Routine hive check to see how things are going that turned into a situation.  Oi.

Saw a few small hive beetles and took great joy in crunching their little bodies.  Beetle traps looked relatively clean.

Hive 1

Finally saw queen and brood in this one.   Once I saw brood, I didn’t need to find the queen she just happened to be on the first frame I pulled.  I was beginning to get concerned, but all seems well.  There were a solid 8 or so frames of bees with plenty of pollin and honey (mostly syrup) stores.  I pulled the feeder to make ready for the honey flow.  There was moderate activity in the honey super.  Some workers were drawing out comb, but not much yet.  

Hive 2

Feeder was still half full of syrup.  This one is not looking as good as it could – especially going into the honey flow.  The queen is present, but no brood.  Only 5 or so frames of bees.  I pulled a brood frame from Nuc 1 to bolster the population.  Gimpy queen maybe?  They don’t seem to be rejecting her, she just doesn’t seem to be motivated.  I pulled some of the old comb in the brood nest (since it wasn’t being used yet anyway and replaced it with foundation – thinking perhaps that she doesn’t find the comb suitable for laying.  I would have liked to just replace it with newer drawn comb, but didn’t have any on hand.  This is one to keep an eye on.  If I don’t see any brood soon, I’m going to re-queen it.

Hive 3

This one is looking crappy too.  No brood.  No queen.  I did find a single queen cell.  Only 4 frames of bees.  Pulled a frame of brood from #4 to bolster population and give them an opportunity to raise another queen.  

Hive #4

The one caught me off guard.  I popped the top and it was bubbling over with bees.  The honey super was getting some traffic too.  10 full frames of bees – and this was on a nice afternoon so that doesn’t account for the forragers out in the field.  This hive was in full swarm preparation gear.  Numerous swarm cells around the brood nest.   Yikes.  I split this one into another Nuc.  Which will be Nuc 2 going forward.

Nuc #1

This one looks good and will probably need to be moved to a full sized hive body in the next couple weeks.  Chuck full of bees.  I pulled a frame of brood for hive 2 and replaced it with foundation.  Brood pattern is solid.  Looks good.

Nuc #2

This is a swarm-prevention split from hive # 4.  Moved to Woolsey outyard this evening.