Wrapping and sealing everything that had honey in it, including supers, uncapping tank and the extractor did keep the bees out. They didn’t loose interest right away, but after opening the garage door it didn’t take half the day before most of the workers quickly lost interest in the workshop. Of course now when I extract I’ll have to open up then reseal everything when I’m finished, so I isn’t really worth working for an hour or two in the evening after the sun goes down and the dark chases me out of the hives. So it will have to wait awhile until I get caught up on the real beekeeping.
Most of this past weekend was spent inspecting hives at two of my apiaries and marking queens. Most hives looked very good and some had a surprising amount of brood for this time of year. It does make me worry if they’ll end up with enough stores for winter. Drones were plentiful in many hives from adult to pupae and a few drone larvae. There were signs of varroa infestation in some however with defored wings easy to spot in a couple, and varroa visible in drone brood. It looks like some treatment will be necessary in some. It did however give me an opportunity to get a decent photo of a varroa mite as I did remember the camera this time (that almost never happens).
The rain has put a stop to inspecting, but it should stop by Wednesday or Thursday.
