This was a quick inspection. I opened the hive. One problem I continuously have with the simple act of opening the hive is that I have a pitched roof garden hive. I love the look, and I'm sure the copper cladding (which already looks nice) will look fantastic as it weathers to a nice green patina. That said, the standard practice is to flip the lid and put the cover and hive boxes on top, so any bees which fall off, land in the cover(s). With a pitched roof, it is a little challenging to balance things on top. To make matters worse, my hive is sitting on pitched ground. I manage, but it's a little concerning to be leaning over the bottom boxes while 2 boxes of honey and bees are teetering precariously right next to your foot. I'll have to do something about that. I'm thinking I might just make a flat, level platform and put the inner cover on it.We'll see.
Given that I had seen almost no brood and absolutely no eggs or larvae, I figured that I would pop in, see nothing and then get out and order a new queen. there were a good number of bees in the hive, so that's a plus. I haven't reached the tipping point of certain hive death. The top box is almost completely full of nectar/honey. It's probably about half capped. I think, when it is fully capped, I will harvest it. From what I understand, there is a really great fall flow of nectar around here of goldenrod and aster. I should be able to steal a box and they should still be able to build up for winter.
The second box was more of the same. There were some frames of totally new wax which were drawn out but empty because I checker-boarded the frames from the new fourth box into the rest of the boxes. Running out of time, I moved on to the next box. The second frame was all uncapped nectar. The the third frame, however, had a nice sampling of eggs. At the bottom of the cells were single eggs which were just starting to lay down. I had been concerned about the possibility of a laying worker or a failed mating so this was a welcome sign.
I'm a little concerned that they don't have enough space for eggs. When the old queen died, the workers back-filled most of the bottom two boxes with nectar. I may have to find an extractor to borrow so I can spin out some frames, leaving the comb intact. And speaking of an extractor, I have been considering my options. It is way too expensive to buy one. They start around $300, although you can get really cheap plastic 2-frame models for $200 if you want to throw your money away. You can rent them for $20 or $30 per day, but I don't know if I want to go that route. Although I really can't think why I wouldn't want to go that route. I had actually decided that I would either build my own extractor or just crush and strain, but my foundation is a mix of wired wax and coated plastic. The next box I put on will be foundationless so a lot of these concerns will go away. For now, though, I will have to consider my options.
Because of the rushed inspection, I didn't get any inside photos again. I really need to have a beekeeper's assistant to take photos. Until then, here are some bee's eye view shots.
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