Week 12 and the BeeHiveCastle is in great shape! The bees were completely calm and non-aggressive throughout the entire inspection. All 8 bottom box frames were inspected and the colony looks incredibly healthy going into mid-summer.
The bottom brood box is packed with loads of capped brood, fresh eggs and healthy larvae on every frame, strong evidence the queen is actively laying even though we didn't spot her today. Finding fresh eggs confirms she was laying within the last 72 hours so there is absolutely nothing to worry about. The colony is queenright and thriving!
We noticed Frame 8, the outermost food storage frame, was packed with honey stores. To encourage the bees to move those stores up into the Flow super and free up more space for brood, we used a fork to scratch the capped honey cells on Frame 8. This releases the honey smell which triggers the bees to uncap, consume and relocate the honey upward into the Flow super frames. A great natural way to redirect their storage behavior!
We also moved Frame 8 to the center between frames 4 and 5. The outer frame had lots of empty cells the queen can now use for laying more brood, giving her more room to expand the brood nest as the colony continues to grow through summer.
