7 April 2013, 1:30 pm

Country Bees

The hive named hotel is not doing so well.  Opened up the hive today for the first time this year.  The top honey super was empty, no bees no drawn comb, but there were alot of roaches in and around the frames of this top super.  The next 2 supers had the 4 middle frames covered with bees but the brood pattens were spotty and no signs of new eggs or old eggs.  The bottom hive body has 6 frames covered in bees and spotty brood patterns.  There were drones scattered about on all frames that I checked.  I did not see new eggs or a queen.  I also did not find any queen/supercedure cells.  There was not much honey stored or pollen in any of the frames I examined.  I noticed that the bees were very very calm no matter what I did to the frames while examining them.  Also noticed that some of the bees were trembling or twitching as if poisoned or stunned.

The hive named India seems to be doing good.  The top honey super is full of honey!  Most is being capped!  I put another honey super on that one and left it alone.  I will inspect that one next weekend, hopefully.

Next weekend I will be picking up a 2 pound package of bees with a marked queen and putting them in a nuc box with the country bees.