I thought it was about time I looked through the Parent Hive. The weather has been lovely and warm and it just seemed a good idea! While I did the inspection I took the opportunity to replace the existing hive box with another one that had a hole drilled in it as an alternative access. Anyway, I also shuffled about some of the frames (equalized the hive) so that the empty frames are now on the outside and the cluster is in the middle. I reckon there are:
2 empty frames
2 to 3 frames of brood
4 to 5 frames (or thereabouts) of honey and pollen.
I also topped up the syrup. The bees had taken some and I added approximately 1 litre more. I would have added even more but I had not made up any syrup. I planned to top up the syrup today.
This morning I was watching the bees with Matthew and they seem to have found a very yellow source of pollen - good news. But this afternoon (about 4pm) there was a lot of activity outside the front of the hive. The new opening was available and I wonder if there was some robbing going on. I put the stopper in the new hole and within a couple of minutes the activity around the outside had subsided. I later filled up the syrup inside the hive - I added another 2.5 litres. Was there any robbing? Did I stop it by replacing the stopper? I don't know, but I think I'm happy some syrup is finally being taken in a reasonable quantity.
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