Mid Summer Update

Popped open the hive yesterday for a check on things. My June swarm hasn't slowed the ladies very much. One of the honey supers is nearly full of capped honey and the other has 4 frames completely full. In anticipation of the harvest, I ordered an inexpensive extractor and capping scratcher from Dadant. I pulled the supers off and next checked the hive bodies. The upper deep is still full of capped honey, and the brood chamber was full of capped brood, pollen and honey. I didn't see any evidence of disease or mite infestation. There sure are a lot of bees swarming about. I'll check again in a couple of weeks.

There's the Queen

I waited more than two weeks hoping the new queen made a successful mating flight and things were back to normal. I opened the hive today and the first thing I saw were beautiful larvae that had been raised in the space between the hive bodies. Her Majesty lives! I pulled frames from the lower hive body and saw frame after frame of capped brood. Apparently, nature has taken its course and all is well. I figured as much since from the outside the hive has appeared normal and field bees have been bringing pollen in all along so I figured they must be raising larvae. Several frames in each honey super have been drawn into comb and they are storing nectar. It looks like I'll have a honey harvest despite the swarm. Next year: I'll try swarm control.

Where's the Queen?

On June 22 I opened up the hive to check the progress of my new queen. All the queen cells were gone. I saw drones and workers, but I couldn't find the queen. I couldn't see eggs or larvae either. Hmm......I added the honey supers because the hive was still honey bound and hoped for the best.