We did a quick check of the bees this afternoon, mainly just to feed them. Last weekend, we put a medium box on hives 1 and 3 to give the bees a little more room. Hives 1 and 3 have been building like crazy and we didn’t want them to get honey bound during the week. Guess it was a good thing we added the box bc they have been very busy building out new comb in both hives in those new boxes. I think part of that is because the deeps we have (the deep boxes, that came with the NUCs) have plastic foundation, but the new boxes we added on are wax foundation. From what I’ve read, bees prefer wax over plastic; and from what we saw today, I’m inclined to agree with that.
Sadly, hive 2 still isn’t doing well. All we see in the frames is pollen and honey. No brood, no eggs, and a dwindling population of bees. So, we’re gonna order a new queen and see how quickly we can get her in there. Hopefully fast enough to lay a few more eggs before it gets cold. I think they’re gonna need more bees to make it thru the winter.
We fed all three hives, filled their water troughs, and closed them back up. We didn’t want to be too disruptive bc each time you open the hive and mess around with them, it can take them a full day to get back on track.
We did a quick fence check of the property today too, and while walking thru the overgrown field, we saw a bunch of bumble bees on some of our wild flowers. Check out this beauty!!
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