8/25/19 - Hive check and varroa treatment and mite check

I was anxious to get into the hive with all the talk of mites this week and saw that this is the exact time of year when they begin to really multiply.  The last time I checked, I didn't have any.  But I decided that today was the day I was going to do the Oxilic acid/glycerin treatment on the work towel.  To me, out of all I've read, that seemed to be the easiest solution and it's supposed to be very effective. I followed these instructions.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg1Vm-v2pRY
We'll see.

I also added the sticky board again but I should have done that three days ago so I can see how the solution works.  But it's too late now so I'll at least have a count in three days and then check it again in a few weeks and hopefully will see less than I'll have on Wednesday when I pull and count.

I was anxious to see if I had drone brood, still thinking of last year when my hive was overcome by drones.  The few cells I saw, I scraped off to get rid of them but also to see if they had mites in the brood.  They did.  But my green drone frames had no brood this time.  They were actually filling one corner with honey.  Whatever.  They have space to lay if they want to.

There's a lot of brood throughout the three deeps and a lot of nectar and capped honey.   I'm not taking any honey this year so that they have plenty to winter over.  In the spring, if there's any left, I can see if there's enough for me to take some.

It's not about the honey this year.  It's all about keeping the hive going!.

I did notice several queen cells, hatched or otherwise empty.

I also got my first sting of the year.  I've had much more aggressive bees than these. They probably thought, if they think at all, that I was going to take away  honey.

8/10 hive check = very pleased

I had added a sticky board 3 days ago so I removed that to check on mites.  I found one.  I couldn't believe that was all but there was debris but only one mite.  I use a 10X loop so I can really see them.  One.  Unreal.  I wonder how that could be when other years I've lost hives, I'm told, due to the number of varroa. or absconding or other.  I wonder if this new vendor I purchased from did some sort of treatment that has protected them.  I don't know but I'm glad it isn't an issue at the moment.  I will keep checking and treat when necessary.

Things otherwise looked great in the hive, now with three deeps and a super.  I added that third deep a few weeks ago because I had no brood and lots of nectar and honey.  But I needed brood and there wasn't enough places for the queen (which I wasn't sure I had) to lay any eggs. 

I have been on alert for drone activity after last year when the drones took over my hive and re-queening didn't work out so I lost the hive.  Finally they are working on the drone frame so I removed this and plopped it into the freezer.  I will put it back into the hive today or tomorrow. I shook the live bees away from the hive hoping drones wouldn't find their way back. It looks like I pulled it at the right time before the capped brood hatches/

A green frame, with larger cells, is used to encourage drones to build and hatch there so you can remove drones from the hive. It's done by freezing the frame for a day or two and then put it back into the hive.  The other bees will clean it up. Stay alert with these because if you let them hatch, they could take over your hive.

A beautiful frame; capped honey around the edges, capped brood in the center area, some nector in the few remaining cells.

The frame above is just what you want to see.  Capped brood and capped honey.  I didn't see any eggs in the cells...on this frame.  But I had a few other frames with lots of open cell brood in various stages. 

There was very little action in the super. The bees seems to be concentrating on building numbers and that's what we want right now. I don't plan to take any honey this year.  I want to see if I can get this through the winter as one hive, and if enough (any) survive the winter, I'll split it and then see if I can sell the nuc.  I really want only one hive so maybe...but I'm getting way ahead of myself, given my previous failures at this wonderful hobby.

Beeing Stubborn!