Following Up

About ten days ago I had placed an Api Life Var wafer onto my hive (broken into four separate pieces) along with a section of pollen patty. I have now gone back into my hive to replace the wafer with a new one and to check on my bees. When I took off my inner cover, I was not overly pleased. The pollen patty that I had put onto my hive was severally infested with small hive beetle larva and I had to go on a killing spree, killing about 20 beetles. I do have to admit that most of the beetles were hiding in corners but with the amount of larva and beetles that were in the hive top feeder, I took it off and set it to the side to deal with later.

Pollen Patty with Hive Beetle Larva

Hive Beetles Hiding in a Corner

I had only added half of a patty thinking that my bees would devour through it in no time but now that it is filled with larva, it is trash.I was told that I had added too much of the pollen patty and that if I were to continue feeding with them, I only needed to add small chunks at a time. 

Going deeper into my hive seemed to be a lot better. Still a lot of bees and a good brood pattern. When I got down to the bottom brood chamber, the wafer I had broken up and placed on my hive was completely gone. Broke up a new wafer and applied it to the four corners of the brood chamber and closed up my hive.

Broken Wafer on the Corner of a Brood Chamber

Another 7 to 10 days and I apply my last wafer for mite treatment. Everything is looking good except for the abundance of small hive beetles.

I hate dealing with Pests!

Adding a Honey Super

It has been a couple weeks since I have had a chance to check on my hive. The nectar flow has been tremendous with little spurts of rain here and there. To give you an update on where I am with my hive, I took a picture of the three brood chambers.

Bee Hive

Here is a time frame of what I have done since purchasing my hive:

Weekly Time Frame	What was done during the week
Week 1	I purchased my Hive Equipment along with a package of bees. Painted the outside of all wooden components. Set up my hive in its location.
Week 2	Installed my package of Bees
Week 3	Removed the queen cage from the hive. Made sure she was released and laying. All was good and experienced my first bee stings of the season.
Week 4	Installed another Brood Chamber
Week 6	Installed another Brood Chamber
Week 8	About to install my first Honey Super

When going out to check on my hive, I was hoping to find that my third Brood Chamber would be filled with eggs and larva, just ready to burst. With that expectation in mind, it was a great sign when I removed the inner cover to find all my frames had drawn out comb. Removing the first frame I did not see any sign of brood or larva within the cells, only nectar and pollen. As I began to move into the center frames, I was finding the frames were mostly honey and nectar rather than laid eggs. This was not a good or bad sign, it just meant that the nectar flow was so good and the queen didn't find any need to continue laying in the upper brood chamber, at least I was hoping so.

Checking the Frames

I started working down into my next brood box and I began seeing plenty of eggs and larva within the cells. My queen was present and still laying, she just did not have the need to move into the upper brood box. My intent was to add a honey super onto my hive and after speaking with my mentor, he suggested that I take the center four frames from my upper brood box and transport them into my honey super. With it being mostly nectar and pollen in these frames, it will give the bees incentive to move up and begin to work the other frames in my honey super.

Removed Four Frames

Note: If i was not able to transfer these frames into my honey super I would have sprayed my foundation with sugar water to entice the bees to move up.

When talking to another beekeeper, he had mentioned that another option would have been to add a super beneath the brood chamber that was mostly nectar and pollen. He said that this would relieve congestion within my hive. 

I went with my mentors approach and transported four frames into my honey super and replaced them with frames containing foundation. Placed a queen excluder on top of my brood chambers, set my honey super on top and closed off my hive. By placing a honey super on so late I probably will not be able to harvest honey this year. Those frames that do contain honey will more than likely be used as feeding frames.

I can still hope though!