A beautiful morning here today so I decided to see how things were coming along.
The first thing I noticed was the extraordinarily vivid dark orange pollen. I wonder where this is coming from. Any ideas anyone?
It was clear that the bees hadn't warmed to their nice new feeder as it was still very full. I had swapped the old one for a circular type with a removeable lid with a "cup" inside separating the girls from the syrup. So that's another lesson learnt...
That being said, all the frames seemed to be coming along nicely still. The amount of stored honey had fallen relative to the upcoming brood which I had been concerned about. One newly-drawn frame was packed with fresh eggs which was enough to satisfy my concern for herself. [I was alone this morning without my regular Queen-spotting assistant so it won't come as a surprise that the sovereign remained from view again.]
I really notice that there is a massive difference in the "readability" of the older frames vs. this year's. The new cleaner frames show up all the contents so much more clearly. I need to learn how to go about doing the frame exchange next season so I can replace the battered older frames with fresh ones. [This is an important exercise in reducing disease].
Thankfully, the varroa mite-drop count showed up practically nothing that I could identify but I have left the screen on for another few days to get a more representative picture but so far, so good.
Interestingly, to my mind anyway, I positively tried to cut back on the amount of smoke that I use. The girls certainly seemed in a better temperament - no dive-bombing or stings - although more took to the wing as I removed the frames and circled about. After a while, they either setled down or I failed to noticed anymore.
My next task is to make up the shallow frames with foundation just in case there is an opportunity to add the super - even at this late stage I am still confident that an Indian summer will arrive but this may be simply wishful thinking to compensate for the mostly awful weather since the start of July.
