Inspection Report - 5/19/2018

OVERVIEW

This was a very quick inspection to see how they were taking the sugar water from the week before. This will tell me the health of the colony. If they are taking sugar water, they are healthier generally, if they are not, there could be issues. 

COLONY 1 - West Facing

This colony seems to be in need of more attention. I was able to locate the queen and saw her laying eggs, but her pattern seems to be sporadic. This could mean she is in need of kickstarting by feeding sugar water, or that she is failing and needs to be replaced. 

Recommendation: Continue feeding sugar water on each inspection. Pay close attention to queen health and replace if she does not show improvement in several weeks. 

COLONY 2 - North Facing

This colony also seems to be struggling still. They had not taken much sugar water indicating there could be an issue within the colony. I topped off the sugar water and inspected the colony for queen health. She seemed to be doing much better than Colony 1, but still not laying in the numbers that I'd like to see. 

Recommendation: Feed sugar water on each visit and monitor queen. Replace soon if she does not show improvement. 

SUMMARY

Again, I would like to see the colonies showing a bit more output from the queens. I am wanting to see a lot of brood, and that is not happening yet. This is concerning but not alarming at this point. 

I will continue to evaluate the queens and replace them with new queens if they do not show improvement. Queen failure is not uncommon and should not raise alarm.