I started out by doing a bit of landscape maintainence around the 3 hives. With a pair of hedge shears, I cut away the tall grass and weeds that had grown around the hives since my last visit. I also cut some overhanging crepe myrtle and several long brazilian pepper branches that were beginning to block the morning sun on 2 of the hives. A rain shower began and so I took cover under the covered work area next to the shadehouse and waited out the rain.
At 10:30 I began by working the 1st southern most hive. After a split about 2 months ago, I was not sure what to expect. Five full frames of brood had been transferred to a new hive my friend had purchased and she had taken them home and installed a new queen. This hive had 3 regular supers and 1 Ross Round super on top of the hive body. With five new frame in the hive body after the split, I was hoping to see freshly drawn comb and a busy queen with lots of eggs, larvae and capped brood. Instead the brood chamber had fully drawn frames, but in the place of the next generation of bees was instead lots of cells filled with honey. I saw no queen or any activity leading to new bees. What does this mean? The supers on top also showed little to no sign of any new comb or additional honey stores. I replaced the hive to order leaving a super partial full of honey with incomplete plastic frames on top. I would perhaps remove this super toward the end of my visit, if I had honey on the others hives that I could retrieve.
It was quite hot and I sat back in the shade and rested and re-hydrated a bit. ...
The 2nd northern most hive is one of the 2 I split in late April. After smoking the entrance, I took the cover off and the removed the first super. It was quite full ... perhaps 60 lbs. and I took the super and set it aside to home. The other super had some honey stores. The brood chamber looked similar to the first hive ... lots of honey, no sign of a queen, eggs or larvae ... the hive did not look queenright. I reassembled the hive and took another break in the shade.
The middle hive between the other 2 is the other half of the split. The hive had 1 full super which I placed a bee excluder under before putting the hive back together. This hive also did not look queenright ... lots of honey in the brood chamber as the others.
Do I have any of the hives with a queen? What's next? I'll be back next weekend to remove the super from the second hive and check on things. I have questions that I hope others at the next Suncoast Beekeepers meeting can help answer.
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