Game Day Inspection

Brian stopped by with my nephew to watch the UGA football game on Saturday. I haven't been in the hives in more than 2 weeks, so we decided to do an inspection. Trenton got an up close & personal look at the inside of a hive (pictured above). I was really surprised to see that in all 4 hives there were at least 3-4 full frames of brood. The brood was in various stages: eggs, larvae, pupae & capped brood. Most hives had 2 full frames (both sides) of capped brood. Usually the Queen will begin to decrease the population of the colony this time of year. I'm hoping this is a sign that we will get a Fall nectar flow and the Queen is increasing her population to ensure they take advantage of that flow. The remaining 6-7 frames were full of capped honey, nectar & pollen. I'm starting to feel a lot better about the chances of the hives to make it through winter. 3 of 4 hives consist of 2 deep brood boxes and at least 1 honey super. Overall, I'm very pleased with all 4 hives. They seem to be thriving and are looking good. I did notice the population of the Small Hive Beetles seems to have increased significantly. I will treat for them in a few weeks. The packaged colony has 1 full deep and I just added a honey super. Hopefully they will fill the super with the Fall flow. This will be their food for winter!

In the past few weeks we've seen an increase in the amount of rain. For most of the Summer it really didn't rain at all. The recent rains have turned everything very green and I'm hoping for a Fall nectar flow. I don't know if we'll get one, we'll just have to wait and see.

As a side note: Brian and I attempted to equalize the populations of the hives several weeks ago. That seems to have worked as my packaged hive has really increased in population and the strongest hive has less bees.

I've posted some pics of the most recent inspection Brian and I completed yesterday. Take a look:

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j101/robert7355/broodframe9.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j101/robert7355/DSC01661.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j101/robert7355/DSC01642.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j101/robert7355/DSC01655.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j101/robert7355/DSC01665.jpg