+23 Days 3rd Hive Inspection--Added another deep brood

The third inspection was pretty routine . . . for once. I had the neighbors over for a chance to see some parts of the inspection.  It was a lot of fun showing all of them the different parts of the comb and we even got to the see the queen on one of the frames. I was afraid the queen would either fly away or even worse . . . I would drop the frame--so I quickly returned her safely back into the hive.

All in all, it was a pretty routine inspection . . . for once.

Here's a quick rundown:

• No comb on top of the frames--moving the baggie on top of the frame was the ticket
• Hive#1 is still stronger, I added a second deep brood box. There was one frame that was drawn with mainly nectar so I moved it to the middle of the new deep brood box.
• I sprayed the new frames with sugar syrup to hopefully gain better acceptance
• I left Hive#2 alone and will hopefully add another deep brood box at the next inspection
• The bees were very docile, I used generous amounts of smoke whenever they seemed very "interested" in what I was doing.
• Hive#1 Busy Bee: added deep brood--7-8 frames built out
• Hive#2 Big Bee: 6-7 frames built out

No comb on top---Hooray!

Here you can see where the first wave of bees emerged from the capped brood. If you look close enough, you can see the queen has laid more eggs. I could not find the first queen, but was satisfied when I saw these eggs (at least the queen was here within 3 days)

 Again, you can see where the bees had emerged (towards the bottom), capped brood (middle to upper right) and the fresh new white wax that is capped honey). The other colors such as orange is pollen.

We saw something that we had not expected . . . a few bees emerging. They were eating away the cover of their cell and emerged. It was really neat and we felt like wee witnessed something very special.

One of Georgia's few Master Beekeepers said this is the earliest nectar flow he has ever seen. One result is the abundance of pollen and nectar. I an a little concerned that the bees are filling areas in the brood area as soon as a new bee emerges. you can see in the picture above.

Below is a neat picture. it shows the Queen with the yellow dot, capped honey on the far left, pollen next to that (orange and white), larva in various stages and sizes in the top middle area. recently capped brood in on the bottom right.

I found these towards the bottom of a frame, not sure if it is big enough to be queen cups, I am thinking (and hoping) they were just drone cells that are sticking out. For reference, the cups are sitting on the end of a normal hive tool. 

Things I learned:

• When using the baggie feeder, you need to have a level spot so the baggie does not leak when you remove it from the hive while inspecting (I left it  sitting on the inner cover)
• The plastic frames seem to be a little wider than the wooden ones (they are more difficult to push back into place)
• I am seeing a lot more dead bees (especially drones). It's not a result of the robbing, but the bees that came in the package are getting a little older.