Not the busiest of bees

Did a very quick inspection of me gals yesterday, conditions weren't idea, a bit windy and there was damp in the air but I needed to check their progress and ensure that they were doing something. I had to be quick as they weren't too happy about it, too many bees in the hive not out foraging. To be honest, they haven't really progressed since the last inspection but the weather hasn't been great so that could explain it. They have still only managed to draw out the 6 frames. I haven't seen the queen yet but as there are eggs, capped and uncapped brood so I can be sure she is present and even if not the busiest of creatures is active. I checked for queen supercedure (peanut shaped cells, more usually hanging down from middle of frames) and swarm cells (usually hanging off the bottom of the frame) and as there are none I can only assume the colony is happy enough with her and aren't looking to get shot of her yet. The colony would supercede the queen with a newer model if she was getting to the end of her useful life and was failing. They are apparently good for 3 years or so from mating but as I got this colony as a swarm from an unknown location I have no idea how old she is. I also checked for any sign of disease, all cell cappings looked perfect, no pitting or raggety holes. All the uncapped brood looked healthy too. The only oddity was that on a couple of frames they had chewed through from one side to the other on one or two cells, not sure why they have done that, will research.

As usual, my saviour Maureen suggested I do a check for Varroa Mite  levels within the colony. Since its emergence in the UK around 1992, the varroa mite is now present in most, if not all colonies and if not controlled can weaken a colony to the point of collapse, there are various methods for keeping levels manageable so that the colony can thrive. I'll put in the board under the mesh floor, leave it for a few days and then count the mites that have dropped on the floor. If levels are within tolerant levels I will need to look elsewhere for the issue but I suspect Maureen may be right and the levels may be high in which case I'll take steps. Not sure what yet, should have treated them when we hived the colony and there was no brood but didn't know then what I know now. Ho hum we live and learn :-D