Today I went into Olea's, all the way to bar 7. Despite the 80+ degrees, it went smoothly without the previous messiness I had encountered.
The number of bees in the colony is subjectively diminished. There is a 1-2 inch band of honey at the top of bars 12-21, maybe enough for the winter but definitely not enough for a harvest. There was also a fair amount of unripe honey.
So I wonder, if these bees are finding enough forage to store honey, why am I feeding hives #1-3? I finished feeding them the last batch of syrup today. I plan to go into the hives in 3 days to replace the Apiguard, so I will also take a look at their honey stores. They have received over 50 pounds of sugar.
Back to Olea's- There was a small patch of capped brood on bar 12 and then brood and young larvae all the way to bar 7, where I stopped the inspection.
I saw no drones and there was no drone brood. The cells where drone had been raised (the cells are larger),were being filled with unripe honey.
I also saw very little pollen, so before I closed up, I fetched a pollen patty and stuck it in the back below an empty bar.
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