5th Week Inspection

At the 4th week inspection I had the brood box at about 6  frames drawn out and what I thought was copious amounts of capped brood and just about to be capped larvae.  I was unsure what the next step should be.  I decided that the best plan was to let the bees do what they were doing and give them some more room by adding a second brood box. I had just read that there is about 6000 cells per frame so I have 5 frames of brood that is 30000 cells for making brood!  Whoa! I was solo with the inspection and unless I set up the tripod and record a video there is no way I can hold a frame and take a picture too.I think I might have jumped the gun a bit but it is what it is. I moved the 2 frame feeder up to the 2nd box and continued to feed with the jar as well. The weather the last few weeks has been wet and cold, and it even hailed the first week of May. Now  was time for the 5th week inspection and my partner in bees was the official photographer.  I used the smoker for the first time for the practice and to see what the difference in  "bee" haviour was.  When we arrived at the hive at 2pm there were many bees doing the circular orientation flights and the hive was very busy. I will post some photos of the event with info. [caption id="attachment_185" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Opening the Hive"][/caption] After smoking the bees with very little smoke, they seemed to be pretty mellow and didn't require much more after that. The top brood box had a fair amount of  bees on three frames in the center had some drawn comb that contained loads of new eggs. the first 3 and the last 2 (the feeder takes up 2 frames) had a few bees but no drawn comb. [caption id="attachment_186" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Top box frame 4 side 1"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_187" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="burr comb between top and bottom frames"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_188" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Top box frame 6"][/caption] I carefully removed the top box and placed it over the top cover beside the bottom box.  Things seem easier pulling out the frames and handling the equipment. I am still amazed at these little creatures and what they are capable of. [caption id="attachment_189" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Burr comb on top of middle frame"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_190" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="scraping off the burr comb"][/caption] The First 2 frames had a bit of drawn comb but nothing substantial until the third frame. [caption id="attachment_191" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="1st box frame 3 nectar and pollen"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_192" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="1st box frame 4 side 1 brood"][/caption] When you hive your package and use rubber bands make sure that you take them off  after the queen is released.  I didn't because of fear of hurting bees and now the bees have succeed in chewing one of them off and the other is almost off. Hopefully when it snaps it doesn't take out too many of them. [caption id="attachment_193" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="lower box frame 4 side 2 brood and nectar"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_195" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="1st box frame 5 side 2 lots of brood"][/caption] Every cell on the frames of brood either were capped or had larvae in them. The queen has been busy and seems to be laying well. Notice the darker colored capped brood on the lower right corner of frame 5. These are the cells that contain the bees that will be emerging in the next day or so. [caption id="attachment_196" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="1st box frame 6 side 1"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_197" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="1st box frame 6 side 2 brood"][/caption] The queen wasn't sighted but if you look on the picture above of frame 6 there is a bee that could be the queen. Maybe someone can let me know if it is. Below is a close up of what could be the queen. [caption id="attachment_206" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="is it the queen?"][/caption] Here a few more pictures of the inspection.  I know that i love to look at pictures of bees and searched the internet trying to see what there was out there. Hopefully other beeks will enjoy these as much as I do. [caption id="attachment_198" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="1st box frame 7 side 1 brood"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_199" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="1st box frame 8 side 1 pollen and nectar"][/caption] I then put the hive back together removing the first and 10th frames as they had nothing on them. I then placed 2 of the frames that had eggs in them on in the place where frame 3 and frame 8 would have been (confused yet? I am)  Hopefully the bees continue to draw out those frames and the lower box expands out while the upper box starts to fill out as the new bees emerge. More images to follow