So today was the first inspection post the MAQS treatment. The hive looks good. It was pretty chilly here today, about 50
oF, so the girls were pretty clustered in the bottom box, but it was a full box of bees. They are more than great in honey stores, with about 10 capped or almost capped frames, not including 6 frames from the deadout that I could give them. They had 2 frames with a sizeable amount of pollen and I also gave them two more from the other hive (that had been previously frozen of course). Not a whole lot of brood, about 3-ish frames had a centrally located patch about the size of . . . I don't know what to equate it to. Is a loaf of sourdough bread universally sized? Because that's how I would describe it.
About half of the brood was eggs, good laying pattern, and I did see the queen as well, so she is good. (I was worried I wouldn't be able to find her because the frames were packed with bees, but my sister spotted her.) The rest of the brood nest, about 1 1/2 frames, was sparse capped brood and some was being backfilled with honey. Some of the pupa were being pulled and I was initially concerned that the majority of the capped brood wasn't making it full term, but the next frame I pulled was full of new silvery bees that had just hatched, so a good portion of the capped brood survived the mites and the treatment. There were no larva, except for the eggs that had
just hatched, but based on the MAQS booklet that was to be expected. Whoever it was that mentioned that the hairless bees I was seeing were sick or overgroomed due to the mites (I think it was TheHoneyPump), you were right, because there were no shiny bees in the hive today. Since it's been cold overnight here, there was still some juice left in the MAQS strips. Do you guys think I should leave them in, or should I take them out now?