10/28 quick check

I opened the hive today because it was the only day this week where the weather will be warm enough.  I probably should have taken it all apart and checked thoroughly but I didn't.  I wanted to see how many bees I have...LOTS.  And that is in the top deep.  There are three deeps.

The top deep has 8 frames and the feeder which takes up almost two frames worth of space.  I filled the feeder with sugar syrup.

I wanted to look at a few frames but got stung right away and it wasn't really warm enough to keep the hive open for long.  But I did see they were making wax on an empty frame so they are still busy creating space.

I'm so pleased to see a lot of bees.  I have treated for varroa twice.  Once with the Apivar strips and one with oxilic acid on paper laid over the top of the bottom deep. Very few mites have fallen off the bees though.  Some did at first.  But now I think I must leave them be until a nice day and I don't know when that will be.

I'm also thinking about not wrapping them this year.  I've heard of those who have had good luck not wrapping up the hives.  But I would move the two other empty hives close to the tall one and maybe  a piece of stiff insulation to the more windy side.  And close up the entrance.  I'm not sure yet.

I had added popsicle sticks to the top of the inside cover last month so that the sticks raise the outer cover just enough to remove any  moisture building up inside.  I saw no wetness on inner cover so  it looked to me like it was working well.  I also have cedar filled pillows I could add if needed but didn't want any more height to deal with. 

IF these bees survive the winter, I will do a split.  Perhaps I should have done a split this summer, in hindsight. We'll just have to see what happens over the winter and how many I lose.  Having an extra hive is something I want if only for comparison purposes and would like to  do it early to let bees make a queen.