames of eggs
Few queen caps but no queen cells
Didn’t see the queen
Tons and tons of pollen stored (see pollen baskets on honeybees)
Honey super
Three partial frames of honey
7 empty/not drawn out frames
Top box
3 full pollen frames
2 full frames of honey
1 partial frame of honey/pollen
Four frames of brood
Bottom box
5 empty frames
2 partial brood frames
3 honey/pollen storage frames
Campus Hives - 2/15/23
Weather: 57° F, overcast, windy
All hives:
All 3 hives were heavy
Loose cluster lower in the brood chambers
Fed all hives with 1-2 pounds of white sugar on top of newspaper (the bees will chew through this and use the sugar as fuel if they need to)
Discovered that mice have unfortunately invaded our chest storage
Campus Hives - 10/11/22
Hive D
Top box has some nectar stores and some capped honey
1-2 frames in top box empty or almost empty
Middle box has significant pollen stores and good amounts of nectar/capped honey
Middle box has sparse and irregular brood caps
No eggs or queen spotted
Saw quite a few hive beetles and wasps but no mites
Bees were pretty calm
Campus Hives - 10/16/22
All hives-- mite treatment
Treated all 3 hives with oxalic acid and cleaned off the bottom slides
Set up ratchet straps to hold down the hives (there were also a lot of wasps in the top sugar water feeders)
Sugar water is about 1/2 full from the top lip of the feeder on hives C and D
Campus Hives - 10/5/22
Treated all hives with oxalic acid for varroa mites
Campus Hives - 10/5/22
Hive A
Top former honey super isn’t super drawn out but there are some frames of honey
Top box has good honey stores and some brood
Good population
Campus Hives - 10/5/22
Hive C
Visible mites on the adult bees (worker in the middle)- do a powdered sugar roll on the next inspection
Lots of hive beetles (need to add swifter sheets)
Good honey stores (entire top box is dedicated to honey and the “drone” frame is completely full)
Very sparing brood and eggs in the bottom box, didn’t see the queen
Calm temperament (having nice weather today really helped)
Campus Hives - 10/2/22
Hive D
Some brood caps seen in top box
Some capped honey, sizable nectar
Did not conduct sugar roll (no sugar, however, they didn’t have any visible ones last time)
Didn’t see queen or eggs
No hive beetles seen
Campus Hives - 9/22/22
Hive A
Top super had 3 solid, 1 partial, and 6 undrawn frames (left on since there weren’t any good frames to replace with in the boxes below)
Decent queen pattern, fitting for this time of year
Didn’t really see eggs (but it was dark outside) and didn’t see the queen
NOTE: don’t do hive inspections when it is as windy as it was today
Campus Hives - 9/8/22
Hive C
Took off top medium box
Replaced undrawn frames in the second box with drawn frames
Took off queen excluder (now there are two 10-frame deep boxes for the hive)
Around 8 frames of brood
Eggs seen and consistent
Not great brood pattern, but we’re getting into fall so that makes sense
Did powdered sugar roll, counted 7 mites
Many hive beetles (see above left picture)
Campus Hives - 9/12/22
Hive D
Eggs, larvae, and brood seen
Decent honey stores, need to reduce boxes and consolidate top box frames with nectar for winter
Some capped honey in top box, mostly nectar
Powdered sugar roll revealed no discernible mites
Hive inspection- 9/4/22
All honey supers were full in addition to many deep frames from the brood chambers
No clear indices of bad hive health
All "wet" frames were returned to the hives after the honey extraction so they could use anything that was leftover
Around 30 students participated in taking off the honey and cleaning out the shed
Honey extraction- 9/4/22
Around 4.2 gallons of honey extracted
84, 4 oz jars to sell with enough for each volunteer to take a jar home and some leftover for crafts
Around 60 students participated in the honey extraction
Campus Hives - 8/28/22
Hive A
Queen got up into honey super (there was no Queen excluder) so we need to select frames for extraction
Some full frames of honey in the top box
Lots of brood in a good pattern, eggs seen
Campus Hives - 8/24/22
Hive C
Top box (“honey super”) is heavy and almost full
Queen not seen but eggs and larvae of all stages were present
Not a perfect pattern but pretty good
Lots of hive beetles, we need to add swifter sheets soon
Campus Hives - 8/28/22
Hive D
Decent brood pattern, eggs seen
Around 4 full frames of honey that we can extract from in the top box
Some hive beetles, add swifter sheets when we can
Campus Hives - 8/13/22
Hive A:
Top 10 frame medium box (without a queen excluder) is completely full with honey
4 frames of brood in the top deep box, 6 frames are full of honey/nectar and pollen
Overall pattern looks good
Eggs, larvae, and brood seen
Hive C:
Rotated boxes and consolidated all honey/nectar frames to the top box and added a queen excluder to turn it into a honey super
Overall pattern looks good, the edges of the brood frame are full of honey
Honey super will be added when there is one available
Eggs, larvae, and brood seen
Hive D
Very inconsistent between frames (honey frame followed by brood frame followed by pollen frame followed by frames of honey)
Queen seen and marked
Laying pattern isn't great, but eggs were seen
Campus Hives - 4/29/22
Hive A
4 frames of brood
Lots of eggs and larvae
Saw the queen
Building out frames in the top box, no extra honey stores yet
Lots of wax
No concern
Hive C
4 frames of brood
Only old larvae, no eggs (queen was squished accidentally 4/23/22)
5 queen cells (3 capped, 2 uncapped)
Lots of nectar and pollen
Monitor for queen health
Hive D
4 frames of brood
Lots of eggs and larvae
Saw the queen
Lots of pollen and nectar
No concerns
Campus Hives - 4/21/22
Hive A:
Took out 4 frames from the top deep for honey extraction
2 frames of brood
1 mite found upon powdered sugar roll
Decent queen pattern
Relatively low population
Eggs and larvae seen
Should be fed sugar water
Hive C:
Probably the strongest hive right now
4 frames of brood
1 mite found upon powdered sugar roll
Decent queen pattern
Plenty of pollen but almost no honey stores
Eggs, larvae, and the queen seen
Should be fed with sugar water
Hive D
3 frames of brood
0 mites found on powdered sugar roll
Decent queen pattern
Almost no honey stores
Eggs, larvae, and queen seen
Should be fed with sugar water
Campus Hives - 4/13/22
Hive A
Decent population
Brood on 2-3 frames
The honey super is about the same as before so they’re not really putting in more honey
Bottom box was more or less empty
No sign of mice
Saw the queen
Cleared off the screen bottom board
Keep an eye on the queen’s laying pattern
Some queen caps in the middle of frames in top box, start watching for swarm behaviors
Hive D
Decent population
Brood on 3-4 frames
Bottom box had some fondant stored in the cells
Evidence of mice (entrance reducer was chewed on, wax on frames in bottom box was chewed on, etc)
Cleared off the screen bottom board
Keep an eye on the queen’s laying pattern
Campus Hives - 4/6/22
Hive A:
1 frame of honey in super
Multiple full frames of honey in top deep, as well as some fresh pollen, nectar and eggs
bottom box also fairly empty
Hive C:
filling top deep with pollen and nectar ( Not a huge amount )
Saw the queen and some capped brood
Bottom box was pretty empty
Hive D:
pretty similar to hive C
capped brood, nectar and pollen in the top box, not in any large amounts
saw the queen
bottom box is also pretty empty
Campus Hives - 3/24/22
Hive A
- Brood, eggs, and larvae present (yay!!)
- excellent honey stores, bringing in nectar and pollen (picture below is a frame from the box below the honey super)
- saw the queen
- keep an eye on the laying pattern
Hive C:
- Brood, eggs, and larvae present
- good honey stores, bringing in nectar and pollen
- saw the queen
- no concerns
Hive D:
- Brood, eggs, and larvae present
- decent honey stores, bringing in nectar and pollen— they didn’t seem to touch the fondant put on previously
- saw the queen
- no concerns
Campus Hives - 3/18/22
Hive A
- honey in the super and the top deep is full of honey
- some pollen (and pollen brought in)
- no eggs seen, nor the queen
- poor population, I’m a little concerned about this
- bottom box is almost empty
- upon powdered sugar roll, no mites
- rotate boxes when they have 6 frames of brood, monitor for eggs (we need these to start in the next few week)
Hive C
- medium honey stores
- pollen (and pollen being brought in)
- saw eggs and the queen (pictured top)
- good population, watch for swarming when honey flow starts
- rotate boxes when they have 6 frames of brood,, maybe add a honey super with the first flow
Hive D
- medium honey stores
- pollen (and pollen brought in)
- sparse eggs and saw the queen (pictured bottom)
- good population, keep an eye on egg laying patterns
- rotate boxes when they have 6 frames of brood
Museum Hives - 3/6/22
Hive A
Hive A is alive and seemingly well. With the biggest cluster of the museum bees. They were fed with fondant today, and several beetles were caught on the sheet traps.
Hive B
Unfortunately, this hive was a dead-out
Hive C
Hive C is weaker than A, with some dead bees but not completely lost, fed them fondant.
Campus Hives - 2/17/22
Hive A
My guess is that the majority of the cluster was lower in the hive), they still have a lot of honey left in the honey super on top. They don't need to be fed
Hive C
Beautiful cluster, almost no honey left in the top box, so we will be feeding them fondant. When I tilted the hive, it felt much lighter than the other 2 which is concerning given the number of bees that were in the cluster
Hive D
Slightly less beautiful cluster, heavier than hive C but only by a little. They had a little bit of honey left in the top box but not a lot, so this hive will be fed too
Campus and Museum Hives - 1/19/22
All hives have entrance reducers, and no snow covered the entrances.
All hives are wrapped in tar paper and have insulation as well as a homasote moisture board.
Some dead bees in front of entrances, likely due to the slight increase in temperatures the day before.
No audible vibration sound at the entrance of the hives. Assuming that the clusters are nearer the top of the hive.
Campus Hives Inspection - 10/6
Hive A
honey super 1/3 full, probably should be left on over winter
Top deep box full of capped honey, bottom box is pretty much also full of honey
Eggs seen
2 partial honey/brood frames were moved into hive B
1/4 swiffer sheets added to box corners
Hive B:
critical, terrible population
queen seen but no eggs (potentially missed her mating window due to late release from queen cage)
2 partial frames of honey/brood were added with some eggs (If queen cells are formed, we know that the queen failed/ isn't laying eggs so the hive wants to supersede)
We'll try to feed, but it's unlikely this hive will live
1/4 swiffer sheets added to box corners to try to curb the hive beetles
Hive C:
eggs seen
some honey
looks good overall but not many bees in the top box (wax isn’t drawn out either)
We'll feed with sugar syrup and exchange the top frames with drawn out frames to facilitate storage
1/4 swiffer sheets added to box corners
Hive D
lots of honey stores (6 full frames in the top box)
brood pattern is spotty but this is to be expected at this time of year
looks good overall
eggs were seen
1/4 swiffer sheets added to box corners
General notes:
Hive B will likely die, but if it doesn't, it'll almost definitely die over winter
Hive A has a lot of honey stored so it'll be fine without feeding and is almost guaranteed to make it over winter
Hive D will be fed some, but is also very likely to make it over winter
Hive C will be fed, and how much they take and store in the top box will determine their viability for winter
No honey will be extracted this fall from the campus hives
Campus Hives Inspection - 9/28
Hive A:
Good population
May be able to get some honey from the single super
Switched some partial super frames from hive D with empty ones from the super
Hive B:
Lots of hive beetles - urgent attention required
Queen that was introduced on 9/12 was still in the cage - bees failed to eat through candy plug
implications remain to be seen
Will check back in 1 week
No evidence of laying workers
Hive C:
Decent population in bottom deep
Top deep hardly any bees
Eggs spotted
Bees are backfilling with honey
Hive D:
Bees are backfilling with honey
Removed oil beetle traps
Both supers removed, 3 frames swapped into hive A super
General notes:
Get swiffer sheets and phase out oil traps
Focus now should not be on honey production, but on winter survival
Hive Inspection - September 13th
Location: RIT Campus
Hive D:
Top super some capped honey
Bottom super- cycled no honey
Top deep full frame brood in center
Broom deep plenty of brood
Evidence of healthy queen
Beetle trap added
Hive A:
Pulled off top super
1 frame capped honey in super
Brood in top deep, eggs in bottom deep
Beetles present in both hives
Hive Inspection - September 8th
Location: RIT Campus
Hive B:
Low population, no brood except for a couple drone cells. I don't think that's new info, though. There were a couple frames with a ton of honey in the top.
Hive C:
Decent population, they haven't done anything in the top deep yet. I saw two hive beetles, but there are traps in.
No honey in the deep that I could see, but there was a decent amount of brood in a very sporadic laying pattern
Hive Inspection - September 3rd
Location: RIT Campus
Hive A
Super: 4 frames with built out comb and some honey
Top deep: packed with honey full frame of brood
Bottom deep: closed queen cell, tons of brood, two plastic frames
Hive C:
Deep: frame added from hive A, spotty brood but generally fine, deep added
Hive B:
No queen, some honey, super removed
Hive D:
6 plastic frames, healthy hive plenty of brood and full honey frames
Hive Inspection - September 1st
Location: RMSC
Hive C
Honey in top deep
No honey in super
Plenty of brood in bottom deep and honey
Eggs and capped brood
Hive B
No honey in super
Brood and eggs seein in top and bottom deep in several frames
Hive A
No honey and top super
Top deep full of honey
Brood and eggs in bottom deep
Partial Hive Inspection August 14, 2021
Location: RIT Campus
Weather: 77F Sunny
Hive A:
Comb beginning to be built out in super, some nectar but no capped honey yet
Brood and honey in top deep
Hive D:
Some capped honey in deep, will likely be a full super in ~2 weeks.
Brood in top and bottom deep, found plenty of honey, nectar, and pollen in deeps.
Spotted a healthy looking queen, though several opened queen cells were present
Hive C:
Population looking much better! Brood visible.
Second deep needs to be added ASAP, short on frame supply. In process of getting more
All hives looked active, but time limited a full inspection. Hives B and E wil be inspected next.
Hive Inspection July 20, 2021
Location: RMSC
Weather: 86F Partly Cloudy
Hive A:
Some bearded on front of hive
brood in bottom deep - both workers and drones
7 frames filled out with comb but not full yet of honey in top deep. They should be eager to start filling the super.
Hive B:
This was the last hive checked and the inspection was cut short due to rain.
Top deep has some frames with beginnings of built out comb.
One frame with a large piece of burr comb (See pictured frame)
Will need to return to check bottom deep, but initial sights do not give major concern.
Hive C:
Very similar in appearance to hive A
Brood in bottom deep,
majority of frames in top deep were built out, and a queen excluder and super were added.
Added a beetle oil trap
Important notes:
The museum hives are incredibly aggressive compared to the campus hives. I am not sure why this is happening, but it has been pretty consistently the case all summer.
Also, all hives at the museum now have 2 deeps and 1 super. Hope to harvest some honey from them in late august.
Hive Inspection July 16, 2021
Location: RIT Campus
Weather: Cloudy 77F
Hive A:
2 deeps and 1 super
3 full healthy brood frames in bottom deep
some honey in top deep
no honey in super
Hive B:
No honey in top super
top deep has 3 frames of heavily built out honey
no brood in bottom deep, some drones, only honey and nectar in center bottom deep
Hive C:
Still small population.
Need to get more deep frames and switch hive into 8 frame boxes due to shortage of supplies
Hive D:
Honey in top super
Hive is looking great at first glance, but time limitations due to diminishing light requires another inspection soon
Hive E:
Frame of Brood added, and will hopefully make a new queen.
Hive Inspections June 23(campus) 30(museum), 2021
Location: RIT Campus and RMSC
Campus Hives
Hive A:
Three frames in the bottom deep solidly filled with brood
Both workers and drones visible
Young brood ~6 days old visible
Two large frames of very built out honey in bottom deep
Some comb was beginning to be built out onto top deep frames
No comb being built in super, just bees present.
No queen cells
Hive B:
Top deep with several frames of honey and some worker brood
Bottom deep with lots of brood
Drone brood as well
Young larvae ~five days old visible
Capped queen cells on two frames, with three on each frame. Probably swarm cells.
Honey in outer frames of bottom deep.
Honey super was added
Hive C:
Very low population, not enough to cover even one frame
Moved queen cells and brood from hive B into hive C, as well as a frame of honey
Treated this like a split from hive B since the initial population was so low, and Hive B indicated possibility of a swarm
Hive D:
Starting to fill top deep with honey
Bottom deep very full, burr comb being built along the bottom of all frames
Lots of larvae, very large population
Almost every frame has brood on it
Honey super was added
Hive E
Evident that there is no queen
Large population
All drone brood
No worker brood
Some honey in top deep
Based on advice from Jen, the plan is to try putting in eggs from another hive, and check for any swarm cells in another hive that can be transplanted, as well as getting rid of the drone brood. This will be done tomorrow or Friday.
Museum Hives
Hive A
Several frames with uncapped larvae present, as well as capped worker brood
Evidence of healthy queen, but not spotted
Honey visible in outer frames
Added the second deep and will monitor
Hive B
Found queen right away, but we suspect she is a new queen. An opened queen cell was visible. It is likely she has been born recently and has yet to go on her mating flight, as no brood is visible.
Few honey frames in bottom deep
Have not begun to build out top deep
Hive C
Started to build out comb in the top deep
Few frames of honey in bottom deep
Larvae and brood present in bottom deep
Overall healthy hive, however a hive beetle was spotted on the mite board. A hive beetle trap will be added into the hive at the next inspection.
We will continue to monitor for adding honey supers
Hive Inspection: May 30, 2021
Location: Campus
Hive A:
Strong population
honey in bottom deep
drone brood
plenty of pollen and nectar
Hive B:
Great population
Queen found in bottom deep
just one center frame in top deep with nectar
Hive C:
Low population
No queen found
Ton of drones
some nectar
honey on center frame
no mites found
Hive D:
Added A deep
Large amount of brood on one frame
Hive E:
lots of honey
no brood
large population
added a deep, likely no queen
Hive Inspection April 25, 2021
Location: RIT campus
Weather: Sunny 55F windy, right after moderate rain
Hive: Frankenstein
Tons of bees, nearly bursting at the seams with bees, lots of burr comb on the tops and bottom of frame
Some bridging comb on one frame that kind of ripped off when we took the frame out
Lots of capped drone brood and worker brood
More drone brood than was expected
No super frames, 2-5 frames with honey
No mites or hive beetles spotted
Swarm prep was in full swing, 8-12 queen cups with eggs spotted in the top box
Split imperative
Nuc Installations 5/1 - 5/2
Location: RIT campus and RMSC
Weather conditions: Cloudy with chance of light rain ~ 50F
Installing 5-frame Nucleus Colonies into Campus Hives B and C, and Museum Hives A, B, and C.
Initial observations: Nucs were picked up from Hungry Bear farms and brought to campus first. On Day 1, we prepared the single deep boxes with drawn out deep frames, and then strapped the nuc boxes down on top of the hive and opened the entrances.
On Day 2, we returned to the hives, opened the nuc boxes, inspected the frames in search of the queen, and installed the frames into the single deep boxes. The frames were placed into the hive into the same order that they had been inside the nucs.
Capped, uncapped, and drone brood was visible in each of the hives.
A band of honey was visible on the top edge of most of the outer frames
Museum hives A and B had empty supercedure cells, which we removed from the frames.
All nuc boxes were well filled with bee populations. No immediate concerns about a weak hive.
Queens were spotted in campus hive B. Museum hives A and C, but evidence of a healthy queen was visible in each.
Boardman feeders were placed at the entrance of each hive, filled with 1:1 sugar-water.
Pests visible?
No pests were seen. Beetle traps should be added in a few weeks.
Hive A Split 5/2
Location: RIT campus
Weather conditions: Cloudy with chance of light rain ~ 50F
Capped swarm cells were observed in Hive A during the day on 5/2. After a brief call to our mentor john it became clear that a split was needed immediately as Hive A could swarm at any time. Later around 6 we came back and split the hive into 3 hives, these new hives being Hive D and Hive E.
Hive A was extremely overpopulated with tons of capped brood. Upwards of 6 capped queen cells were removed from Hive A.
Many frames had uncapped nectar and pollen, evidence of foraging.
Capped brood was given primarily to the new hives, they will be left alone for 3 weeks to produce queens.
We were able to locate the queen for the split.
entrances on the new colonies were reduced with grass placed on the entrance. This makes it less likely that the new colonies will leave.
Pests visible?
I think we saw like one hive beetle.
Going Forward
Keep an eye on feeders
Inspect Hive A for swarm cells and add another deep
Leave the splits for 3 weeks