Mr. Ellis came over on Wednesday and we went thru all the hives. I started with 4 hives last fall and I have 4 really good hives now (plus a Nuc). I have ants in two of the hives but did not see any hive beetles, no wax moths and no sign of varroa mites.
Hive #4 was full of bees and brood - an empty super was added - they were busting at the seams and everything was full of honey and brood.
Nuc #1 was okay so nothing was changed - they still have plenty of room - I'll check in a couple of weeks.
Nuc #2 - switched the brood boxes - bottom to top and top to bottom with the super left on top.
Swarm '09 was so full of bees - I'll post tomorrow about this hive - so much going on!
And after saying (many times) I did not need or want another hive, I made a Nuc from the Swarm '09 hive. When you have so many queen cells and so many bees - well, it just makes sense to make a nuc.
Hopefully, I'll have another good hive. I like the bees I have. They have a good tempermant, they're productive and for right now, I don't have any disease problems. I have bought queens and I just don't seem to have much luck so I like for my bees to make their own queen.
So we didn't see the queen in any of the hives but saw the results of her work so we know I have a queen in each hive.
