I went in over lunch today to check on my girls. I saw s LOT of brood in the top deep and a lot of building of new comb on frames that were empty and needed new comb. The only frame that had no action is the green frame meant for the drones to build on and then I can use it to manage varroa mites by freezing the frame once there is brood in there, to kill them, and hopefully reduce the mites. Varroa, if you remember, like to attach to drones so if you can manage the drone population, it should reduce the mite problem.
I had added Checkmite "sticks" into the two deeps, two in the top deep and only one in the bottom deep about three weeks ago. I added one more to the bottom deep today. They like to be there for about 42 days, according to the package, so we'll give them another 3 weeks or so before removing them.
All looked good inside the hive. Lots of brood and pollen. No dead bees.
I did see them making some cells at the bottom of a few frames. I left them alone for now, but it does seem like I already have an active queen. I wondered about perhaps starting a Nuc but think I won't mess with the hive at this time.
I also filled up the sugar syrup which was almost gone so they're still using it. But now we have some nice days coming so they may not use up this batch. We'll see.
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