Reversals
We had a nice,60 degree day today, though a bit on the windy side. Our goal was to reverse the hive bodies, while looking for any possible intruders, wax worms in particular.
I made a little video which I will post below once I have it all edited.
To our surprise, we found many, many bees, in each hive, spread pretty evenly among the 3 hive bodies. There was still an incredible amount of honey, even in the lowest box though it clearly had the least amount. We found no evidence at all of wax moth intrusion, though strangely I found a live, adult moth on the foam insulation I had removed from the hives when I was putting it away in the barn. I made sure she would not have a chance to lay more eggs.
We did not see any larva in either hive, but it is early and we did not remove many frames from the top hive body, which is now on the bottom. I suspect that is where the queens were located, or in the middle box though in the first hive the middle box was almost totally full of honey.
We pulled 3 empty or near empty frames from each hive and replaced them with fresh, to begin to recycle old frames to help prevent AFB. Though our examination was not thorough with each frame, I saw no evidence of disease or invasion of mice, moths or other insects. With the number of bees as high as it was, I can't imagine how that we had any moth problem in the hive, though I will be more diligent about checking for their presence under and around the hive.
Bees were in full flight around us, but were not aggressive. I had one frantic moment when a bee made her way under my veil. Kathy had the same experience, but no stings today. Bees were very good.
I made a little video which I will post below once I have it all edited.
To our surprise, we found many, many bees, in each hive, spread pretty evenly among the 3 hive bodies. There was still an incredible amount of honey, even in the lowest box though it clearly had the least amount. We found no evidence at all of wax moth intrusion, though strangely I found a live, adult moth on the foam insulation I had removed from the hives when I was putting it away in the barn. I made sure she would not have a chance to lay more eggs.
We did not see any larva in either hive, but it is early and we did not remove many frames from the top hive body, which is now on the bottom. I suspect that is where the queens were located, or in the middle box though in the first hive the middle box was almost totally full of honey.
We pulled 3 empty or near empty frames from each hive and replaced them with fresh, to begin to recycle old frames to help prevent AFB. Though our examination was not thorough with each frame, I saw no evidence of disease or invasion of mice, moths or other insects. With the number of bees as high as it was, I can't imagine how that we had any moth problem in the hive, though I will be more diligent about checking for their presence under and around the hive.
Bees were in full flight around us, but were not aggressive. I had one frantic moment when a bee made her way under my veil. Kathy had the same experience, but no stings today. Bees were very good.
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