After the wax moth invasion last week, we decided we needed to make sure we were on top of things. Since the mercury is climbing up to about 90 degrees today we headed out about ten after Mass and breakfast. Whooeee! Already hot as blazes in those bee suits.
We started by checking Bethesda which is closest to the road. They seem to have a queen. We put some brood in last week, but it looked like they had younger brood than we'd expect. So we pretty much left them alone. No sign of wax moth. We considered opening the hive entrance completely, but decided to leave it alone and give the guard bees less to protect.
Elkridge is booming! Lots of bees and lots of brood. Not so much nectar collection though. Get busy, girls! No ants fortunately and no sign of wax moth. We pretty much left their colony as is. They haven't started drawing out the top box much. The wax coated plastic frames don't seem to be as popular as the beeswax foundation. Got stung on the thumb -- darn it. But most of the venom was on my glove so I don't expect to get much of a reaction
Morgantown looked like they had a queen last inspection, but there was no brood. Plenty of nectar collecting going on though and the hive didn't seem too upset which is typical when they're queenless. We put in a frame of brood and eggs from Elkridge. They won't miss it.
Lots of bees and lots of activity in Wheeling. We took out one frame of capped honey which brings our total to twelve. Lots of frames close to being ready. Hopefully before the harvest at the end of July we'll double our collection.
On the way back to the house we heard a hawk overhead so I decided not to free the chicks yet. I'll go out in a little while and look for the hawk. The chicks love to be out and about and it's hot in the coop.
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