Well, the bees are active to say the least. The hived swarm has a laying queen and lots of bees. They were so crowded that I went ahead and added a second deep to give them room to expand. It already has eggs and will be exploding within a month. They were so bored that they had already attached some comb to the inner cover. There were already eggs there as well.
The split hive that I took took out to Mom & Dad’s was close to being honey bound so I gave them another deep as well. It had a laying worker so I sprayed them with syrup and introduced them all. There weren’t enough bees to worry about doing a newspaper combine. There was already at least 30 pounds of honey in their one box. I think they had actually removed some eggs in order to store more honey. I have a bit of a mess in this box. I only used nine frames in their first box. I thought they were all fully drawn, but they have built another thin comb on each side of the two outer frames. I also added the few bees that were left from a previously acquired swarm that was queenless and failing.
I am still feeding both hives, but at 1 gallon per day per hive, I may stop soon. I would like to keep feeding to induce comb and brood production, but there is plenty of nectar flow right now that they are missing out on. I may begin to wean them off the juice this week and leave them to mother nature’s buffet. Sorry no photos or video this time. I was just too busy moving things around.
John's Honey Bees 