Thanks Jeff!
I looked at the disease id cards and nothing looks (or smells) untoward but I didn’t shake the bees off the frame(s). Never done it before but I’ll have a go next time and take happy snaps. How long do you think I should wait for the next inspection? They’re very calm bees but I’ve read you shouldn’t bother them too much.
I’ll also look into getting another full frame of healthy brood - there are a couple of places I can try locally. I assume I should put this in/near the centre and remove one of the outside empty frames.
If you’re confident that the colony is disease free, there would be no need for another inspection. Just keep feeding them. You could just look down without removing frames just to see if there’s honey in those cells in the top corners of the brood that are currently empty.
A healthy brood frame should have honey in an arc above the brood, as well as pollen filled cells in the arc area. So in the future, whenever you see empty cells around the brood, with no honey anywhere else, you’ll know that they desperately need feeding. No doubt, you wont let them get to that stage again.
cheers
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No doubt and thanks. I’ll also be sure to put myself forward for beekeeper of the year when nominations open.
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