Frances and the Bee

Hello, again!  We've had a busy first couple of weeks with the new bees.  Our new top bar hive is already looking strong.  You can see the pollen nuggets on the bee returning to the hive in the photo below.  The likely source? Maybe trees, or... Dandelions. They're suddenly blooming all over. We were exploring a patch of them and found one of our girls hard at work. This little bee was very busy pollinating - visiting flower after flower, only stopping for a moment at times. Mr. Bee has already been adding the empty frames to the front of the box, so the queen can continue to lay eggs (her laying pattern is VERY good so far) and the workers can build comb and fill it with pollen and nectar. Our wintered hive is doing pretty well, too.  We're keeping a eye on everything, and as some other beekeepers decide to do with strong hives, we've decided to "split" the hive.  We purchased a new queen, put her in a new box, added some frames of ...

Last inspection, we cut off some cells that looked like queen or swarm cells, and this inspection we've learned a hard lesson...     This photo is from the South Hive.  The "underdog" of our hives, it now has some frames packed with honey, and heavy even for Mr. Bee to hold.  The photo hardly shows how this frame was gleaming in the sun with all that sweet honey. Heavy with Honey In the North Hive, we realized there are no eggs and no larvae remaining.  Our conclusion is that the queen cells we destroyed were not just extras or swarm cells, but necessary work for the bees to replace a queen.  With no eggs or larvae, we can see that there hasn't been a laying queen for weeks.  The photo below shows a queen cell, though, and it appears that the bee growing inside has already emerged. We are hoping that the bees started right at it again after the setback and have a new queen in the works.  The older bees will be dying off each day...

Our bees have been in the hive a week now, but we're unable to open the hives up to inspect the frames for a few more days - until the rain is gone.  From what we understand, it's good to open the hives on a sunny, calm day.   Even though we're aching to look inside those boxes and see if they're establishing themselves well, we've been patient and watching from the outside of the hives instead.  It's not too hard to enjoy the outdoors here in the springtime.     Little Ones in the Spring Sunshine   Bird Camouflage  I always love seeing robins because it tells me that spring is really upon us. They sing a beautiful song while the sun is setting.    We have gone out several times to look at the bees working. Watching the bees at the entrance of the hive can give some indications.  The photo below, for example, shows that the bees are foraging and finding pollen to bring back to the hive for food.  You c...