Lemon grass oil in TBH

I put about 20 drops of lemon grass oil in the TBH hoping to attract a scout from the black bees that are hanging around.

After doing this I remembered a recipe from Linda T's bee blog for olive oil beeswax and lemon grass oil paste that would keep the smell longer. So I made up a batch and put some of that on the hive as well.

Feeder pictures and thoughts

The communal feeder is still going through a liter of inverted syrup and honey b healthy with in hours of being put out. I have seen some small bright yellow w/ small black strips and some almost completely black bees at the feeder.

Not sure if this is going to invite robbing. I can't keep the feeder full and not sure I want to put out 5 gal at a time to keep it available. Saw two of the black bees try to enter the hive, but they were escorted out quickly.

Need to do a powder sugar mite treatment and count.

Wondering if I put lemon oil in the TBH is a swarm, maybe the black bees, would move in.

Long live the queen

John come over today and we looked in the hive to see what exactly needs to happen. We spotted brood, larvae and EGGS! Not sure why I didn't see any before, but there they were.

It was so helpful to have a extra set of hands and eyes today. John brought over a extra frame holder today and it was so nice to use that he sold it to me.

They are drinking about a litter a day and producing drawn out comb on the second brood chamber.

I would really like another colony for the TBH. The pitched roof is now fixed and its ready to go.

One frame had larvae but no eggs were seen. They are eating 2 pints of the inverted water. Finally some drawing of comb on the top brood chamber, very slow going though.
Still totally confused by the queen situation.

Hive helpers from my friend John

My beekeeping friend, John, is a zealous bee landlord and has been giving me suggestions and ideas to help me build up my colony and keep it healthy.

One of the things he sent me was this link on inverted sugar water. John brought over a communal feeder and several mason jars of inverted sugar water with honey b healthy added. I can't seem to get any interest in the communal feeder so far, but they sucked down a pint of inverted sugar water w/ the honey b healthy yesterday from the interior feeder. Before the regular sugar syrup was lasting 4 or 5 days.

John also suggest a pollen substitute to help things along. I put some loose next to the interior feeder, but no interest so far in it. I made a pollen patty w/ the inverted syrup I think I will put in today when I add a new feeder jar.

John also was kind enough to share his thyme oil with me to do a mite treatment. As soon as I can find some thing to put under the hive to do mite check I will be doing a treatment.

Hmmm.....

Today I checked on and I'm not overly happy with my findings. First I only saw one frame that had some brood and eggs. They seem to be eating the pollen stores


I put a frame of pollen and uncapped honey in the second brood chamber to lure them up, but still so far they haven't started to draw any comb out on the top box.

Also they haven't really drawn the last of the foundation in the first box. What the heck is going on?

Ordered some honey b healthy to help them build up.

It worked

The bees seem to have gotten the hint and moved up to the second box. They are also feeding out of the board man feeder I put on top of the inner cover. Lots of activity.