View of the entrance to the hive

As I come up on a month of having bee hives, I need to do an update video talking about it and showing where I am at inside the hive. I did capture some recent video of the entrance to the hive. Setting up my camera just a couple feet away we see the foraging bees entering and exiting the hive. Along with the guard bees that hang outside the entrance to make sure only this colonies bees enter. And to keep other insects out as well that may prey on the hive.

The most recent change I have made to the hives is adding the supplied entrance reducer. Since both hives are weak, one considerably more than the other. I added these wooden blocks to make the opening to the hive small. This makes the job for guard bees easier, as when the colony is small there are less guard bees to manage the entrance. So some bugs or foreign bees may slip by past them if the opening to the hive is not reduced.

Upon the next inspection of the hive, I will break open the seal and check on the combs. See how far along the brood is, check for capped honey and to see if any queen cells are being formed. The weak hive next to it may be a perfect place to add some frames in to make the other hive strong. But I need to check if the frames have all the stages of brood and possibly queen cells on the combs. Eventually when the hive outgrows its home, it will probably swarm. And in preparation for this queens are made. So timing my division to the second weak home will be crucial to moving the large strong hive into smaller hive. Which will give the bees more space and want to stick around.

Video link below of a view to the entrance of the bee hive, its 49 minutes long and fixed on a view where the bees enter and exit the hive.