Inspection

This year seems to be going very slow, I checked the bee's last night to see what's been going on this years packages have only drawn out 2 frames of honey, last years have not produced any. The weather here has been funny for the last 2 months either raining heavily or so hot nothing wants to fly. The two swarms i have picked up have only filled about 5 frames of mostly brood. I decided i have a ventilation issue and need to try and cool the insides of the hive down, for now i have raised the lids and drilled a 5/8th whole in one honey super to see how we do. I've also changed two solid bottom boards for screened bottom boards. I think the reason there not building comb is because they are bearding on the front of the hive each day.

The hive that's hot has also produced a Queen cell, I couldn't find the queen when i looked so I'm hoping she'll stay and mate with drones from my other hives and calm down a bit. I think i might re queen in the Autumn all my hives and get a bee that can build up fast in the spring for the main honey season.

I've really controlled the urge to go into the hives every few weeks this year but that doesn't seem to be helping either this season. With all hives behaving the same way i can only assume it is all down the weather and that this season is going to be very slow