Super is definitely the word. My hive near (not in) the Botanical Garden is thriving. There's lots of lovely brood and plenty of nectar coming in. So much so that today I removed the feeders, did a reverse and I added my first super! Brilliant!
The hive I tend in the Gardens is also doing well, but it's not quite like the one down the road. No need to super here, but I did remove the feeder and there is plenty of pollen - which given it's location isn't too surprising I suppose! I think in a week we may well be reversing and adding a super here as well! Can't wait!
My home hives are also pushing ahead. The "white" hive that is undergoing a Demaree swarm control procedure right now has supers that are (at a guess) about 40% full. Today I removed about 7 queen cells from the top two hives - It's 10 days since I played with the hive. There appear to be no further eggs in the top of the hive, which is just what I want. In the bottom, although I didn't see the queen, I saw eggs and significantly no queen cells. I think the swarm control measures are working!
My "blue" hive is bursting! All three of the supers are practically full already! I therefore "bottom supered" with a fourth. So that's it, I'm out of supers now! I have one more medium super box, but no more frames! I feel an order for some more coming on very soon! The queen is brilliant - but perhaps a bit too good as I found a couple of Queen Cells on a couple of frames - viable ones at that. This is a bit gloomy as I may have to do some Demaree measures on this hive as well! For this I'll need another deep box and some frames. I'm out of all my essentials!
I suppose beekeeping has it's good and it's not so good days. Overall today has been very, very, good.
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