Hive inspection 5/26

This was a full inspection of both of Gainesville hives.  It went well and was the first time I'd opened the hives without sleeves.  Careful work + luck + docile bees = no stings!

Both hives seem to be doing well - I found a queen in both hives which is a first!  Also, lots of brood in both colonies.

There's a tropical storm coming this way later this weekend.  In anticipation of bad weather I went ahead and put a couple bricks on top of the hives.

Pink hive - these ladies have had the 9-frame honey super for four full days, and still no noticeable sign of drawn comb.  That being said, I'm using the "natural" color foundation on these frames, so it's a little harder to see newly drawn comb compared to the black foundation.  Otherwise, this colony is doing well - found the queen as well as lots of brood.  Brood now spans about 7 frames in the deep box and a portion of the middle 5  or 6 frames in the medium.  Very pleased with this colony's progress.

Notes:

• lots of bees home, but relatively docile - had to use a fair amount of smoke, but wasn't stung.
• took out the beetle blaster to clean and forgot to put it back - oh well, shb population seems to be under control
• full medium is very heavy... don't care to even try lifting the deep :)
• fair amount of wax drawn on queen excluder below honey super, cleaned that up some.
• found about 6 or so open queen cells on the bottoms of the oldest-looking wooden frames in the deep.  Will keep an eye on this.
• This hive is doing well, so I don't want to bother them again for awhile- need to wait two weeks for next inspection

Hill hive - this hive is definitely back on track!  Not only are there lots of brood now, but I found my queen too!  I can't quite express how happy this makes me.  As a new beekeeper it was scary having a queenless hive!

Notes:

• Queen!!!
• colony now drawing towards outside frames.
• shifted empty frame from one side to the other as colony growth was tending towards the one side of the box.
• will need to super soon! (probably next weekend)

On a "New Beekeeper, WTF?" note I should mention that while scraping some burr comb off of a frame in my pink hive I accidentally decapitated a worker bee.  I didn't realize what had happened at first, but then realized that her head was slowly being replaced by a golden glob of liquid that was viscous enough to form a big, round drop or bubble where the head had been.  It dawned on me that this was honey and that I had some on my hive tool and fingers... so I ate some.  This was a strangely gruesome and fascinating experience.