Sugar dusting, again

Before dusting

After dusting

Three days ago, when I went into the hives, there were a lot of bees in the top box of the old hive.  7-8 of the frames had comb drawn and there was some nectar.  Other than on the drone frame, there was no brood.  On the drone frame, there were lots of larvae as well as capped cells.  Because of the many capped cells, I took out the frame and replaced it with a new one.   This is one of the ways to control the mite population.  Remember, the mites prefer drone pupae.  I did not look into the bottom box.  I used the sifter to dust both boxes with powdered sugar.  Because most of the frames in the top box were drawn, I added a medium super.  The girls probably don't need the super yet, but I figure it won't hurt and it's there if they do need it.

"Ghost" bees at entrance after dusting

The new hive colony doesn't seem a lot larger.  No new comb being built in the top box.  There was a lot of brace comb between the two boxes.  I scraped it off, dripping honey and catching several bees in the wax.  I put the comb in a bowl and left it out for the bees to clean up.  The drone frame, which is in the bottom box, had some capped cells; I switched it out, also.  I never liked the plastic frames that had come with the nuc.  Furthermore, most of the brace comb was built on top of the plastic frames so I decided to get rid of them and replace with wooden frames.  Naturally, I can't just make an immediate switch since there is brood, honey and pollen on the plastic frames.  So I traded one plastic frame with the wood frame at the side of the box.  I expect that the bees will move away from the edge and in a couple of weeks there will be only comb and maybe some honey.  Then I can replace the plastic frame and move another one to the edge.  I really don't know what I'm doing, but I'll see if it works.  I dusted both boxes and closed up the hive.
Two hours later, I took out the sticky boards I placed before inspecting and did a mite count.  The score:  Old hive, 10; new hive, 7.  As usual, I can't knowledgeably interpret these numbers.  They are higher than 3 weeks ago and maybe I should treat.  I chose not to treat- I'll be getting nucs with new queens next month and if they are, as I hope they will be, mite-resistant, the problem should be taken care with just drone-culling and sugar dusting.  As I said above, and repeat often, I really don't know what I'm doing.  (It's fun and very interesting, though.)

Capped cells on the drone frames

I examined the drone frames.  I did see two mites crawling on the comb of the frame from the new hive.  Most of the pupae in both frames were very young, too young to have mites in the old hive frame.  I did find one mite on a pupa in the new hive frame. So I figure there is a mite problem, but I'm going to wait; see above.  The drone frames are now in the freezer, much to Maidi's disapproval.

One of nasty guys on the capped drone cells