Saturday, January 24, 2015

Mold

I looked into #2 and 3 today.  It has been warm and dry and I have seen the bees bringing in lots of pollen.  Some of the pollen is yellow/orange and the rest is off-white.  I planned to see if there was a need for a super, and, without really expecting to find any, check for swarm cells.  I saw no swarm cells in either box.  It really is too early in the year.
#3's top box was heavy with honey.  The bees were clustered on the central frames in each box.  Even though there were not a lot of bees, I added a super.  I will check in 7-10 days.  If the girls are not using the super, I will remove it.  One does not want too much extra space in the hive.
#2's population was a bit smaller.  While checking for swarm cells, I saw mold on the bottom of some comb.  I then did a more thorough inspection.  There was mold on three frames.  I took those frames out and replaced them with frames with drawn comb.  I did see the queen.  There was only a small patch of brood.  I looked online regarding moldy wax, and apparently it is not a problem.
I remembered to order the Apivar strips today.

Close-up of mold.  It is actually greener.

The mold is only on the bottom 2/3


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