I have a 3 lb package of Italians that I got on the 7th of June. I have then in two 8 frame deep supers. It is my plan to use these two deeps for the brood boxes.
So I done my inspection today. I put in place my SHB IPK(?) trap from green bees in Trussville Alabama. Not a minute too soon either. I probably killed upwards to 50 SHBs. Most were corralled up by the bees.
My beetle barns ain't worth a hoot or I don't know how to use them. A lot of the beetles ended up on the bottom area after my inspection. I just brushed them into the vegetable oil in the tray. I probably crushed 15 or 20. There may have been maybe 5 on the frames.
The number of bees have really grown. Of the two supers only the one on the top is drawn out. It seems that one or two of the frames on the bottom were beginning to be drawn out a little. It is my unskilled impression that when the brood hatches they are backfilling them with pollen and nectar. I didn't see any signs of damage by the SHB or wax moths. Along about frame #6 or #7 I saw what appeared to be a queen cell. I'll try to load it up but I will describe it as well. It was close to the top of the frame and close to center. It was about the size of a hickory nut but not as fat and a little bit longer.
I didn't see it until I was looking at the pictures I took this afternoon. Since I thought they were honey bound anyway here's what I did to correct the honey bound. I swapped the deeps and put the one on the top on the bottom and visa versa. I also removed about three frames with brood and honey and place them in the other super and put the empty frames in the full super.
I know that there's different opinions about where the second brood box should go. Since I have had it on the bottom for a while and they weren't building in it I figured I had nothing to loose by swapping. I also went and retrieved two medium supers and put them on a frame about 20 yards from the current hive. It's a shot in the dark but I figure if they were to swarm they might just decided it's the right place. I also was thinking that since I created more space they might just tear the cell down. I also saw a lot of what appeared to be white pollen. I ruled out chalk brood because it was packed in there like pollen, flat and level. Could it could be sugar from sugar water in a hummingbird feeder? I had a SBB but since I put that trap on they have really been bearding this evening. I was able to see the pictures pretty good on my computer but when I clicked on them here they didn't look that good. I used a flash to light up the inside of the cells.
I know that some of the white are larva;
Here's the cell