June 28 bee check

I went to Vermont to check on the bees yesterday.  Wow.  Two hives is double the work and double the time.  I need to factor in more time on my next visit.  Here's what I found and did:

• I removed the feeders.  They were empty and probably had been for a few weeks.  The weather has been so nice though that I wasn't worried about feeding them really.  But I had made sugar syrup for them and then forgot it in Maine.  That made my decision that I was done feeding until the fall.  I'll feed in the fall until freezing so that they won't have to use up their store of honey.
• I looked at almost every frame.  I cut away some queen cells which makes me nervous.  I sure hope I didn't miss any as I don't want them to swarm!
• The frames otherwise looked good.  They were filled with brood, pollen and honey.  I saw evidence of a queen with many eggs but I didn't see the queen.  In some ways, I hate inspections because I'm afraid I might  kill the queen unknowingly.
• Supers were added to each of the hives so that now I have two deeps and one super on each of them. I hope that, in a month, I can add another super to each hive.  We'll see how it goes.
• The electric fence seemed to have plenty of power so I didn't change the batteries this trip.  I'll probably want to go back in a few weeks anyway to check them as well as the bees.