Myrina's Brood Boxes

Myrina's brood nest is at the top of the top box, a deep.  I expect her to brood up quickly; since that was the warning from the guy I bought the queen from.  I wanted to get it down into the bottom box like Mary so today I reversed her brood boxes.  Now she has an empty box, mostly, above her ready for the queen to start laying in without having to move downward.

Once the cover came off I could see 7 frames worth of bees in the top box.  It was too cool outside to pull the frames so I didn't look.  I think that at lest 5 of them might be brood frames.  The bottom box had only a handful of bees in it.  They weren't doing much.  I didn't feel like there was any brood down there.  With both boxes off i could see the SBB.  Lots of cappings and some dropped pollen but no problems. 

Myrina's Top Box

I wish I had the Slatted Rack ready to go but it hasn't been delivered yet.  Today would have been perfect for installing it.  It should arrive next week.  Then I need to make several more and paint them before they go on.  They will allow the queens to lay eggs lower on the bottom frames.  They also reduce some of the colony's pressure to swarm.  Right now I'm sure the bees will work upward into the top box.

The HTF still had a little syrup in it that was beginning to crystallize.  We're looking at steady temps in the 60°'s for the up coming weeks.  I don't think they need to syrup any more.  I'll take it off when it's empty or fully crystallized; maybe next weekend.

I stop using the double Vent Boxes on the HTF too.  I removed the one with 3 holes and left the one with 9 holes.  The heavy condensation went away with the double setup, but i want to see what the one with more holes does on it's own. 

*