Outside and in the front of the hive there were hundreds of bees flying around this morning when I walked over to begin the inspection.
The top hive box had about 95% of the bees. The rest of the bees were scattered among three frames in the bottom hive box.
In the top hive box I removed each frame and quickly looked over them trying to find the queen. I could not find the queen. But I did see larva from about 3 days old and older. So shes probably there somewhere. The top hive box has bees on both sides of six frames. I found plenty of pollen and honey throughout the frames. Three of the six frames had capped brood and there drone cells and capped drone cells.
I only found one larva that resembled a catapillar that disappeared as soon as it was exposed to the bright sunlight. I tried to find it but could not. I hope it wasn't a wax moth.
Other than that pest there were no hive beetles or ants or anything else.
The bottom hive box only had a few hundred bees scattered over three frames. I really couldn't tell what they were doing.
I looked over each of those frames and found uncapped honey and pollen on three frames. I didn't see any signs of pests in the bottom hive box.
Since the top hive box had a lot of build up, I swapped brood boxes. I also replaced the bottom board with a screened bottom board.
While taking the hive apart for the inspection I only found two dead bees on the bottom board. The bees seem to be doing well with cleaning out the hive.
I left in the entrance reducer but it is installed with the largest opening in place.
The feeder jar was empty so I replaced it with a full jar that has fumigilin-B mixed in with the sugar water. Thats two quarts of fumigilin-B sugar water that the bees have consumed with the third one in place.
Tuesday or Wednesday of this week I will look at the hive again for signs of the queen and look for pests. I will also check the feeder jar and replace if needed. And Friday I might use the fogger.
I did take photos and movies - I'll post later.
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