6 becomes 5

Triangle (Tree swarm) They've drawn out much more of the added super since last time. I checked boarded the top super to help get those drawn out a little better. Tons of bees in the lower boxes. Hive looks great and I think I might be able to get super of honey from them if the flow stays on just a bit longer. Cross (Old queen) Even better progress on top super than triangle so I added a super. The existing top super was almost completely drawn. I meant to pull a couple of those up into the new super but forgot. I should be able to harvest honey from here too. Circle (New Package) Finally decent draw out so I added the super. Still 2 frames with nothing so I checkerboard those with a couple resources frames that weren't directly adjacent to brood. Keep the feeder on and added 4+ pounds. I had what I think are SHB larvae in the empty feeder so I removed those. Funky mold on inner cover was gone so the light bleach wipe from last time appeared to work. 8 frame (OG) Nothing on the top super where I oversupered 2x ago. The super below is well drawn out so they hopefully will move up soon...unless the dearth is near. Brood and resources in the 3rd box up...booming. I checkerboard a couple less drawn frames in that boxes not directly adjacent the brood. Put the undrawn super back on. John Swarm Unfortunately last inspection's fears were warranted. Drone brood only and WAY too many SHBs so their queenless. I combined them with the Greg swarm that has a good queen. Greg Swarm Great brood pattern on a couple frames. With the John swam queenless, it's time to combine with into a full size box. I put the brood in the middle of the hive. I put the John swarm frames on the outside and filled the gaps with undrawn frames. Hopefully that'll ease the transition for both. Added the Mann Lake top feeder and used the left over 1:1 from soda bottles. I'll add 4lbs more tomorrow. So 6 hives is now 5 but no real loss since those swarms were freebees. June 7, 2025 11:30am