Taking Care of Beta

I have noticed that the goldenrod is about to bloom in the area and there is a lot of it around. I have also been worried that Beta may be crowded since I removed the supers after the honey harvest. Because of this I have decide to put one super back on the hive.

The first thing I noticed was that there were about 20 SHB in the trap that I put into the hive last time. I guess that means it is working. however. I did see a few other beetles running loose in the hive. Beta has a lot of bees, honey, and pollen stored in it. But, I did not see very many young brood in the hive. I did see some capped brood cells.  The capped cells were not in the compacted pattern all of the books describe as a  sign of a strong laying queen. I also saw about 10 swarm queen cells and two supersedure queen cells. Does this mean that (1) they have lost their queen and/or (2) they are getting ready to swarm? What should I do about it?

I did not remove any of the queen cells because I heard on a podcast that that does not stop the swarming. Also, if they are replacing a queen, I do not want to run the risk of killing the new queen.

All these questions have convinced me it is time to start attend the ETBA meeting again. I wish I had an expert bee keeper to inspect my hives with me.

Except for the aforementioned problems, Beta looks great. I put a queen excluder, the beetle trap and a super with nine frames back on the hive. I am going with nine frames in hopes that if there is a fall honey production, it will be easier to un-cap the frames this time. In the last harvest, most of the caps were to low for the un-capping knife to reach them.

I made a quick inspection of Alpha while I was in the bee yard. It's beetle trap had about the same number of beetles in it. The Miller feeder was empty. I looked at four frames from the top brood box. They were heavy with honey. They also had pollen stored. The hive is looking good. It does not have as many bees as Beta, but enough so that I am not worried about it. I closed it up with out the feeder.

I am wondering where the bees are getting nectar. I do not see many flowers blooming, yet both of them had lots of honey stored. Alpha has had a feeder available, but not Beta. I guess they are flying far afield to find nectar.

If I can, I am going to build another brood box. I wan to be ready to catch a swarm if it happens. If I had a nuc available, I would seriously think about making a split from Beta.