One of my hives overdid it with the bridge comb (comb built beneath/between the frames.) It prevents inspections so I had to remove it and set it aside for them to remove the honey and pollen. Will clean and melt it down later. The amount I removed will probably make six candles.

Winter Kill

Took advantage of the warmer climes to open up the hives. Found one empty and the other dead, clustered about the top, many bees inserting themselves into the comb, frames of honey just one over. Sad, but I think I know what happened: bees tend to be more active in warmer temperatures. The queen had likely taken advantage of the 40 degree temperatures last month (when I know they were alive) to start laying brood. The hive got more active, and as a result ran out of honey. Bees for the most part will travel straight up rather than from side to side, which is likely how they died off.

Will keep a better eye next year (have already put in two orders of MN Hygienic bees,) and crack the hives open to rearrange the frames if the temperatures permit. A sad, and costly, mistake on my part.

90, humid yesterday.

Still no evidence of a queen in Edinburgh. London still producing eggs, and various stages of larva and capped brood observed. No comb drawn in the supers yet.

Rumors

Heard from a coworker that a hivekeeper-friend in St Paul is reporting similar swarming problems.

All Hail the Queen

90s, humid, sporadic rain.

New queen cleanly hatched out of Edingburgh, the rest of the frames are mostly capped honey (scraped one open by accident during inspection) and past brood cells rapidly being filled. Not sure if new queen will be able to hatch much brood before fall.

London still has eggs, and a queen. Lots of activity but no comb in supers.

Absconded!

Steamy, high 80's.

Edinburgh swarmed today; lost about half the hive. Opened the hive to find five swarm cells and a supercedure cell. No queen, some capped brood but no eggs. Destroyed the swarm cells, left the supersedure cell to allow the a new queen to start over. Will check next week, will attempt to requeen if there are no eggs soon.

Swapped honey supers over to London, who is still producing eggs and capped brood. Now has 7/10 frames filled in the top deep.

More activity in both hives. London up from 5 frames to around 6.5... still going to wait a week to dump on their super. Edinburgh bees moving about their supers, but no foundation built yet.