Current hive from top to boom. Empty deep for sugar feeder, Medium, Medium, Deep.
The top medium super was empty. The next medium super had a nice half brood ball, nectar, and capped honey across 6 frames, with the outer 2 about half built out. Switched the outer ones with frames 3 and 5 of the top super. And put the empty frames from the top super into 2 and 7 of the middle one. Goal is to give them a bit more space in the middle and to build up into the top layer (both steps are to discourage swarming).
The deep had brood, honey, and a good chunk of pollen. There was a bunch of empty cells that look like maybe they hatched recently. This fits with the large orientation flight we saw about 2 days ago. There were c-shape instar adjacent so no concern queen Clementine has stopped laying. Saw the queen down near the frames with empty cells so will check for brood there next time.
Crushed the burr comb on the edges of frames in medium super and the deep. Mostly drone comb but about 10 uncapped queen cells too.
From the brood on the middle super, we removed the bees, scooped half a cup of nurse bees for varroa testing. Placed the bees in a mason jar with a lid made with wire mesh. Covered the bees in powered sugar and let it sit for a few minutes. Then dumped the powdered sugar into the tupperware and then added water to dissolve the powdered sugar. We returned the (not delighted, covered in powdered sugar) bees back to the hive. After the sugar dissolved, we inspected the remains. There was definitely debris of various kinds, but we didn't see any "smoking mites". We're going to decide on a treatment plan so we're ready, and we'll keep inspecting regularly.
