Still making queen cells. And ants gone.

Hives record updated.

I went to the nature reserve today and checked the two hives and the nuc there. Both one of the hives and the nuc had unsealed queen cells - in mid July! I destroyed both. I also fiddled with the frames a little, adding 2 frames of eggs and larvae to Hive Boudicca since it is still weak: I want to get all those brood frames drawn and full of honey before the season starts drawing to a close. I also removed the undrawn super box from this hive so the colony will really focus on the brood box (there is still a mostly-full super on).

I had pulled one of those frames of brood from Nuc Dido, where a queen cell and a full population again made me realise that managing a nuc is another skill - I replaced the frame of brood with an undrawn frame which I hope will keep them busy.

The other frame of brood I had removed from Hive Amidala, the hive with the deep brood box. It's good to have got one of those standard depth brood frames out of that hive - there's another to go but I left it in there today since it was so full of brood - instead I moved the frame to the edge of the box hoping that splitting the brood will not matter in the warm weather we're having, and also that the queen will not lay here any more. Fingers crossed on that one. Getting those shorter frames out is urgent since again the bees had built wild comb beneath them which is a complete waste of effort when they could be doing other things. I had the queen from this hive crawling up my arm today after I was juggling her off the frame I moved. I managed to get her back into the hive, though she disappeared down onto the first frame (near the entrance) so I hope she orientates back to the brood area ok - should be fine.

The total honey crop for the 2 hives here is very disappointing. I'll need to make sure I don't react to this by not leaving enough honey on for the winter. I am again targeting 40lbs per hive.

Oh, it might be worth mentioning too that after having cleared out that ant nest from above the crown board of Hive Boudicca for the past 4 inspections, the nest has not made a reappearance this time! Yeah.