A healthy honeybee brood comb with capped brood cells and newly laid eggs (eggs are visible in enlarged portion of image).
Three of the four honeybee colonies we started out with this spring are growing quite strong now.
One of the strong honeybee colonies (show in the above video) has an enormous population and may even try to cast a swarm this year.
Bees festooning (outlined with a white dotted line) from a partially built drone comb positioned near the entrance of the most populous hive.
The other two hives, though less populated, are also doing well:
Honey and pollen stored at the top of the comb with an abundance of brood at different stages of development are signs of a healthy hive. In this photograph new eggs (visible in the enlarged portion of the photo) have been laid in cells formerly occupied by newly emerged adult bees. The capped cells in this photograph contain younger developing bees who should emerge as adults in a few days.
A brood comb with several queen cups (marked with arrows). These queen cups can be used to raise new queens for swarming or usurpation.
While checking each hive I also added a 1" ventilation hole at the back end of the hives. These holes, which are covered with screen mesh, should help the bees cool the hive during these hot summer months. During the cooler periods of the year I'll close the holes by plugging them with pieces of a sponge.
A security camera photograph of me taking down the unhealthy hive. The hive, which had suffered a bad case of sacbrood virus had only two bees left alive when this image was captured.
The fourth hive, which was described in a previous post as having contracted sacbrood virus, has unfortunately died out. I am now glad that I had decided earlier to move this hive to a different location away from the other hive. When a sickened hive dies out there is a greater risk of the disease spreading to other healthy hives when they are positioned near one another.
