July 11
The nuc box had lots of brood.
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
and a frame with one side of capped honey.
Photo by: Shawn Caza / CC: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
The warré box had four combs established and one started. All only containing nectar. All very straight combs
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
They didn't expand their brood nest down. We moved the nectar to the sides and the undrawn to the centre. This was a bit of a disappointment as we are really eager for them to expand their population.
July 12
Added a new warré frame to the nuc box, in the hopes we can use it to encourage brood nest expansion.
July 16
Very hot day, during the middle of a heat wave in an otherwise cool summer.
The built a decent size comb on the warré frame added to the nuc box.
Photo by: Shawn Caza / CC: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
Some nectar on the top and loads of eggs. We seeded this frame in a new box placed between the bottom warré box and the top nuc adapter box.
The bottom box had only one new comb started. I moved this to the centre, leaving an empty frame on either side.
The entrance was looking a little crowded.
Photo by: Shawn Caza / CC: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
So I opened up the reducer to about half way.
Photo by: Shawn Caza / CC: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
August 5
Only two new combs and a little bit started in the new box.
Photo by: Shawn Caza / CC: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
Most of the brood had hatched out on the original seed frame.
Photo by: Shawn Caza / CC: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
We also had some young brood and eggs, and possibly some drone brood on the new combs.
Photo by: Shawn Caza / CC: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
The bottom box had loads of pollen and small amounts of honey. I moved a little up to be close to the brood and scored some of the honey.
Still lots of brood in the top nuc box. Though the pattern might be verging on spotty.
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
Still just the one side of comb with solid honey. I scorred it to see if that could help stimulate more comb building and brood.
I walked around the area but had a hard time figuring out where they might be foraging. Their were a few houses in the neighbourhood with pollinator gardens but I didn't see any honeybees there. Around the railway tracks and the power line cooridor the sweet clover was still in bloom but I only saw a few bees. There's a substantial amount of goldenrod about to bloom. Hopefully that will give them a good fall flow and get them prepared for winter.