Today we checked on both hives. A few weeks ago, we put an empty deep on top of the Newbies, hoping that they'd draw a little comb in preparation for next year. They have a frame feeder in that box. They haven't done anything up there, but the feeder is empty. We'll be pulling that box so that they don't lose heat to an empty deep box over the winter. Oh well; they looked very full in the two deep brood chamber when we looked last time.
We checked the Charlatans, hoping for some goldenrod honey. Nope. One frame mostly full, a partial frame here and there. So, we're thinking since there is So. Much. Goldenrod! in bloom, we'll wait another week. They still have an excluder on, and we'd hoped to harvest some more honey this year. The bees are all over the goldenrod. The field is humming in places.
Instead of filling the super, we are assuming that they're packing it into the two deep brood chamber. We did not have time to look farther down, as we had to take a neighbor to the airport. I thought that we'd look into the top brood box after we emptied the honey super.
The boxes are heavy and awkward to lift, and hubby and I both feel better about taking out frames instead of lifting off the whole box.
We'll plan to spend more time the next time we look in on them.
