July 11
We started checking the new box we seeded with a frame last visit.
Photo by: Shawn Caza / CC: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
They had four combs well on their way and a fifth one started. All of them perfectly straight.
Photo by: Shawn Caza / CC: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
Photo by: Shawn Caza / CC: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
Photo by: Shawn Caza / CC: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
Photo by: Shawn Caza / CC: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
Photo by: Shawn Caza / CC: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
A little less than I thought they might have built in two weeks but still pretty good. The only problem is I wanted them to start using this box for brood. Instead it was nectar and a bit of pollen. I guess the seed comb didn't have enough eggs to entice nurse bees and the queen to come down.
Fortunately, there was still good amounts of brood up top. A frame full of eggs and young larva:
Photo by: Shawn Caza / CC: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
Two others full of capped brood:
Photo by: Shawn Caza / CC: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
Photo by: Shawn Caza / CC: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
Capping honey on the fourth frame:
Photo by: Shawn Caza / CC: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
To me this looks like the queen is not able to lay as much as she might like and they are putting more energy into building up stores than building comb than I would like. I checkered the combs in the bottom box to see if that would help put an emphasis on comb building. It would also help ensure they build those combs straight on the frames.
We opened up the entrance reducer a bit.
July 12th
I felt I needed to add another seed comb to the nuc and see if my luck at baiting the queen to come down will be better the second time. I was worried about the potential of a crisis developing from a small population and reduced space to lay if they didn't start making new brood comb right away.
I had to uncap a little bit of honey to make space for my bait frame in the nuc box. A little was enough and I was able to do it quick and smoothly without much fuss.
Rain water had accumulated in the container I had left with crushed comb. Bees were drinking from it, but it was also attracting wasps and hornets.
July 16th
We had entered a heat wave. It was 33 degrees Celsius.
The sweet white clover blooming very close to the hive was very popular with the girls.
Photo by: Shawn Caza / CC: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
Despite the heat, there didn't seem to be significant amount of bearding. Of course their numbers are not very high. Just steady fanning at the entrance.
Photo by: Shawn Caza / CC: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
The temperature on top of the roof was high:
Photo by: Shawn Caza / CC: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
But the temperature just above the brood was perfect:
Photo by: Shawn Caza / CC: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
Warmer air, however, was recorded at the entrance:
Photo by: Shawn Caza / CC: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
They had a decent sized comb going on the bait frame. Some nectar on top, but a good number of eggs under that.
Photo by: Shawn Caza / CC: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
I had modified the bar I use to hold my warré fram in the lang nuc with wooden blocks to prevent extra comb being built on the sides of the frame. It worked perfectly. In the bottom box They now had seven combs in the works. I seeded the new warré comb with the eggs in a new box in between the nuc and the other warré box.
I opened up the entrance a little bit more and placed some tree branches on the roof to provide some relief, if only temporary from the heat.
Photo by: Shawn Caza / CC: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
This did quickly drop the temperature on the outside of the roof.
Photo by: Shawn Caza / CC: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
Either the bees and wasps drank all the water in the feed container or it evaporated. The heat also melted the wax in there:
Photo by: Shawn Caza / CC: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
I scraped it clean, added in a float to prevent drowning and left a bit of water:
Photo by: Shawn Caza / CC: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
The bucket water feeder system I had left them when we first set up the bees still had some amount of water. I'm yet to see a bee use it. My design probably needs some improvments.