Front door of the split box |
I do want to repopulate Olea's hive. Modifying Langstroth frames can be done but involves more work and mess than I would want to take on. Making a "shook swarm" looks complicated, but there may be someway I can accomplish it, perhaps with someone's (Kathy Niven) help. And we can also hope to capture a swarm. I have no plans to buy bees for Olea's hive.
I looked into #2 to see if the queen had started laying in the frame I inserted last week. Unfortunately I failed to mark the frame. The one I suspect was the transplant had nectar and pollen, no larvae or eggs seen. But we learned last week that the bees will flood the eggs with nectar, so it's possible that the nectar-filled cells had eggs in them. In any case, there were a lot of bees in the box, covering 7-8 frames. There were at least 3 frames with brood (I did not inspect all the frames). I put the top brood box back on. It had only one frame with drawn comb on both sides, several with comb on one side, the drone frame and empty foundationless frames.
I did not have more frames with drawn comb available because yesterday Bruce and Gregg traded me five empty frames for drawn comb. They are getting a package of bees this week.
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