Questions fron a new bekeeper.
Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2012 2:15 pm
Ok, I opened up the hive today to see how hings are going. Here is what I found. I have 4 - med, 8 frame boxes.
The lowest, 1st box, is about 60-70% full. There are 3 frames that have either been cleaned out or were not used. This has been consitant from the first month ofthe spring season. A few cells are capped and you can see brood in other cells. The bee count is slightly less that the 2nd , 3rd and 4th supers which are just packes with bees. There is a dark brown half moon shape pattern to the frames. The weight of the brood box is probably half of the honey super.
The 2nd box is 75% brood. All the frames are filled out with activity. Again you can see the 1/2 moon shape with dark brown brood in various stages. This box is vigirous with bees. About 50% are capped the rest uncapped. There were a lot of bees with thier heads in the cells. I suppose they were cleaning them for future use.
The 3rd super has 75% of the frames filled with uncapped honey. There were 2 frames that were way behind in production. There was a a silver-white covering over 50% of the frames surface. About 25% of the surface were open cells with honey and 25% were capped cells. The weight increased in this box but not too heavy.
The top honey super is full and quite heavy. I would say 95% filled with honey. The surface of the frames is a silver -white over 50% of the frame surface, which I assume is new wax to start capping it off. The other 50% surface space is open honey. It's beautiful.
I had SHB a few weeks ago. Placed some traps in but today saw very little evidece they are present. The traps had only 5-8 beetles in them for a months time. I guess they are working.
Does this sound typical for a first year hive? Do you see any problems that I don't see from my descriptions?
dmiller
The lowest, 1st box, is about 60-70% full. There are 3 frames that have either been cleaned out or were not used. This has been consitant from the first month ofthe spring season. A few cells are capped and you can see brood in other cells. The bee count is slightly less that the 2nd , 3rd and 4th supers which are just packes with bees. There is a dark brown half moon shape pattern to the frames. The weight of the brood box is probably half of the honey super.
The 2nd box is 75% brood. All the frames are filled out with activity. Again you can see the 1/2 moon shape with dark brown brood in various stages. This box is vigirous with bees. About 50% are capped the rest uncapped. There were a lot of bees with thier heads in the cells. I suppose they were cleaning them for future use.
The 3rd super has 75% of the frames filled with uncapped honey. There were 2 frames that were way behind in production. There was a a silver-white covering over 50% of the frames surface. About 25% of the surface were open cells with honey and 25% were capped cells. The weight increased in this box but not too heavy.
The top honey super is full and quite heavy. I would say 95% filled with honey. The surface of the frames is a silver -white over 50% of the frame surface, which I assume is new wax to start capping it off. The other 50% surface space is open honey. It's beautiful.
I had SHB a few weeks ago. Placed some traps in but today saw very little evidece they are present. The traps had only 5-8 beetles in them for a months time. I guess they are working.
Does this sound typical for a first year hive? Do you see any problems that I don't see from my descriptions?
dmiller