The rain finally stopped after about a week of solid rain. I was able to do a thorough inspection of the three hives.
The two packages that were installed in one medium each have drawn out about 8 feames so I added another medium of foundation to them. The combs were either filled with brood and or nectar/pollen so the queen had little space to lay The bees were building comb from the bottom of the frames down toward the SBB and queen had layed in them, so I believed I should add the boxes. New bees will be emerging soon. They are bring in pollen like crazy. They are not taking much syrup but I left it on since I added new foundation. I installed these packages on April 30. Everything seem like it is on schedule?
My other hive I installed on deep black RiteCell. It is emptying a gallon pail of syrup almost as fast as I can put it on. They have about 5/6 frames drawn, have lots of capped brood but are beginning to turn the syrup into capped honey restricting the space for the queen to lay. Now one frame of brood looks like it will be emerging soon. Should I continue to feed since they need to draw out more comb, or am I feeding too much and need to stop? I realize that population is at its ebb right now since these were installed on April 30. Its funny. This hive on a deep is not pulling in the pollen like the ones on the mediums and less activity at the entrance. Plenty of bees in it though and plenty of capped brood. Perhaps they are expending their energy slurping down the syrup I put on them.
I noticed on all three hives that the bees have not drawn the plastic all the way down to the bottom of the frames leaving about 1/2 inch or so undrawn. Does that have anything to do with the SBB even though the drawer is in at the moment closing it to the outside?
Thanks.
Ron
Topic: Some Questions (Read 1755 times)