Ok--I'm Confused
Sorry, no pictures, but my plan was to simply go out and pull off a honey super, brush what bees were still on the frames and bring them in to extract this weekend.
This was the hive that, on July 9th, had no apparent queen. I had decided I would let them finish curing their honey, take what we wanted, then deal with the queen situation. I did put a frame of young larva in at that time but haven't really been in the hive since, other than to set the bee escape under the supers two days ago.
To my surprise, as I was pulling frames out of the honey super, the third frame was full of capped brood. Not just a random smattering, but a good pattern with a solid middle section of worker brood. Needless to say, I was pretty dumbfounded. Even had I accidentally put the frame with young larva in the honey super, the time frame just doesn't quite add up to produce that much brood. There was brood on the next frame as well and some on the one after that. I did find the queen, though she really seemed small to me. I put her frame back in the brood box, with the honey supers back on top. there are still some capped brood there, above the queen excluder, but I'll just deal with that later.
All I can figure is that somehow I must have accidentally put one of the boxes from the brood section above the queen excluder. Perhaps my box of honey is still in the hive, down below. I have no clue, and won't have time to go back in and investigate until sometime next week. It's been so hot that even getting out early to work with them, I'm soaking in just a few minutes.
Anyway, I did get a couple good frames from the hive, with clean, white wax and light, clear honey. Last year we got 3 gallons finished. We should get at least 4 this year I think.
This was the hive that, on July 9th, had no apparent queen. I had decided I would let them finish curing their honey, take what we wanted, then deal with the queen situation. I did put a frame of young larva in at that time but haven't really been in the hive since, other than to set the bee escape under the supers two days ago.
To my surprise, as I was pulling frames out of the honey super, the third frame was full of capped brood. Not just a random smattering, but a good pattern with a solid middle section of worker brood. Needless to say, I was pretty dumbfounded. Even had I accidentally put the frame with young larva in the honey super, the time frame just doesn't quite add up to produce that much brood. There was brood on the next frame as well and some on the one after that. I did find the queen, though she really seemed small to me. I put her frame back in the brood box, with the honey supers back on top. there are still some capped brood there, above the queen excluder, but I'll just deal with that later.
All I can figure is that somehow I must have accidentally put one of the boxes from the brood section above the queen excluder. Perhaps my box of honey is still in the hive, down below. I have no clue, and won't have time to go back in and investigate until sometime next week. It's been so hot that even getting out early to work with them, I'm soaking in just a few minutes.
Anyway, I did get a couple good frames from the hive, with clean, white wax and light, clear honey. Last year we got 3 gallons finished. We should get at least 4 this year I think.
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