Busy as a proverbial

Temperature: 20C
Weather: Sunny, blue skies
Stings: None

The colony is doing very well. Last time I looked a lot of brood was about to emerge. They have now done so and there are a lot of bees in the hive. One marker of that is the number of bees working the frames in the super. Before they have only been on one or two. Now they are on at least six of them.
Downstairs there is brood on eight of the eleven frames. Some of it capped but most of it is in the larval stage. Its pretty much at its strongest right now. Which makes me think I should use this fecundity to help them, and me, prepare for the winter and the start of next year. The problem I have is that I do not have any drawn combs or stores laid down thanks to losing my colony last year. So I need to build those up slowly. Storing honey in the super is all very well but I need to get them to build up some brood frames with it on too.
So, here is my thinking. I'll get some undrawn brood comb and start them drawing a few frames out and filling it with stores. The comb they have at the moment is a bit ratty and mis-shaped largely because of the way they have slowly moved in to it. If I can get a couple of frames of stores laid down I'll be a long way on to helping them survive next year. It might mean taking off the super, or moving it up, and putting another brood box in there for them to work on.
I'm aware, like many things with bees, that this could go wrong. They might not draw enough, they might draw a bit of a few frames and exhaust themselves to no great gain. I think it will work as they have drawn out the base of the super frame I put in last week in only a few days.
Other things I need are cloths to do the manipulations and brood frame wax.

Ready, steady, go

Temperature: 27c
Weather: Hot and sunny
Stings: None (Though they did get really grump at one point)

I had a much better look at them today. I went through the brood box frame-by-frame to see how they were doing. There was sealed brood on five frames, three others were pretty much all honey and the remainder were in the process of being drawn.

Once all the brood hatches it will be a very strong colony. Five frames is a lot. It was all laid out in the classic pattern of a crescent of honey around the brood. I'd guess there's about a week or so to go before they all emerge.

That will be just about in time for the main flow. I need to keep an eye on them to be sure they are okay. So far they have got enough space and are making more room. With all the honey they are producing they will be fine for making the wax they need.

Up above in the super one frame was full, but not sealed and two others were on the way to being full. The feeder was empty too. They have worked so hard over the last few days I'm slightly in awe. I hope its a combination of being in a good spot and a good brood.

Some things to remember for next time. They need a different queen excluder as the flat one I have now regularly gets pushed out of the way by the propolis and wax they are laying down. Plus the spacers I have aren't great. They seem to leave too much space so the bees are building lots of brace comb. Oh, I must also put in a super frame so they build drone brood and I can see how they are coping with varroa.