I did the third hive check since beginning the Renson Method. All looked just as it should. There were plenty of bees present to do the work inside and outside the hive. The honey stores are filling and the varroa control frame was emptied. A few pics now: Here you can see the compartmental frame filled with closed drone brood. If there are any varroa mites present, a number of them ought to be closed up in the cells. I just used my hive tool to cut the comb out around the edges of the compartments. You can see how calm the bees are resting on top of the frames in the hive below the drone frame. The last two times they were really agitated...that's why I had the gloves on...today they were as calm as lambs. Then I re-scraped all around each compartment and then placed it back into the hive. You can see the three cut-out sections on the hive behind the empty frame. Say hello to one of the queens: I placed the drone cell combs on the birdfeeder for the tits to empty. This all comes out well because the baby tits have just hatched out from their eggs and are ravenous. The bees are all doing well now and I shall check them again in ten days.
