If it's not Small Hive Beetles it's Varroa mites!

Things never seem to settle down!  Just when you think your weak hive is back on it's feet, something else crops us that needs attention.

Anyway, let's deal with the Daughter Hive first.  It's been about 3 weeks since I inserted an inner cover between the hive bodies and the supers, in the hope this would encourage the bees to move the honey in the supers down into the brood boxes.  Well nothing has happened. In fact, if anything, it seems there is more honey in the supers now!  So what to do, what with Autumn just around the corner?  I reckon I may have to extract the honey and hope the bees have managed to store enough pollen in the hives already.  I'll then start feeding with syrup - if they will take it, and possibly with some pollen patties if they seem weak.

But, the really good news is the queen is laying extremely strongly and there is tons of brood in the bottom hive box.  Nothing is really happening in the upper hive box i.e. no stores to speak of and no brood. I am wondering if I should move the supers to just above the brood box and remove the 'empty' hive body.  This seems a good question to ask at the next meeting. So what if the bees lay eggs in the supers over winter?

Now to the Parent hive.  This hive was first weakened by the Small Hive Beetles, and it lost a queen, but recovered after a new queen was introduced.  Now I think (but do not know) that there may be a Varroa mite problem - groan!  A few weeks ago I tested for mites and the 48 hour count was low - just one mite, yes one! But this is probably a result of there being no brood in the hive for a while.  The new Queen is laying, just not very prolifically.  I want her to start laying vigorously now, so that bee numbers increase before the winter.  When I inspected the hive on Saturday, I noticed some uncapped brood with quite mature pupae (purple eyes) visible - I have added a photo below.

These uncapped pupae may be a sign of the bee's hygienic behavoir.  The bees having detected mites are in a cell have uncapped it and will remove the pupa in order to get rid of the immature mite larvae.  The photos I think may also show a mite on the back of a bee, but I'm not sure!

So, now I'm doing a mite count to see if the number is high, or has increased.  If it has I'll treat with "Apiguard".