Late July report

It looks the main honey flow is over; the blackberries have finished their bloom.  The bees are still busy, but my windshield stays clean of bee poop after 24 hours.

When the bees are collecting lots of nectar, the car gets covered with little umber
spots.

This is not my car but mine gets covered like this

I looked into hives #1,2 & 3 yesterday.  I did not go into them thoroughly, just enough to see if things were OK.  There is a healthy brood pattern in each and they smelled good, so I think they are doing well.  The population seems stable (as would be expected at this time of year).  I also moved a frame with old wax one space toward the side in #2.  This frame had capped brood on both sides and the one a traded places with had capped brood on only one side.  I do not foresee a problem, but then, (all together now,) what do I know?
There is a bit of bad news- varroa mites.  I did a sticky board count over 4 days ending yesterday.
Hive #1: 7;  #2: 26; #3: 38.  These numbers indicate that I should treat soon.  Since I treated with formic acid (mite away quick strips) about 6 weeks ago, I figure I should use thymol (ApiGuard) this time.  One should not use ApiGuard with the honey supers on so I am in the process of taking the super off and processing the honey.  Then I will put in the thymol.  Perhaps I will do a powdered sugar treatment first and then, if the counts are down enough, postpone the thymol or just use the Apivar.  Any suggestions are welcome.

Ugh

Not ugh

Back from high latitudes

It had been more than 3 weeks since the last inspection and the bees were missing me.  I took a look in all the hives and the nuc yesterday.
Over all, things look good.  There is lots of brood and I spotted 3 out of 5 queens.  There does not seem to be more honey produced than there was last month and only Olea's hive has an obvious increase in population (there are now only 3 exposed combs).  There was no drawn comb on the drone frames so I moved them to the side.  I also moved one frame with old wax one slot toward the side in #3.  In the nuc I switched out a plastic frame that had no comb for a wooden frame with a new foundation.  There was an opened queen cell on an otherwise empty frame in #2.  The queen in #1 was gold, fat and beautiful.

A good brood pattern on a comb from Olea's hive

Brood on a misshaped comb on a foundationless frame from #3

Look at the different coloration of the workers in #1.  This demonstrates their genetic variation

The opened queen cell.  The frame is upside-down

Another view of the queen cell.  A queen has emerged from it