Second Brood Box Added

Its been 31 days since I installed the hive. While it was late this afternoon on a cool and cloudy day, tomorrow's forecast is for scattered showers so I needed to check the hive now. Otherwise I would need to wait over a week and I knew I was very close to needing the second brood box.

When I opened the hive it was very apparent how well the queen had been doing as the population sure had increased! A queen is capable of producing more than 1,500 eggs a day and it takes 21 days for a worker bee to hatch. With the hive hatching for 8-9 days now, that makes for potentially another 12,000 more bees than when installed! :-)

The four inner most frames have brood, the next two frames are loaded with pollen, nectar and now capped honey stores. The bees are just now starting to draw out the two outer most frames so it is definitely time for another brood box.

Here is a lovely picture of the third frame with the queen. She's been easy to spot not only because of the marking painted on her back and her larger size, but because of her darker coloring. She's my lovely Russian Queen! Looking around the hive you can easily spot the darker Russians that have hatched since installation. Eventually, the entire hive will be darker in color.

I started my inspection without wearing gloves but there were so many bees that they would walk right up my hands, which is really neat. But it becomes not so neat as the hive got agitated when I would scrape off the burr comb. Once I put on the gloves I was much more relaxed and could enjoy the experience of the bees walking all over me.

I didn't intend to spend too much time in the hive but while checking for supercedure cells I spotted this large burr comb hanging underneath a frame. This frame was the very first to have eggs. Look closely underneath all those bees and you will see the empty cells where they hatched. Some now have eggs and larvae, beginning the cycle all over again.

Once finished with the inspection and away from the hive, I could study the burr comb. You can see in the photo that the queen layed eggs on one side of the comb! No wonder the bees were not happy that I removed it!

Overall, I am really quite pleased with the progress of the hive. So far, the only thing different that I notice in using all medium supers is that the pollen and nectar on the brood frames seems to be a smaller area than how it is typically found on the deep frames. Will have to consult with those more experienced than I on this difference.