Hive weigh-in
Queen Anne: 104.6 lbs (+9.6 lbs from last week)
Queen Beatrice: 45 lbs (+2.5 lbs from last week)
Last week the hive looked near starvation. They had lost 7.5 lbs and had no honey stores so I put a feeder back on and gave them 1.5 quarts of 1:1 sugar syrup. They used all of it and it looks like it's really helped them get back on their feet (er...wings?) and they've built their honey stores back up again. I'm not giving them any syrup this week so I can see if there's a nectar flow on and if they are bringing any of it in.
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They are making good use of the comb in the 2nd box to raise brood and store some honey. But a couple of the frames that were new 2 weeks ago still don't have any comb drawn out, which puzzled me at first until later when I realized that the near starvation last week made it impossible for them to draw out that comb.
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Last week I found a couple frames of empty comb in the bottom box. These were frames that normally contained brood that had all emerged and the queen hadn't gotten back around to them yet. Today we spotted her on one of those frames and watched her lay eggs. It was nice seeing her do her thing and that she was laying in the empty comb. She has plenty of room to continue laying eggs. I don't think it will be necessary to expand the brood nest out any further. I think she's now being stretched to her limits.
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I verified that the last couple of frames are still very full of pollen. They have been bringing plenty of it in and have no shortage. I also need to get more experience stacking the hive boxes. I haven't gotten the hang of it yet. The bees just want to suddenly come crawling and flying out of the hive right when I'm trying to put another box in place and they just get in the way. The longer I take to try to avoid crushing them the more they come flowing out. I got very frustrated with the situation.
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Queen Beatrice is doing very well. They nearly finished off the 1.5 quarts of syrup I gave them last week. They are still drawing comb and even managed to produce a bit of capped honey (I'm sure it's just syrup, but if I'm not eating it I don't see the point in differentiating). I really didn't expect to see any of that as I haven't seen any capped honey in Queen Anne's hive. The brood pattern is looking really good with a good mix of eggs, young larva, and capped brood. Just a couple more weeks and they should have some reinforcements beginning to emerge.
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