Milano is looking so good. I did an inspection and swapped the brood frames this past weekend. Milano may be a bit honey bound. I gave them a Illinois honey super and they are working it pretty good. I moved the two brood frames out that had queen cells and put them in Sicily.
Venice is doing as well or better than Milano did last year and Milano was a (naturally) spliced hive! Venice is in my old, original Dadant starter hive with the solid bottom board. It's in the 90's now and supposed to be 95 this weekend so I have a new screen bottom board and slatted bottom to add to them (I also ordered a copper gable roof that has a vented attic from BetterBee but it didn't come in). I'm impressed with these guys. I will add a shallow super to them before July, I'm sure!
I also bought some top feeders for Venice and Sicily as well as some Honey-B-Healthy (for the first time). It smells like lemon pledge. I added to the feeders on Sicily and Venice. I hope Milano doesn't get to it (Sicily's pretty weak) since I've already added the supers there. I've also been feeding Venice and Sicily pollen patties. It really seems to be going well in Venice. I'm not expecting any honey from Sicily - I just want to see them get large enough to winter.
Here's is the medium brood frame I gave Sicily. I only moved 2 frames. Next time I will move 4 frames and also swap places with the old hive. I hope to make 3 top bar hive for next year.
