I was able to get into both hives this past weekend, but only got pictures of the 2nd hive. Had to split the inspections between 2 days, 1st hive on Friday, 2nd hive on Saturday, as it was so hot out right away. I hate the heat 
. The 1st frame i took out was full of honey, the 2nd and 3rd were a mix of pollen, honey, brood, lots of drone cells. Then the next 4 frames were packed with brood. The last, 8th, was similar as well.
The 2nd box had about 3 of 8 frames built out, lots of pollen, but I didn’t get any pictures at it was rather boring.
Didn’t find the queen, I used smoke for the 1st time this year so maybe she went into hiding. I had my son taking pictures and a friend over, so didn’t want to have bees all over the place.
Feel free to make comments and/or suggestions if you see anything.
Thanks
Tim
Bees are hiding from the smoke
Some drone cells
Some more drone cells
And lots and lots of brood, eggs, larvae etc.
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Looks very nice. Great brood pattern. Still some empty space. Good job on the photos. 
That all looks good Tim and to have that many frames of brood the queen is a good one.
Cheers
My son needs some camera lessons i think lol. He loves being out there with me though which is awesome. I’m going to have him do the inspections while I take the pictures 
. There was empty space but it looked like they were filling it with honey but hard to see on the pictures.
Tim
Give him a pat on the back. The pictures are great! How old is he?
On my 2nd inspection she had 4 frames like this as well, just packed in with brood. I want to look in the hive again this weekend and see how many have emerged.That’s a lot of bees about to come out very soon!
He is 10, he was upset that I inspected the 1st hive without him. I should try to get the video uploaded of us installing the packages April 28th. You’ll get sea sick watching 
I get terrible motion sickness, even with video games. I am old enough to remember Quake back in the 1990’s - couldn’t play it for more than 5 mins without throwing up. So GoPro video is generally very difficult for me to watch. I like to set a video camera up on a tripod and just move stuff closer or into the line of sight as needed. On the other hand, I have never felt unwell watching video shot by @JeffH’s wife Wilma - she is masterful at handling smooth movements, well, at least until she gets stung by a “mongrel” bee! 
Edit:
By the way, I think you should nurture your son (I am sure you already do). We need people like him in the future who care about bees and photographing them. He is a future bee hero! Anyway, just want to encourage you to keep on encouraging him. 
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ah Quake… I wasted a lot of time on that… endlessly killing ghouls… I should have been bee keeping.
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Hi Tim,
Looked like a great inspection. The photography thing will improve. It all takes time. I use my camera 
n I-phone a lot to record frames, issues n just thing as I do my inspections then add notes to each hive notebooks.
Currently I have 9 colonies so just too many to remember without a photo or more plus my individual hive notebooks. The notebook 
can be detailed or not. It’s just nice to have records to go back too for reference when things go right or wrong …
Keep the great work n allow you son
to contribute n help more n more. You’ve got a great start.
Cheers n good luck 
,
Gerald
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@Gerald_Nickel where did you buy your pollen collector from? I’ve been looking around but haven’t decided on one yet. Probably for next year anyhow and I’ve heard Italian bees aren’t very good at getting extra pollen anyhow…
Thanks
Tim
Tim,
I usually buy most of my things at Brushy Mountain. They ship almost the next 24 hrs out of Oregon n I’m in Washington state SE of Seattle. It’s called a “Side Opening Sundance Pollen Trap”. This is my third year of using one to two traps. It’s has a by-pass ability as well … You can set it up right or left side drawer as well. It come either 8 or 10 frame wide. I have both an eight n 10 frame version. Both do well n allow enough pollen thru to keep bees healthy. But always wise to check pollen supply during inspections anyway.
Ohhhh ! Maybe my Italians haven’t heard about bringing in limited pollen supplies … shissssh ! I don’t want them to hear you saying mine are overly pollen productive 
Hope this helps,
Gerald.
P.S. I gave a spare 8 frame Sundance to a buddy of my over in Gig Harbour … He has 3 8 frame Flow-Hives. He’s also have great luck with my spare ! Think he said his one colony has collected 4 or 5 lbs already … he finally put the trap in by-pass mode. I’ve not had any issues of my bees traveling thru the trap n Eric says the say thing.
The people who dislike Italian bees and knock them as pollen producers are entitled to their opinion but they can’t argue that most commercial bee keepers prefer Italian strains as being more robust and my hives have never run short of pollen, or nectar for that matter providing I have them in a place where pollen and nectar is available.
Regards
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@Peter48 This is my first year with Italian bees and so far I love them! Looking back i think i would have been better off the last 2 years had i started with the Italians in the first place.
@Gerald_Nickel I won’t tell your bees anything Thanks for the info on the pollen trap, that was the one i was looking at so maybe i’ll go ahead and buy one. Do your bees drift to other hives that don’t have pollen traps, or is that a myth??? For example, you have a lot of hives close together, so if the pollen trap is on only 1 hive, do bees from that hive give up trying to go through the pollen trap and just move into another hive?
Thanks
Tim
Tim,
Naaaaah ! No epidemic 
of drifters I’ve noticed … not saying none … I also work with a commercial beekeeper … he has multiple yard n hives are rather nudging one another also but not an issue to panic over.
The two colonies I keep traps under are at opposite ends of my 7 hive Apiary. Not seen problems ! I’d order one n get it working for you ! Decide right or left is best access is about all you need to concern yourself with.
Just went out n pulled one of my older (3 yrs old) traps. Took a few pix’s from different angles n modes (by-pass) …
Hope these pix’s are helpful,
Gerald
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@Gerald_Nickel thanks for the pics!!! Very helpful! I placed an order
It says “This video is unavailable”. 
Did you make it public? 
Try now… I had it marked as private.
I think he did a great job. Please tell him I think so. Staying longer on one point and moving around less would get him more points from me, but so far 8 out of ten and I didn’t throw up. 
I love the interaction between you two, I think he could become a great beekeeper with all of this experience. I also think that you both did a nice job on the package installation. 
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