With the rain clearing up today, I was finally able to get into the hives. The first thing I did was move a frame of drawn comb into the center of the upper deep on the old hive. I pulled it up from the bottom box on Saturday but put it next to the hive wall. Tim and I decided this morning that the drawn comb should really be above the brood chamber in the middle of the box. The bees seemed to agree; they were trying to build comb upward from the tops of the lower frames at the center of the brood chamber. They were not happy when I removed the wax they had built above the frames. Several bees flew directly at me, and I'm sure I would have been stung w/out my protective gear. I'm not sure if this hive is just feisty and should perhaps be re-queened or if just has some insecurity issues that will be solved with time and space.
Next I did the same maneuver on the split and added six new empty frames to fill out the box. I was a bit short on deep frames when I initially added the second deep. These bees were mellow and lovely.
Then I headed over to Martin's and put Alan's nuc into an 8-frame deep. I'm not sure about that nuc anymore. I didn't see any larva, and the cappings on the brood looked a little bit dry. Amazingly though, they had licked up every drop of honey that I spilled on my last visit. I'll keep an eye on these guys and hope for the best.
Tomorrow I want to get the big hive at Martin's split.
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