Adding a box and brief inspection, on July 7, 2013.

Fifth inspection of Hive A and Hive B, Sunday, 7/7/13:

This was day 64 for the two hives, with the packages having been installed Saturday the 4th of May, 2013.  The main goals for this inspection were:

1. Enlarge each hive's entrance by moving the entrance reducer to the larger of its two settings; and,
2. Add a third box to each hive.

The hives before inspection and adding third box.

In the picture above, you see that there are three boxes.  Recall that A3 and B3 are empty of frames and only hold the syrup pail.  Only A1/A2 and B1/B2 are full of frames, bees, and comb.

Regarding the entrance reducer...  If I was using deep hive bodies, I would open up the entrance more when I added the 2nd of 3 total boxes.  So, I figured that I would do that step when I added my 3rd of 5 total boxes.  I think that I could have removed the entrance reducer completely.  This may have helped the bees keep their hive cooler.  However, since the would also have uncorked holes in the 1st and the 2nd boxes of each hive, I opted to leave the entrance reducer in place but to the more open setting.

Anyway, we could have done a full inspection today, but it was pretty darn hot...  Three factors weighed heavily on my mind and kept me moving quickly:

1. The bees were hot and jumpy.  I wanted to bother them as little as possible.
2. The heat was oppressive.  The beekeeping suits only worsened our sweaty plight.
3. My videographer was being attacked by mosquitos.  She was throwing off palpable waves of anger that assaulted me much more forcefully than the heat was...

As with the other videos, YouTube is the home for Video 13.

For this inspection, I was worried that I had let too much time pass between inspections.  I was most concerned that I would find that the bees had filled all available space and I was wasting their time and resources by not providing them enough space.  The boxes were quite full, but not completely full; the bees still had room to expand.  But, I would not have wanted to wait much longer to add the 3rd box.