Checking on New Queen – June 26

Checked the “Bees Rules” hive to see if the new queen had been released.  Fondant was cleaned out in the queen cage and the queen was not in it.  Looks like she is out with her new minions.

I pulled two ratty frames from the “Tardis” hive that I’ve wanted to get out of the hives for a while and put them in the “Misty” NUC (swapped them with two frames of foundation).  These were about 50% covered in capped brood so this should beef up “Misty’s” odds of surviving.

This was actually the first time that I tried wearing gloves to work on the hives.  I have been stung on the fingers a few times before now and thought I would try them out.  I’m thinking that the gloves are a good idea, but they sure get messy.  Real sticky with propolis.  I’ll need to figure out how to clean these before they become a regular part of my hive apparel.

The open feeding experiment that I started earlier in the week seems to have increased my robbing problems.   I built cages to go over the hole in my inner covers that I could fit the entrance feeder under.  This should allow me to use them as a top feeder without letting the bees loose in a super above the hive.

The two main hives (Bees Rules and Tardis) seem to be taking a little less than a quart of syrup per day.  They must be storing it as I’m not seeing a lot of new wax, but the brood production seems to still be pretty good.

Made a ‘poke holes in the lid’ quart feeder for Misty and set it on a piece of #8 mesh on the inner cover hole.

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