Moving the Brood Box

I had a strange set-up with the Botanical Gardens hive because the deep was on top of the medium. That was because of combining the nuc I created from Ben's deep with the nuc Meghan created in my medium. I checked the girls a few days ago and found that they had virtually moved out of the medium and up into the deep. Knowing that they prefer a deep brood box at the bottom, I went ahead and switched them. It seemed like the right thing to do, since there was really only one frame of brood left in the medium. I felt proud of my more advanced management while at the same time hoping I wasn't making a newbie error. Especially when the medium box fell off the stand, knocking the frames out and causing a great deal of angry buzzing. I think I did the right thing: when I went to feed them yesterday, they were much more active, and I saw many of the foragers bringing in big knobs of bright yellow pollen, a sure indicator of eggs and larvae.

The girls had hardly a drop of capped honey, so I switched my feeding regime from a 1:1 sugar:water ratio (which stimulates wax production) to a 2:1 sugar:water ratio (which stimulates honey production). So I felt proud also for knowing what to do about that.

Here's hoping the goldenrod and aster bloom will allow them to make enough honey to carry them through the winter. Early indications are that the goldenrod bloom will be as excessive and exuberant as all the blooms have been this beautiful season.