7.10.08's Inspection.

I went into both hives on Thursday, July 10th. It was sunny out, and in the low 80s. It's been 4 weeks since my last inspection! For one month the bees were left to their business. But yet I was still not 'ecstatic' about what I found in the 2 hives. I went into the TBH first, and once again I was very pleased with their attitude towards me. No stings! They were still in the middle of the 11 combs I've tied up. Only 8.5 out of 11 bars with comb were covered with bees. Why 8.5? Because on one of the combs only one side was covered with bees. The comb building that I've been observing them doing was just connecting the top bars to the comb, and adding on to make the comb bigger. No new bars have been started yet. I saw the queen on the second bar I inspected. She looked very healthy and fat and happy! I only saw about 2 eggs in the third bar, and that got me worried. But then I saw several more eggs as I gradually went deeper into the brood nest. It was late in the afternoon when I inspected, and there was shade, which made it more difficult to see the eggs in old pieces of comb. On the 6th comb, I found cross combing issues. The bees had built a new bit of comb right on the edge of the top bar. And then the connected this to the old comb that was right behind it. So I had a mess of weird shaped comb on this one bar. I found that I was able to cut the new bit of comb off, and since there was some brood in it, I tied it on to another bar at the end. I found the same problem on the 8th bar, except this was much more extreme. It was fully connected to the old comb behind it, and would be much more difficult and messy to try to fix. So I just cut the new comb right at the top of it, and pushed it back to make it more straight, hoping the bees would get the hint. (This was my best description of this cross-combing issue, and I apologize if this doesn't make sense to you.) On several bars I had to do this... I had to cut at the top and push it back. But in general the combs were very straight.
[I read on the BioBee Forum, that someone was having difficulty getting their bees to build up, like me. She had them for almost as long as I've have my bees. The replies asked her if the bees had lots of pollen to feed the baby bees. The queen slows her laying if she knows that there is not enough pollen to feed her babies. This got my attention, and I kept this in the back of my mind while inspecting. And what I found? Barely any pollen! There was only one cell full with pollen per comb! I didn't find any honey too, perhaps some with nectar though. So maybe I've found out why my bees are so slow to build up! No pollen! I hope that when I receive the pollen patties that I'm going to order from BetterBee, that the bees accept it and use it. Some beekeeper's bees don't even touch the patties. But this is when there is a flow going on, and many loads of pollen are coming in. I'm going to order 4, 2 patties per colony.If they need more, I'll order more. I'm also wondering if I should feed sugar water. I'm going to leave a bowl of sugar syrup out for the bees to decide if they really need it or not. If I see them all over it, I believe I will keep feeding them until they stop eating it.]
Then after I closed up the TBH, I moved to the Langstroth. I wasn't sure if I should because it was getting darker and faster. But it wasn't twilight yet. It was just too dark in the shade to see eggs. But I figured, Oh what the heck! and opened it up! It basically looked the same, three empty frames and one queen cup. Last time I inspected there was several queen cups, so maybe they swarmed, or simply created a new queen. I didn't see eggs because it was too dark. Didn't see the queen. They have 2 frames covered with honey/nectar. These frames are pretty heavy! And delicious looking! Mm mm! Lots of capped brood. They have not moved down yet. I have a feeling that it's going to be a while before they move down, I just hope they will before winter, so they have a better chance of survival! I also got stung again by this hive. I was putting a frame back in and he zapped me on my left hand. It got pretty swollen and it still is. Now I'm wondering if my reactions to stings are not normal, for they last for at least 3 days.
I found some bees in the bee balm I have, so I know that they are foraging at least. Have a nice day!
Kris