Reducing hives

There has been a bit of hive maintenance since the last post.
At the beginning of October, I replaced the Apiguard trays.  The first ones were nearly empty and I placed the remainders in the new trays.  I noted that each hive had frames filled with uncapped (sugar?) honey, so I took out the feeders and in a couple of weeks will check to see if they need to be fed.  I took a look into Olea's and there were bees all over the pollen patty.
On the 14th I went into the hives with Matt.  The plan was to remove the Apiguard and check food supplies.  None of the three hives had enough bees to cover all the frames.  I realized that they all needed to be reduced to one deep box.  
In #1, we saw the queen and brood in the top brood box.  We also saw a bee bringing in propolis on her legs- a first for me.  There was some honey in the brood boxes, but the bottom box was mostly empty comb.  We took a peek into Olea's and all that remained of the pollen patty was some chewed up wrappings.
Over the next few days, I put the escape board in below the super, then removed the super from each hive.  There was honey in all of them, mostly unripe and probably from the sugar syrup.  I wondered what to do with it:  1.  Extract it and feed it back to the bees.  No, too much work and then what to do with the stickies.  2.  Put the super on the single deep box and remove it when the honey is gone.  No, no guarantee they will eat it all or not make more and then what do I do when spring comes.  Remember, this "honey" is from sugar syrup.  3.  I finally just put the supers and all other frames with honey out on the potting table.  Let the feeding frenzy begin!  And hope that it does not trigger robbing.  There is a lot of fighting around the frames.  I suspect that is because it comes from a particular hive and the bees think it is theirs.

The feeding frenzy beginning

The carnage below, dead bees, fighting bees and wax debris

Then it was time to reduce the hives.  With each hive, I had to find the queen to make sure she stayed in the hive and select which frames to replace in the box that would stay.  Naturally, I chose frames with the most resources (honey or beebread) and any that had brood.

It was hot, so I rigged an umbrella so in order to not get over-heated.

Another sunny fall day

The umbrella helped keep me cool

The job was easier than I had anticipated.  I found the queen in the top box, removed the bottom box and put the erstwhile top box onto the bottom board.  Then I chose which frames to switch out.  Then I shook all the bees into the one box.  There was some bearding because of the heat.

#1 reduced

Over the next couple of days I performed the same operation on #2 & 3.  I did not see the queen in #3, but I am certain she is safe in the bottom box.  That is where all the brood was, I definitely did not see her in the top box and I shook all the bees into the bottom box.  
#3 actually had a fair amount of honey in the deep boxes, more than I could put in the box.  I had to take a couple of frames with uncapped honey to the feeding station to be cleaned up.  This hive will not need to be fed, probably all winter.  I will keep an eye on it; after all, I do not want them to starve.
I went into Olea's to reduce it,   but took out only 3 bars.  The ones I left had a 2-3 inch band of capped honey at the top and I decided to just leave it since I can not feed that hive.
I have fed hives #1 & 2 with syrup again over the past three days.  I will check on them again in a week or two.
I now have 30 deep frames and 30 medium frames to freeze and store.  I can only fit 2-3 in our freezer at a time, so this will take some time.  Another winter task is hive stand maintenance, but I will write about that another day.