Brood in the Valentinium

Our dandelions and ajuga are in bloom.

Today was feeding day again. Joachim came over and we got a good smoke going in the smoker, the best so far. I burned myself twice on the smoker today, which is about par for the course. This smoker seems a greater hazard to me than the bees it protects me from.

First we opened up the Valentinium and removed the feed bucket we had put in last week. It was empty. The bees had put a bit of burr comb on it, but not much. We pulled out frames and saw capped cells and larvae for the first time! After seeing that, we started closing up. Since most of the bee presence was on the western side of the hive, we took an empty frame from the eastern side and moved it the far western position, to center the colony. We placed the refilled bucket in and closed up, with the inner cover on top of the feeding deep. That seemed to work well last week; the burr comb was quite small and manageable.

Then we opened the Benedictium and replaced its feed bucket, and closed it up again. We did no inspection since we saw the capped comb last week.

I am so stoked to see larvae in the Valentinium! It's a relief to see signs that our problem hive is thriving as it should.