2012 Hive #2 (ended 6/2/12 with combine to Hive 5)

Hive status:  Overwintered from 2011
Hive origin:  Nucleus in 2011, combined with 2012 Hive 5
Queen type:  2012 Italian from H#4 eggs.
Significant events/observations:

2/24/12:  Installed a candy board with pollen patty embedded in it (experiment).  Overwintered with a deep and shallow super only.

3/11/12:  The hive had a small brood nest with eggs observed.

3/21/12: Reversed hive bodies (shallow on bottom, deep on top) and removed entrance reducer.  Added a new deep hive body with drawn comb on top and replaced candy board on top of that.  It is probably 80% consumed.

4/15/12: Smallish brood nest for this time of year with slower population build, but eggs spotted.  Spring drones present.  This hive overwintered with a shallow and a deep which were reversed in March.  The queen has not started laying in the upper deep yet, which is largely empty.  Will keep an eye on this hive as a potential need for population boost from a thriving hive.

4/29/12: Newly queenless on this inspection, no eggs and very little capped brood.  Moved one frame with a nearly capped queen cell from H3.  As a backup I also moved 2 frames from H4 in that had some eggs in case the one queen cell is not viable as it was moved at a sensitive time in the queen larvae's development.  This is a setback.

5/6/12:  No new queen spotted.  2 capped queen cells noted, generated from eggs moved over on 4/29/12.

5/22/12:  New queen spotted! She's laying just a little on one frame so far, oldest larvae are about 5 days old.  One supercedure (threat?) cell was noted and left.  They'll likely tear it down if she proves to be a good layer.  Moved extra super to H1 so they can focus on filling their 2 deeps.

6/2/12:  Queen present but not laying.  She was removed to a new nuc, 2012 Nuc 4 with one frame of bees and the rest combined with 2012 Hive 5.  Refer to that post for additional info.