Wooden Blue hive gets a super.
Have added a flow super to the blue hive (PBH) it is more than half full and this will give them a chance to clean it out ready for filling. Nice for them to have some extra space.
Blue Poly nuc was rammed full of bees
The blue poly nuc (BPN) was absolutely rammed. I firstly checked for eggs and saw a load of eggs. This indicates that there is a laying queen. She has either hatched and mated from the splits or possibly was the newly hatched queen at the point of the split giving them a week or so head start on the other splits. To give them more space I have moved them to the green Poly hive. to do this I placed the poly nuc on top of the hive next door, placed the green poly in the site and then transferred the blue nuc frames into the canter of the hive. Fingers crossed they will take. There was a lot of fanning on the front so I believe the queen is in with her new home. Next inspection I will try to find her and mark her.
I’m always hesitant to pester new queens. It is a pain when they fly away, so seeing eggs is all I needed in terms of proof that there is a laying queen. Once she has laid eggs and turned this into sealed brood the colony is a lot more stable and that is then the time to find and mark her. There was some old brood that was hatching but this is probably from the old queen prior to the split.
Red hive is again full of bees
So I checked the red hive (RPH) this appears to have hatched a queen too and is growing in number. There is a huge amount of honey and I am worried that there is no space to lay new eggs. I’m therefore going to add a super with the hope that the bees move all the honey up into the super and create space for new brood frames below. This will be done tomorrow. Decided to try a cut-comb super for this hive. With this in mind I will also check the other honey supers and see if there is any spring harvest to be taken. I have never taken a spring harvest before and would doubt that there is a flow frame ready but will check anyway.