Update 11 March 2010

RE the fridge-type mould in the yellow hive's deep supers, sent the photos to a guru, and learned that that's normal in the circumstances. BUT! Could be that the brood cells with a perforated cap indicates American Foul Brood (AFB), but since we have no "stringing/threading" of the cell-contents, the bee-lab chap emphatically asserted that this isn't AFB. I sent off a sample to be tested, just to be safe. The 18 frames can be given to the red hive to clean up, and the raised comb given to the new bees.

Now, during the next month or so, the YBeek and I have decisions to make--options are:

(1) buy a new nuke, and give the new nuke the cleaned foundation combs for the two deep supers, and probably some brood-filled comb exchanged between the two hives;

(2) split the red hive, and give a new queen to the queenless half (should be the lower half of the two deeps, but must find the queen to make sure); or

(3) split the hive and the bees in the queenless half will make a new queen. This is the least preferable option, since last year we didn't much like the temperament of the red hive, and if we split this, we are guaranteeing permanence.