Five days ago we opened the hive and noticed something odd in some of the brood cells.
As a consequence, we open the hive early this week and took two photos of the brood frames. The brood frames were being drawn out well and there was plenty of food on the frames.
However, there were clearly signs of dead lava in places on the frames. The queen was on the frames and there were plenty of bees on the main 5 frames.
Because of concerns about European Foul Brood, we contacted our bee trainer and sent him the pictures. He was of the opinion that is was not EFB. However, he will come over on Monday to look in the hive and at the frames.
Our other problem is wasps which are a constant presence near the hive and have been attempting to rob the hive.
Therefore we are taking a two-pronged approach. Firstly we will reduce the entrance size to allow the bees to better protect the hive. Secondly, we are going to make some wasp traps which will not attract the bee, therefore, they can be placed close to the hive. http://drbeekeeper.com/blog/ Has a lot of information on keeping bees and reducing the threat from wasps.
We may also buy a mock wasp nest and hang in a tree close to the apiary as a further deterrent.
Our bee boss came over and examined the colony frame by frame and his verdict was that there are plenty of eggs, larva and capped brood. There is a good supply of honey and nectar in the outer brood frames. The queen was on the frame and was not scurrying about but walking unhurriedly.
As a consequence, we are the keepers of a good colony building well for the winter. The supers have become very heavy and we may take 2 off to extract the honey, replacing with fresh frames because there is still time for the bees to collect nectar before the autumn.