Hive weigh-in
Queen Anne: 95 lbs (-7.5 lbs from last week)
Queen Beatrice: 42.5 lbs (+4.5 lbs from last week)
Today I needed to see if the queen cups have eggs, larva, or have been capped. I picked up more hive equipment to do a split if necessary, but before setting up the hive stand and getting everything in place I wanted to see if it was even necessary. Fortunately I found that the queen cups were in the same state as last week and unoccupied. Unfortunately I also discovered that the hive had no honey stores. They still have plenty of pollen, but either they've been using all the nectar they've been bringing in or there just isn't much to bring in right now. We also saw the queen up in the top box. She's still at work and doing fine.
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In this video I go through the middle box and find that the queen cups I saw last week are empty. I wonder if bees make queen cups "just in case" or what. No honey found in the middle box either.
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I found 2 frames in this box that were completely empty. It looked to me like they had recently hatched and the queen probably just hasn't made her rounds to that spot of the hive yet to lay eggs. Hopefully I'll find eggs/larva in those 2 frames next week. But I've also heard that bees will take a break occasionally, and since it doesn't look like much nectar is coming in, this may be one of those lulls in brood rearing. No honey was found in any of the 3 boxes, so to keep them from starving I added a syrup feeder.
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I finally got to open up the hive where I put the swarm I caught last week. They really took a lot of the syrup I gave them. There was about 10 oz left of the 48 oz I gave them. They've built up a good amount of comb. We saw the queen, and she's been busy laying eggs. So in a few more weeks we should have a population boom in that colony. They're looking very good so far. It will be interesting to see what differences, if any, they exhibit compared to the other colony.
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