Check-up and movement

Went out to check on the hives and move one of them.

Hive number two has been on a shaky stand for some time, I shored it up a little last summer but decided to do something more permanent.

I got some left over cinder blocks from a Team Impact show and used them as a base for a new stand. I also moved the hive over about 3 foot so that it gets some afternoon shade and wind block from a scrub pine tree. There were some retuning bees a little confused, but I think it is close enough that they will find the new hive location (I hope).

Inside this hive the bees have some honey in the top box, but not crowded so I'll leave them be.

In hive #3 the top box had a bunch of honey in at and even some brood in the top box (three high). I went ahead and added another box on top of new foundation - we'll see what they do with it.

In hive #4, I had put a new top box of foundation on last week and it did not have much activity in it. I went ahead and pulled up two frames of almost full honey from the box below and put foundation in their place. Hopefully they will start pulling out this foundation as they need it for storage.

Overall, not as much activity as I had expected after the extreme week of heat we have had the last week. But it looks like plenty of brood getting ready emerge.

Video and check up

I had a crew from the NASA kids program "Our World" come by to take some video shots as background for a story they are doing. I had fun talking to them about bees.

I then went ahead and inspected all of the hives. I just went into the top box to see if they were beginning to put up honey.

Hive #2 and Hive #3 looked very similar - not a lot of stores in the top box, some, but not a lot. Hive #4 had an 80% full top box! So I went ahead and put another box on top of this hive (now five boxes deep)