Two Weeks with a Honey Super And All I Got Was Some Burr Comb.

I patiently waited two weeks for the girls to start doing their thing in the new honey super. During this time, I wondered how much they would accomplish up there knowing our spring nectar flow was over. When I removed the super today I found this wonderful burr comb reaching up from the queen excluder. I really hated to remove it because it is such a wonderful piece of comb (with a bit of nectar in it for good measure...) but I had to do so and began my inspection down in the bottom box.

There was lots of pollen, honey and capped brood with a few larvae in the bottom box. Two frames were heavy with pollen and honey. While there were some larvae and lots of capped brood, I did not see any eggs. I did remove a queen cup from the bottom of one frame.

I must have made a mistake with the order of the hive bodies my last inspection as the middle box was nearly void of any drawn out comb. While I did not spot the queen today, the top box was busy with lots of eggs, larvae and capped brood. I did remove another queen cup from the top of one frame and then rotated the sparse middle box to now sit in the top position.

Summer is typically swarm prevention so will check in on the bees in another two weeks and see if the brood has moved up to utilize the top box.