Wrapping up Bee Season Perhaps ?

Log for the last two weeks activities, here in town.

8/13/13

Swarm hive: took down two supers and looked at
super above hive bodies. Top super: 90% capped,
mid: less than 50% capped, bottom: about 50%
capped.

Maria hive: took down top super. Top: 50%
capped, bottom: 50%?

Looks like bees filling top down. Maggie thinks
we may have inverted some of the super order
on swarm hive. We did replace some good frames
with empty ones some weeks ago.

Not as many bees in hives as last time checked.
Still pretty good number of bees.

8/20/13

Pulled frames from Swarm and Maria hives, and
left them basically set up for winter.
Current configuration for each hive is now the
same, as shown.

Hot day, temp about 90 and cloudless. Some smoke
from forest fires. Bees in a good humour.

Maria hive:

------------
top cover
inner cover
super
hive body (H2)
hive body (H1)
bottom board
------------

Swarm hive:

------------
top cover
inner cover
super
hive body
hive body
bottom board
------------

Maria hive first: Took off both supers and
sorted frames so that super that is left is
full of capped or nearly capped honey. Also
looked at one outer frame in the top hive
body to see what state it is in. It is full
of capped honey. From the tops, the rest of
the frames looked good too. These frames are
really glued in there. It was hard to extract
the outside frame. Used pliers to get a grip
on it. Prying from the side was breaking the
front and back walls of the hive body. The
wood is cracked there now.

Swarm hive: Took off all three supers and
sorted frames. Top super had nearly all capped
honey, most of which we kept for extracting.
Middle super had a lot of frames with a lot
of honey, but almost none of it capped.
Bottom super had a lot of frames of capped
honey, but but also partial frames. Sorted
into the top super 7 frames of fully capped
honey, and 3 frames which have a significant
amount of honey but not much capped. They
still have a month to finish that up, and
no other distractions. Also checked an outside
frame in the top hive body. Full of capped
honey, and tops of other frames also looked
good. Left mostly in the super those frames
with the darker wax, taking the frames
with the newer wax.

Removed queen excluders from both hives.

Plenty of bees in both hives, though not as
many as during peak honey flow. We have had
a good summer, with periodic heavy rains
from t-storms, just enough to keep the grass
mostly green. Obviously it is also keeping
a lot of plants producing as well.

Thank you Anna for your help.

Ending up taking off 1 super from Maria,
2 supers from Swarm, resulting in 29 or
30 frames in plastic bins. About 15 of
these super frames are fully capped honey
ready for extraction. The other 14-15
frames have a varying amount of honey,
but have no more than 20% capped, and
most have no capping. They can be used
to bolster the other hives, or we could
spin some of them out. Anything leftover
could be put out for the bees again in
a month or so.