The campus hives were visually inspected. It appears that 2 of the hives, one wild and one commercial have been poisoned. These colonies must have been exposed to some sort of pesticides out in the wild while foraging. This is the time of year when the Japanese beetles hit hard and home owners spray. These colonies may not survive. The die off is very significant.
Officer Ed’s hive is doing extremely well and has almost filled out the lower brood box. I opened up another chamber for brood production. This hive does not have a queen excluder and is comprised of only honey supers. We will continue to use just honey supers for brood chambers with this hive body.