One closeup of the winter bees. They look pretty good!
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I put the oxalic acid pads in the hives today. Each hive gets 50 grams of oxalic acid that is mixed with 50 grams of glycerin. The glycerin is heated to LESS than 170F/76C before the oxalic acid is mixed in and then the Swedish dishcloths are cut in half and soaked in the mixture.
This was the Center hive that has the most bees.
No stings, no drama, no surprises.
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This is the "East hive" that has the old queen from the almost 2 years ago swarm. The upper deep box was still heavy so they have plenty of food. No moisture issues from this hive or the "West hive" and it had adequate weight also.
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Checked the hives today to verify they had enough food. This is the 'Center hive' and the quilt box was very wet and had a little mold starting to grow in it. I took all the pine shavings out and wiped it down with some tea tree oil soap after I was done checking them. Lots of bees in this hive and I might have to feed it if the weather turns cool or rainy.
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A bit of beekeeping today. It was about 2 days for the West hive to empty the 1.5 kg of honey in the feeder and to celebrate that 1 of them stung me.
The Center hive, pictured, is full! Upper deep is heavy, lots of bees, more comb in places it shouldn't be. I put a super on it so maybe I'll see some late flow to harvest.
The East hive had a few frames not built out in the upper deep so they shouldn't run out of room and I can feed.
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This was the hive that had the original queen from the captured swarm last year and the hive that the found on the ground queen came from. I'll wait a couple of weeks now I guess and then make a mess of their lower brood box again hoping they won't bridge everything together again with honey stores.
Yesterday I saw a little cluster of bees on the ground below the north hive. While poking through the cluster to see if a queen was there, and getting buzzed by a lot of drones going into the hive, I actually saw a queen fly into the hive.
I checked this one too and the lower brood box was busy but didn't break it down because everything was bridged together and I could hear a queen piping so I left things to be for now.
Inspected the hive with the queen that was found on the ground multiple times and she was doing her thing. At first I thought it was a different queen but there was a little bit of paint left on her.
She seems to be laying a solid pattern of brood so maybe some migratory hive drones moved in before the trucks took them away or there are local bees not too far away.
This is the "North" hive, which might have the old queen in it if she wasn't killed by a new queen. I didn't see her the last time I checked it but it was about 2 bees deep on every frame before I added another brood box.
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This is the "South" hive, or the lower half of the vertical split. I checked it the other day and they're building comb and there was some larvae in the upper deep, and I found a queen and caught and marked her. I didn't check the lower box once I found the queen, so I'll check in a week or two and see how the laying pattern is to know if she got bred from another colony.
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Tom