August 20, 2020 hive check

 I wanted to check the hive mostly to see evidence of a queen and saw capped brood and I think some open in the upper deep.

I never made it down to the bottom deep. There were lots of bees everywhere in both deeps.

The super was still being worked on in terms of building comb.  I didn't have ten frames with comb so they had work to do on some empty frames...consequently there wasn't much honey there at all.  I do hope they can fill at least a few frames in the next month so I get some honey for myself. It looks like they will have enough in the upper deep for themselves.

I think I will make up some sugar water to help them build comb faster.

Things seem good.

I've decided to help insulate this winter using baled straw that I can then use in the garden in the spring.  

Mid august 2020

 It looks like I have missed blogging for over a month.  I pulled off the varroa treatment after a few weeks and then added a super shortly thereafter.  I haven't been in to check to see how they are doing in filling a super. I will take a look in a few days.

I did do another varroa check last week by putting back in the bottom board under the screen.  I left it in a few days and then looked and saw no mites on the board.  My plan is to do this every few weeks.

Otherwise I've left the girls alone to do their thing...but it's time for me to take a good look around and see what's going on. Things appear to be normal with lots of bees coming and going so fingers crossed things are good inside.