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.

Strange Beehavior

Bees absolutely insane today. Steady columns of them rising from and circling the hive from 10:30 to around 11. My amateur (and likely ignorant and wrong) guess would be a recent brood doing their orientation flights.

Warm, 80's, humid, chance of rain today.

Swarming with Life

High 70's, still rather humid, sunny.

Finally found one of the bee hotspots; a solid clump of Butterflyweed that has also attracted its share of native bees as well as Monarchs and Red Admirals. Things in the hives pretty much the same. Briefly checked London to see if it was ready for deeps; it is still about a frame and a half short. Plenty of egg production. Edingburgh has not begun drawing out its supers yet.

Humid, 80's, periodic rain.

Edinburgh has drawn out almost 9 of 10 frames in their top box, meaning it's time to super up for honey production. London is a bit behind, with only around 4 frames drawn out, but looks just as healthy. Both have a good amount of healthy eggs and larvae in their top boxes. Added new grease patties today.

Cool, 70's.

Edinburgh upper deep being drawn out, about 4 frames, largely of honey. Spotted both eggs and larvae. No upper deep drawn out on London yet (asside from a spattering of extra wax,) but plenty of eggs and brood in the upper deep, and more comb drawn out than before. Lots of bridge comb on both hive; likely have enough by now to make a few candles.

Edinburgh Brood frame ; note the honey and pollen clusterd around the edges.

Neither frame has done anything (besides a small bit of wax building) with their upper deeps so far. Both have developed more of their middle deeps, Edinburgh being almost full now. Lower deep foundation is now much darker, making it easier to spot eggs and larvae. Both hives building up their pollen supplies, and both producing a large amount of bridge comb.

Switched a few undeveloped frames around with more developed frames. Both queens still seem to have solid laying patterns (see the fresh brood comb above).