No honey harvest from Olea's hive... yet

A few days ago I looked into Olea's top bar hive hoping to get some more honey.  Most of the two gallons we got from the other hives is going into wedding favors.  I started from the end away from the entrance.  My books say any honey after bar 12 can be harvested, but there was little or no ripe honey.  I did see a few brood cells on bar 14.  I was surprised to see brood extending so far into the box.  Then I saw the queen on bar 13.  I wondered if all the honey was in the front of the box and just how many bars had brood.  I took out the first two bars.  Bar 1 was only about half-length.  Both 1 and 2 had capped honey and I saw some brood on one side of 3 but did not take it out.  So the area of brood has not yet contracted.  It is possible that in the fall there will be some honey to harvest, but I am not counting on it.
I took a look into the nuc and it is stable.  There still is not comb drawn on two of the frames.
I put Apivar strips into hives #1,2 & 3.  They will stay in for 6-8 weeks.  I am investigating how to use the Apivar in the top bar.  Since there is a heavy mite infestation in the other hives, I am assuming that the top bar should be treated as well.
Sorry, no photos today.

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

Having faith in nature pays off

I took a look into the hives today, a last inspection until mid-July.  Over all, the apiary looks healthy.
There was capped brood in the remaining nuc.  The first two frames I looked at had very little drawn comb, the third had the brood; I looked no further not wanting to disturb the girls unnecessarily.
#1, in which, 10 days ago, I had seen the queen but no larvae, had lots of larvae and at least one frame of capped brood.  In this hive, too, I did not look further than needed.  Because there were so many larvae, I put the second deep box back on.  I did not want them to run out of room in the next 3-4 weeks when they will not be monitored. 
#2 seems to be the weakest colony.  They still have only a few frames of honey in the super and there just does not seem to be a lot of bees.  I did not inspect the brood boxes, only removed the MAQ from 2 and 3.
#3 is going strong.  There are lots of bees and the top super felt quite heavy.  I added a third super in hopes that it will be at least partially filled when next checked in July.
I did not go into Olea's.  I can look through the window and it seems that there are more bees.  At least there are fewer combs without bees on them.  I had wondered about taking out some comb and reducing the empty space in the box.  So I wrote to Les Crowder and asked.  His wife wrote back suggesting that I take a few bars of comb and place them in the nuc.  She did not know that all my hives other than Olea's are Langstroth.  I just left the hive as is, figuring that the bees know better than I and will manage.

Drones on their way

I was just watching the bees when I noticed that there were a lot of drones leaving Olea's hive.  They are on their way to the drone congregation area in hope of giving their all with a mating queen.
In case you can't tell, the drones are the larger, huskier bees with the larger eyes.

I just had to look today

Olea's swarmed 10 or 11 days ago.  I was anxious to see how it was doing, so I figured I had waited long enough.
I looked through the hive starting a couple of bars from the back all the way to the front.  There were a lot of drones, empty cells that looked like they had contained brood in the past.  No queen.  No larvae seen and no eggs appreciated.  I did see 3 uncapped queen cells.  There were a few capped cells that looked like drone cells on one of the back combs.
The usual question: What is going on? 
One must have faith in nature.  The bees know what they are doing.  I know that at least one queen has emerged.  Perhaps it is just too soon for her to have mated, started laying and the larvae large enough for me to see.  I will wait at least another week.  I have one nuc to fall back on if there is a need for a queen. (Only one nuc left; I sold the other one yesterday to a Ben Lomond beek.)

Let nature take its course

I looked into #1 today to see if it was queenright or not.  If not, I was prepared to combine the nuc with the feral swarm with it.  However, Maidi and I saw the queen.  There still was no visible larvae.  I have no idea why she is not laying.  I have two choices- replace her or not.  I decided to just let her bee (acknowledgements to Noah).  When we return from our upcoming travels, the hive will be thriving or not.  If not, I can repopulate with one of the nucs.
4 days ago I put sticky boards in all three hives.  I took them out today.  The count: #1, 4; #2, 7:
#3, <25!  The mite away quick strips are already in #2 and 3. 
 I did post a nuc for sale today, too.