Fall hive check and those darned mites! Altadena…
September 24, 2019
We came to check on our three hives in Altadena and to make sure that our new queen was doing well. She Is well-established in her hive with a good supply of honey, nectar, and pollen.
We went through each frame of the other two hives looking for queen cells, pollen and honey so that the emerging bees will have plenty to eat.
The Brisa hive had three boxes but we noticed there are several empty frames in the top two boxes so we consolidated and took that hive down to two boxes. There was plenty of larva, capped brood, honey and lots of nectar being brought in but they were definitely short of pollen. Next time we will bring a pollen patty to provide protein they need.
The Joyla hive had larva, capped brood, nectar, a little capped honey on several frames, and lots of pollen but not enough to share with the Brisa hive.
We saw our green marked queens (2019) in all three hives. Next time: bring feeders, sugar water and pollen patties.
We powdered sugar dusted each frame of the three hives. In a week, we will do it again and then repeat our varroa test the following week.
