I collected everything I needed including wires with which to hold the top bar combs to the Langstroth holders and a work table to hold the nuc. Smoked #1 and went in. Alas...
There was very little brood in the top box and only one frame with nectar and pollen. I put this frame into the nuc. Then I looked into the bottom box (did not check the medium box). There were no frames with food to take but there was some brood. It looks likeh the queen has moved downwards. I briefly considered removing the top deep box, move the frames with brood into the bottom box and have a hive with a single deep brood with mediums for the rest. However, it would have been too much to do and not in today's plan. (Avoid impulse beekeeping!) I figured I would do that another day- probably today. So-
I would have to get resources from Olea's as well as eggs and brood to make a total of five frames for the split.Going through all the bars of a top bar is a lot of work as each comb needs to be cut away from the box. There was brood in the the second bar, all drone. The queen was on one of the first bars. She is quite dark. There were no eggs and no resources, bar after bar. Finally, in mid-box, a frame with eggs and larvae. But these were drone-sized cells and some capped drone brood. These eggs would not a queen make. I did not find worker brood until 4 bars from the end. No eggs. I gave up trying to make a split and closed up. I did find the brood area odd; drone at one end of the box and worker at the other end. I wonder if there might be two queen in the hive.
Olea's hive is filling up with bees and I keep adding new bars. Today I but all 22 bars into Olea's. Twice, once a few weeks ago and again today, the bees had built comb on the follower board.
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| Comb cut off follower three weeks ago |
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| Comb on follower today |
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| Comb on follower today |
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