The House that bees built

These honey combs are the ones that the bees built underneath the hive (see previous post 11th July). After I removed them from below the mesh floor I placed them on the crown board and just let the workers get on with the job of cleaning them of the honey store.

This method of cleaning is also used on frames after honey was extracted. Last weekend I placed the frames (from Hv1) in Hv2 after I extracted the honey and when I inspected the hive today I could see all the frames are clean and repaired, and one of them already has new honey deposits in some of the cells. If only bees did house cleaning.

Today's inspection is also to see how this hive is developing. The good news is that the colony has increased in number, there are newly laid eggs and sealed brood cells. Although I did not see the queen I know from the eggs that she is around.

I am hoping that this hive and Hv1 will make enough honey for me to get another crop. The finally count of honey from Hv1 is 26 lb. Therefore I estimate there are roughly another 30 to 40 lbs of honey in the two hives. Of course most of these will be for the bees. My guess is that Hv1 almost certainly will fill another super, I am not sure if Hv2 (being small) will manage. We shall see.