mallt | 1st Hive Inspection

This is mainly record keeping for me but I thought I'd post it so that people who were interested could follow their progress.

Usually you only wait 2 weeks between hiving the bees & the first inspection but the weather meant that it was pretty much a month.

In between hiving the bees & the first inspection I added vaseline to the legs of the hive to stop as many ants on the hive, they were really bad at the beginning, I suspect the sugar water feeder didn't help.

I added 2 bars to the back of the hive (in front of the follower board). Unfortunately I did it on a cloudy day & 2 of the girls weren't happy about it... while one buzzed my head the other tried to sting my leg. As soon as I felt the sting I flicked her off, as she was stinging me through relatively think fabric I don't think she was able to give me the full dose & the stinger was not left behind. It burned a little & I got a red mark but I'm not sure if I would have reacted worse from a full sting or not.

I also noticed that there was a lot of moisture in the back of the hive behind the follower board. After talking to Eliese at the TBH course I decided to take out all of the top bars from that side of the hive as well as the cork to help air circulation. It seems to have worked as there's no condensation on the window on that side anymore.

Inspections should be done every 7-10 days, I plan on doing my next one on July 8th, weather willing.

Inspection

I marked the end of the top bars closest to me to ensure I put them back into the hive the right way around.

There were 11 bars in front of the follower board. The bars are numbered starting from the follower board moving towards the front entrance.

1 - No comb
2 - No comb
3 - Small comb in the center of the bar
4 - Large comb not attached to the sides but slight attachment to bar 5 (add spacer when closing hive)- honey & pollen comb, none capped
5 - Large comb , small attachments to the sides - honey comb, some capped
6 - Large comb, attached to sides - mostly capped brood with pollen & honey on edges - Queen found between bars 5 & 6
7 - Large comb, attached to side - scattered brood with pollen & honey on edges
8 - 1st original wired comb, attached to sides, to bar & slightly to floor - capped brood with hatching & new bees
9 - 2nd original wired comb, attached to sides, to bar & slightly to floor - capped brood with pollen & honey on edges
10 - Medium small comb - some pollen & very little honey
11 - Very small comb in center of bar

I did not move the bees around to look for eggs or larva as there seemed to be lots of capped brood & I found the queen.
I must have 1 set of genetics that produces protective workers as for each bar I removed 2-4 bees would come off the comb, buzz loudly & fly into me to figure out what I was. I stepped back & let them go about their business. The rest of the hive ignored me & there was very little warning fanning.

Added:
2 bars to the front
1 bar to the back
1 spacer betweeh bars 4 & 5

I started taking pictures but ended up getting into the inspection & forgot to take any more!
Looking in through the window before I started: