At this time in the season, what should my hives look like

[Dan. NY]

I had not thought of laying worker as I saw larvae. But I supposed it could be drone larvae not capped yet, as I did not see much. That might make sense, if the queen was replaced and did not mate or make it back or whatever. Hmm. good thought. Crudd.... I hope its not that. Thanks though and I wont shoot the messenger.

Dan

[wildbranch2007]

I don't see alot of droan brood but frame 23(i think) had a good patern on the left side but older capped brood, on the right side of the frame it was new capped brood, frame 26 was kind of spotty brood. I checked a hive yesterday for comparing, the queen started laying on 6/6 bottom deep was drawn foundation, two weeks ago put on a deep of foundatiion no feeding, they have drawn out most of the deep. had brood in most of the bottom and 5 frames of the top deep. If you think the queen is failing, I will donate one as I have a couple of nucs that they just started laying in.

[sqkcrk]

My reply seems to have disappeared. yes the white stuff looks like wax and I think you are correct its beginnings of new comb.

Link to the image with small queen cells:

http://s39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...t=CIMG5036.jpg

In the swarm position. They are small. I dont think they are swarming as there is space in the frame as well as other frames.

Thanks all

Dan

It's hard to tell Dan, but that photo looks like a drone layer at work. The cups at the bottom of the frames are cups and not cells. Not to worry, imo.

[grozzie2]

To the original question on strength. On may 5 I carved a couple nucs from a hive. A frame of pollen, one of honey, and one of brood into a 5 frame box with 2 more empty frames and a shake of bees. They raised a queen, and in early June had a couple frames of capped brood. Mid June all 5 frames were drawn so they went into a 10 frame deep. They have been boarding a lot this week, and we put on a second deep today, the original 10 frames are all drawn. There is a strong flow on right now, and I think these gals will get this deep drawn in 3or 4weeks. These bees have not been fed at all.

[Bleemus]

Not sure if this helps you but on May 5th I installed a nuc into a 10 frame deep. That hive is now solid full two deeps, a medium and a shallow because that is what I had laying around. I will harvest the shallow at the end of the month. They will need another box or two for the fall flow as well. I winter with two deeps and a medium.

[Dan. NY]

Mike: Is your offer of a spare queen still on the table? If so let me know. I will take you up on that.. Thanks!!!

[wildbranch2007]

when I get my cell phone I will send you my number.

[wildbranch2007]

I started with 2 purchased NUCs (not over wintered) and had 7 medium frames of honey and brood. I now have the original 7 frames and half of an 8th frame drawn in the original boxes. A second box was added and I have about 4 of the 8 frames fairly well drawn in both. I have a third box on and one hive was drawing one frame some, while the other had not yet. Out of all the frames, I only have about 4-5 frames of brood. The rest of honey (or not drawn yet) with maybe a very small patch of brood on some. Little space exists for new eggs. What should a good strong or even average hive look like now? Should I have at least 2 mediums drawn with 8 or 10 frames of brood? or ?? Thanks.

when I looked at your hives last month I said I had never seen frames being/drawn like your frames(pf120's) I think you said. here is a persons comments(his comments are exactly what your frames looked like to me) on another web site. I'll copy the link and the post below incase the link doesn't work.
http://community.lsoft.com/scripts/w...F=&S=&P=221831


Dean was wondering what how my experience with PF100s would turn out.

PF100s are the supposedly 4.9, but actually 5.0 mm one-piece frames that
Mann Lake is selling. I bought about 400 or so by mistake, two years
ago, thinking I was getting Pierco or Pierco knock-offs from a
commercial beekeeper I know. I did not realize they were not Pierco
knock-offs for a few months after they arrived and were in the hives.

At the same time, I bought a similar amount of wood frames with black
foundation already installed. It was around 5.35 mm, I think. This
year, I bought 1500 Pierco standard black frames, wax dipped.

This year and last year, I put entire boxes of each of these on hives
and boxes of mixed types. Sometimes I pulled up a brood frame as bait
if the hive looked to me to be less than powerful.

I have just now worked through 61 of my 110 hive, pulled and extracted
25 boxes of honey and am now ready to issue an opinion.

After looking at hundreds and hundreds of these three kinds of frames, I
now have expectations when going through a hive.

When I see a Pierco top bar, I expect it to be drawn perfectly and


completely 90% of the time. The rest of the time, the frame will be
unfinished, or sometimes finished, but with a single vertical brace comb
to the box or next frame. If newly drawn, there may be an attachment to

the frame below.

When I see the wood frames, I expect the same.

When I see a PF100, I expect to see it drawn perfectly about 30% of the
time, the rest of the time it is untouched, done on one side, drawn with
lumps of strange comb or other abnormalities. Again, it will be
attached the frame below sometimes.

Once drawn, the bees seem to accept PF100s intermixed with other frames
in the brood chamber, and do not seem to discriminate against them.

The wood and Piercos are nice to handle and not easily broken. My
PF100s are brittle and prying with a hive tool can damage them. I have
to admit that some were left in the sun for a while and they turned
yellow and _very_ brittle, but even the ones that have been kept the
dark are brittle compared to Piercos. The PF100s also have sharp edges
compared to Pierco which has nice rounded edges.

All in all, I would not buy PFs again.

I don't like wood frames as much as I once did since the Piercos have
been so excellent and offer 20% more brood cells per frame -- perfect
for singles. If the PF100s were drawn well, tougher and better to
handle, I'd prefer them for the added cell count of the smaller cell,
but the negatives outweigh that positive, and my bees seem to vote
against them.

So, I am going over to 100% Meijer EPS standard boxes and Pierco black
frames and will phase out the wood and the PFs.

[Dan. NY]

Thanks for that. My bees really do not seem to like these frames much at all.