Stings: None
So far, my plans are going well. I swapped out some of the older frames in the brood box for undrawn ones to encourage the bees to, among other things, lay down some stores. The drawn comb I have got is pretty gnarly and I'll be better off replacing it as soon as I can. Of the three frames I put in that lower brood box all are being worked on. One is almost all stores (yay), one is almost completely drawn and what is drawn are full of nectar (double yay) and the other one is only just starting to be worked on.
I feel relieved about this. I was worried that the bees would simply concentrate their efforts on the honey in the super and ignore the others. That's not happened but I think I need to put on some Porter bee escapes to encourage them out of there.
I almost put the frame that was almost entirely drawn in the upper brood box but decided not to as they are already hurting for room so taking that away might have been a bit much. The bees have pretty much ignored the frames in that upper box.
In the brood box there is loads of capped brood. Lots and lots. And there are already loads of bees in there. If the good weather continues then this will be good as they will be very well prepared for the winter. If not then they might consume their own stores while all those bees look for something to do.
What did I not see? Drone cells. I did see one but no others. There are a few drones around but it doesn't look like there'll be any more born.
While checking through I did see a queen cup. Just one. I checked it with the hive tool but there was nothing in it. It doesn't seem like there is anything to worry about. The queen's wings are clipped so they can't swarm and they must be pretty happy with her as she is doing such a good job of laying and keeping the colony numbers up.
The bees were slightly grumpier than usual and a few bees bumped against my veil as I was working just to let me know they were there. I think this had more to do with the overcast weather than my ham-fistedness. The worst time I've had with bees was when they knew a storm was brewing and I didn't. They really didn't like me opening up the hive with rain threatening.
Action plan for next time. Put on the bee escapes. Tidy up old frames in the second brood box t get rid of the lumps and bumps. Move frames around to keep the bees drawing out the frames.
Despite the progress, I can't escape the feeling that I'm missing something.
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