Hello everyone,
I live in western Washington, USA and just started bee keeping with a package of bees back at the end of April. After first putting in bees in the flow hive the bees went to town on building up 4 frames of comb about 2/3 full. They did that in about one months’ time. I then did not open my hive all of June and just opened to find little progress made over that whole month. The hive numbers have decreased significantly, probably a third of or less of what they were. I am horrible at finding the queen and never really have since I released her, but I do find all stages of brood. I have been supplying a constant 1 to 1 source of sugar water since I got them.
- Should I be concerned the colony levels have decreased by so much?
- Is there something I should be doing to help them?
- Should I be waiting longer between inspections?