Our son worked his hives the other day. He said 1 didn't have any bees in it and another was getting very weak, didn't see any babies coming along. He did get 9 frames of honey so far. He has 1 hive where the bees used the frames, the some came in on the open side and built some crazy formations. He said that one will be fun to clean out.
How much learning has he done on beekeeping and what to look for on routine inspections? Has he tested for varroa mites or done treatment if necessary?
He's learned a good bit. He had a bunch of stuff going on this year. I know he checked the hives earlier this year. I'll ask him about the mites.
You can also ask him about whether or not they swarmed. Takes a bit of effort to prevent that from happening as it is a natural instinct. Of the three hives in my back yard, it appeared that two swarmed in late spring. I tried the Demaree method this year that seemed to have prevented one hive from swarming. If the remaining bees in the hive fail to produce a new viable Queen, the hive will slowly decline. I will probably pull my honey supers at the end of September and treat for mites at that time. Getting to the point that we up north need to start getting ready for overwintering our bees.
