First Hive Inspection of the Year

It was warm enough in our backyard to inspect Hive #2 today, the first inspection for that hive this year. I had to do it alone again, so it looks a lot like the last inspection (maybe not a whole lot to see here). I pulled the frames from the brood boxes and moved them into new boxes, and I moved the hive about six inches to the left (enough to slightly disorient many of the foragers, which I’ll show in the next post). I also found some mould on the last frame in the bottom box thinking it was wax moth, but it was probably just mould from water seeping into the hive over the winter. The bees were not at all defensive. They were crawling all over me, but I didn’t see any trying to sting me. I misted the bees with sugar water at one point only to make sure they stayed put, though I think I would have been fine without it.

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The brood boxes were effectively reversed by pulling the frames from the top box, installing them in a new box which I used as the new bottom brood box. I’m still not sold on reversing the brood boxes, but I did it because I suppose it doesn’t do any harm. And for the record, here’s what I found on each frame from the original top box: 1) Natural capped honey comb. 2) Natural capped honey comb. 3) Honey and pollen on a plastic frame. 4) Natural brood, drone and honey comb. 5) Capped and open brood. 6) Natural drone and open brood comb. 7) Brood comb on plastic. 8) Natural empty honey comb. 9) Honey comb on plastic. 10) Uncapped honey comb on plastic. The original bottom box was completely empty, many of the frames with mostly bare plastic foundation (which I’ll probably remove soon). I mistakenly refer to plastic frames in the video. What I meant was plastic foundation. And by natural comb, I mean comb built on a foundationless frame.