After lunch we did an inspection of the beehives, to check for queens, replace the lid on one of the new hives, and add some temperature sensors.

Yellow hive honey frame; they’re building the cells rather deep, which isn’t ideal, but not really a problem:

Yellow hive very nice new comb:

Yellow hive honey frame:

Turquoise hive getting some smoke:

Turquoise hive brood frame:

Turquoise hive frame with some interestingly colored bees; brighter yellow from pollen:

Purple hive brood frame:

Purple hive queen spotted; the non-stripy bee on the edge a bit above the shadow:

Hot pink hive brood frame:

The hot pink hive had a weird thing where a dome of bees gathered underneath the bottom screen. Bees naturally form a globe, so this is just the bottom of the globe, though they’re usually smart enough to do so inside the hive. Here’s a picture from May 13:

Over time, they have slowly reduced it; here’s a couple of days ago:

Today, we brushed the remaining ones off, and installed a wooden base, that should prevent this:

Cedar hive brood frame:

Here are all six hives from the right side; the roof on the turquoise hive (second-from-right) is new — still waiting on the proper base — plus we added a second brood box on that hive, as they were ready for more space:

From the other side; we also added a second brood box on the hot pink hive, the other new nuc: