Stores aboard

Temperature: 19C
Weather: Warm and windy
Stings: None

Just a quick check as there is not much I can do until I've got the extra bee bits (frames and foundation) that I need. But from what I saw they are doing very well. All the brood in the top brood box has emerged and the entire box is now pretty much full of stores. The foundation that they have draw is a bit gnarly and they got really irritated when I inspected it as a few bees got rolled as it pulled it upwards. Once I've got some fresh undrawn frames made up I'll start swapping out the old stuff. I'm tempted to do a spring extraction as the old frames probably need retiring. I'm not sure I should store them this year to use next. Image via Wikipedia

Downstairs, all is well. There is lots of frame being drawn and brood in all stages. I saw the queen! She is pretty slim but was marching around looking for places to lay. I need to be careful about how much foundation I give them to draw as they could get exhausted if I work them too hard or they may be drawing it in the wrong places.

These feel like good problems to have though as it is about coping with growth not struggling to get them started.

Going strong

Temperature: 25C
Weather: Hot and sunny
Stings: None

This was the first visit for two weeks and I was worried about what I would find as I made some big changes last time. Thankfully it kind of looks like what I did worked. Essentially I swapped the two brood boxes around to start the process of getting the bees onto fresh comb. My worry was that the queen would not have enough room to lay as not all the comb I gave them was drawn.
Image via Wikipedia
I'm still a bit worried as the comb is starting to be drawn but it is by no means all done yet. They do have lots of stores though so it shouldn't be too much of a problem for them to draw it. I did see bees in all stages of development, everything from eggs to sealed brood and lots of it. It is going to be a very strong colony very soon.

Upstairs there is not much brood left to emerge and much of the rest has been given over to stores. I have fallen victim to one problem which is that the bees will only use the space they need. They don't draw comb on a whim. I'll keep an eye on them though as I want to get them drawing more comb so they can build up some for next year. I'm down on stores and stocks thanks to a couple of poor years with my bees.

Swapsies

Temperature: 24C
Weather: Hot and sunny
Stings: None

Today I did the first full inspection of the year and was quite pleased with what I found. There is brood on six combs and stores on at least as many more. Brood in all stages too. I didImage via Wikipedian't see the queen but I did see eggs and lots of larva. Plus there was lots of capped brood and even a little bit of drone comb here and there. No queen cells though.

So the bees are doing well. They have more than enough stores to keep them going, the weather is good and they are bringing in nectar and pollen. They are pretty well set. It is going to be a very strong colony very soon.

What I also did today was start the process of moving them on to fresh comb. I'll admit now that this is a gamble. Not all the comb they are moving to is drawn and they will have to work hard to get that done. I don't think that's going to be a problem because they are making wax for brood. I had to mash a few larva in comb that had been built on top of the frames. I'm worried though because I'm not sure they have enough room in which to expand.

What is true now that the fresh comb, queen and other bees are in the bottom brood box is that they do have more room. And the queen has places to put eggs. Will it be enough? Not sure. I'd guess that they are happier to build comb where the queen wants to lay than in places to put stores. And some of those stores will be consumed as they produce wax. This is all by way of re-assuring myself that I've not made a stupid mistake.

If I have messed up then there is not much I can do about it. I do not have any more drawn comb for them to use. I can feed them so they have more stores to use but I don't think that will be the problem as there is plenty of forage for them. It's more a question of whether they can drawn the comb quick enough to satisfy the queen.

I was convinced that I'd get stung today as I messed the bees around a lot. I smoked them, moved all the frames around, peered at them and shook them up a lot. But apart from the odd bee bothering me to see what I was doing they were pretty docile. I'll miss this queen when she is gone.