Friday, April 17, 2015

Olea's brush swarm is expanding

On March 12 I populated Olea's hive with a brush or shook swarm from hive #3.  I have been watching it through the observation window and it seemed to be doing well.  Initially it was fed 1:1 sugar syrup but I removed the feeder at the beginning of this month.  I had manipulated comb on March 29 to prevent cross-combing, but other than that Olea's hive had been left alone.  Yet I had to look, so I went in yesterday.
The girls had drawn comb out to bar 10 (counting from the entrance).  10 was not completely drawn and was about 2-hands size.  On 11 was a thumb sized nub of comb.  I switched 10 and 11.  There was a small patch of capped brood on 8 and larger patches on 6 and 7.  I did not look any further, nor did I see the queen.  There was not any honey on the frames I inspected.  I added two more top bars with spacers and moved the backboard.  I will use spacers with any more added bars.


I also checked the honey super on #2; it was only about 1/2 filled so I did not add a second super.
With great will I resisted the temptation to look into the nuc.  It will be 4 weeks in another 8 days.

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