Update on the hives and also they’re getting names.  Referring to something using a name that has always been unnamed seems a little odd at first, but if I don’t do it now, I never will.

The naming scheme will be castles.
Standing behind the hives, from left to right

House Hives

• Calahorra: One of the three Rossman packages
• Belmonte: Neffsville swarm
• Warwick: Nuc started as an artificial swarm when Avila built swarm cells
• Sintra: Busy Bees Apiaries package

Alfalfa Hives

• Coca: One of the three Rossman packages
• Avila: One of the three Rossman packages
• Alhambra: Nuc started from a collection of removed frames.
• Osma: Keeney and Ziegler Apiaries package

So now, attempting to use the new names, is an update. All hives are queen right post Mite Away Quick Strip treatment.

Calahorra is still a booming hive, it’s almost unnatural. It’s working on drawing out its fourth box, and is about as far along on this box as Belmonte is on its second. The queen is the original package queen from Rossman. If they keep drawing at this rate, they may require a fifth box just to keep them busy.

Belmonte is doing reasonably well with respect to population, but behind in comb construction since they were nothing more than a swarm at the end of June. I put another gallon of 1:1 syrup on them today in the hopes that they’ll use it to draw more comb. I believe I’ll have enough comb from other hives to make up for any shortage, but I’d rather them draw as much as possible. Since I won’t get any honey from them, feeding them syrup isn’t an issue.

Warwick is doing well for a nuc, although little progress has been made on its second box. I’ve put a 1/2 gallon of 1:1 syrup on them to hopefully prompt them to draw a bit before the end of the season. Their queen was the original Avila queen, but they superceded her.

Sintra is doing well but superceded its queen earlier in the year. I believe this set them back a little bit. Their third box is almost completely drawn so I’ve just added a fourth box. They certainly won’t build it out completely but I may get an extra frame or two out of them before the end of the season.

Coca is working on its fourth box now and is doing well. It’s the second strongest hive only behind Calahorra. It has its original queen as well and has a few really nice frames of honey I’m eyeing up for a small harvest.

Avila is the hive that decided to swarm. I split them before they actually swarmed (the split is now Warwick). Their newly raised queen is my nicest looking and the largest by far. They’re working on filling out their third box of comb. They’re a bit behind since I had to take some for the split and they lost about 1/3 of their bees at that point.

Alhambra is still a mediocre nuc and I still plan to combine it with Warwick mid-September. The queen is laying small patches of larvae and only just keeping up with the normal die-off.

Osma is in need of a fourth box to keep them busy, but I have to get the frames assembled. I may simply give them some empty frames from Avila’s third box and give their drawn comb to Avila. This would be the simpler way of maybe getting a few extra drawn frames from them before the cold.

Overall, I’ll probably have to feed all the hives except for maybe Calahorra. All others have some nice frames of honey, but I don’t think they’re packed in enough for me to be comfortable with the coming winter. I plan to do my final winter manipulations inside the hives during the second week of September. I’ll combine Alhambra and Warwick and redistribute frames so each hive has at least three boxes of fully drawn frames with the top box being as much honey as possible. I also plan to start feeding 2:1 syrup at that time, and I’ll probably just keep it going until the end of September. At that point, the beginning of October, I’ll hope for a warm day and give them one last inspection and be done inside my hives for the season (outside prep is an entirely different matter…more to come).

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