Added another sticky board

June 22 - I added another sticky board to check on mites.  I will take out the board on Tuesday and count them.

• There was lots of capped brood; 
• more bees so some have hatched
• I didn't see the queen but saw lots of larvae in various stages so I expect she's still in there. I always feel better, however, if I actually see her.
• Sugar water was all gone this time - probably because of all the rain we had last week.  But it's sunny today! I added more sugar water.
• So far, these bees have a great nature.  Not at all hostile.
• They are busy working in the second deep as well.  Lots of nector; a lot of cleaning done. It actually felt heavier than I expected when I removed it to get to the bottom deep.
• There was a lot of debris on the bottom board so I scraped that all out before adding the sticky board

Then I closed it up.  I also mowed the bee yard and added a pot of flowers.

A clumsy start with my screened bottom board (SBB) addition

I knew it wasn't right.  It didn't feel right. It didn't look right.  But I left it as it was and posted questions and photos to the Brattleboro Beekeepers Group on Facebook. It wasn't long before someone said that it looked upside down.  And darned if that wasn't the issue. I still can't believe I didn't see that at the time because now it's so obvious.  They were a great help.  If you're a beekeeper, happen to be reading this post, and aren't in a group, join one. You'll find a great sharing of issues and ideas.

So I flipped over the SBB and now the entrance reducer was in a position I recognize.  I left open the upper entrance (the circle one).  They seem to like that.

Today I pulled out the sticky board to check for Varroa mites.  So you get the count, when you're asked, you leave sticky board in the hive for three days and then you take it out and look for and count the mites you find in the rest of the debris on the board.  I used some paper taped together to the size needed to cover the board that fits at the bottom of the hive.  Then I sprayed with cooking oil...maybe I discussed this already.  I may spray heavier next time.  It didn't seem sticky enough.
But the count was 6 divided by 3 (the three days)=2  So my mite count today is 2.

I need to investigate how often I need to do this. I would think about every few weeks.

So I don't need to treat them yet.  I think that if the count is eleven or more, it's ready to treat. I also need to double check that fact.

June 7th hive check and added screened bottom board

I want to do the right thing this year regarding varroa mite counts and treatments.  I am set to do Oxilic Acid this year but first I want to get my counts.  So I bought and put on a Screened bottom board today, adding a layer of paper with cooking oil sprayed on so they stick as they fall from the bees.  I will go check on Monday to see what I have for counts.

Happily I saw the queen this week.  I hadn't seen her last week and was a little worried but not too much because I had seen recent brood.  Today I saw her and she was very busy.  They had filled in another frame or two with full brood and pollen.  I thought it was time to add another deep so I did that too.

I then added the frames I had extracted last weekend to the upper deep and let the bees clean them off.  At least they won't need to build comb from scratch in that deep.  They've had to do a lot of building in the lower deep.  I was careful to remove any drone comb from the frames I put in too.  And have added a green drone frame to the upper deep and the one in the lower deep is being built out, but no brood in there or eggs.  I'm keeping my eye on this after last year!

Bees still had not finished up  their sugar syrup from last time but I added more anyway hoping the ants stay away and the bees drink it.  I guess they don't really need it at the moment.

Notice the entrance reducer on the front.  That is not  correct, I'm sure.  I don't know if this screened bottom board is supposed to go over my regular bottom board but that seems like way too many bottom boards.