Summer persists in Mid-October

With temperatures still in the 90's a friend who wants to learn about beekeeping and I ventured back up to my apiary. My goals were to add to supers which I had cleaned and added new foundation, inspect the three hives for evidence of active queens, and install several AJ Beetle Eaters to help control populations of Small Hive Beetles (SHB).

It was a sunny, very hot morning and we were setup and working the first hive by 11am.

Activities included:

First Hive (middle)

• pulled 1 super for extraction and replaced with empty super with new foundation
• may need to enlarge the small entrance to allow for better ventilation
• Added AJ Beetle Eater
• Inspected brood chamber, mostly honey stores and a few drone and queen cells
• No visible queen activity or worker egg and/or larvae
• note: 3-4 plastic frames in brood chamber to replace on future visit

North Hive

• Top super had 1.5 capped frames and others partially full, pull for extraction on next visit
• Added empty super with new foundation
• Lots of comb and honey built on and around inner cover and queen excluder
• Removed inner cover
• Added AJ Beetle Eater
• Lots of bee in brood chamber, Lots of Drones, capped worker brood, pollen cells
• No visible queen found

South Hive

• Hive has brood chamber, Ross round super, and two regular supers
• Added AJ Beetle Eater to brood chamber
• 1 plastic frame in super to replace on next visit
• No supers ready with capped honey.
• Lots of bees and activity in supers and brood chamber
• No inspection of brood chamber, too hot and needed to stop for the day.

Afternoon work included extraction of 9 frames, producing about 2 gallons of honey
I'll work to cleanup and add new foundation to frames in this super in the near future.

I hope the next visit will be in much cooler weather.