Well I may have been on a break but...

We spent the weekend in Memphis taking in the sites and sounds enjoying and relaxing(ish)!  It was lovely and warm when we got home this afternoon and so a hive inspection was calling.  It had been a week since the last inspection and I was keen to see what had been going on.

Of course, unlike me, my girls had been hard at work and in the 'Blue' hive they had started to build comb above the frames in the space created by the hive shim over the patties. On closer inspection I found eggs had been laid in this comb! So it seems that my queen is getting impatient for space. Although there is probably brood on 4 frames I still decided to remove the last of the patties from the top of the frames and add a second deep, along with a division board feeder and some 1:1 syrup.  And in order to encourage rapid brood rearing, I moved two frames of brood from the bottom deep into the new top deep.

In the second, 'White', hive the bees have also been busy - OK, there's no egg-filled comb above the frames this time, so I got to wondering how much of a 'distraction' [to the business of brood rearing that is] the super under the deep had become? Although there is probably a similar quantity of brood in this hive as in the 'Blue' hive - no question, the super had to go! This is now sitting between the hives, on top of a bee escape and tomorrow I'll take it away and store it in the basement. I added a second deep and feed, but unlike the 'Blue' hive I didn't move any brood from the nest up into the top deep. I felt the brood nest just wasn't as strong although I did want to stimulate some brood rearing

Maybe I should have waited for more brood to be reared on the frames before installing a second deep?  I don't know. It will be interesting to see where the development will be in a week or so.  My aim is to be in a position to put supers on in about 3 or 4 weeks and I feel comfortable with moving a second deep on at this stage.

I'll check mid-week to see how much feed has been consumed, and how much new brood has been laid in the top deep.