A bee visit

I visited the bees yesterday and they're doing so well! The hive body has 10 frames in it---5 from the original nuc and 5 empty, foundationless frames that I put in. I'm being a bit of a beekeeping rebel and not using foundation in my frames and the girls are doing very well with them. Here are some photos of their progress in the last 2 weeks.

These 1st three photos are all the same frame. You can see that the bees have almost completely drawn the comb to the inside edge of the frame. What you have here are cells for the queen to lay eggs and then all those worker bees are feeding the eggs with honey (carbs) and pollen (protein). The capped cells have brood in them that are in the later stages of development, the open cells may have an egg or larva or be empty. They can also contain honey for feeding the brood and workers.

An overhead shot into the hive.

Here is a picture of some wavy comb, but you can see that it still fits within the frame. Because these frames do not have foundation, the bees have nothing to guide their comb building other than them being bees and knowing what they're doing instinctively.

A different view of the wavy comb.

And yet a different view of the wavy comb. you can see they're attaching it to the sides toward the top. Being attached will help stabilize the comb during extraction (although this frames won't be used for honey extraction, they're for brood rearing.

Another frame drawn out by the bees in the last 2 weeks.

Another frame of drawn comb, not as far along as the others, but getting there.

A shot from the top of the hive. The dark frames are the ones that came with the nuc. The lighter frames are the empty frames I originally added to the hive. In the three weeks that the bees have been in the hive they've drawn out 4 of the 5 empty frames and raised a buch of new bees.

During my visit, I took out the empty frame on the far left of the above picture and moved it to the center, where the bees like to work. I also removed two of the drawn frames in the middle and placed them in another hive body that sits on top of this hive body in hopes that the bees will finish drawing the three empty frames in the lower hive body and move up to the 8 empty frames in the next hive body.

Fun, fun, fun!!!

I have 2 seconds, want to see my girls???

Life is CRAZY!!!!

I have so many things happening all at once and I'm trying to keep my head above water, this week.

We found out that my bees were finally coming so I was trying to do some last minute preparations and mental get myself ready for them.

We're babysitting a guinea pig for some friends who are out of the country, just one more thing to add to our own personal zoo. While cleaning the guinea pig's cage on Wednesday, Chase fell down the stairs and split his head open. Al freaked out, I told him to calm down and then I took the baby upstairs so I could see the damage. Then I freaked out. Not like Al though...I started hearing a buzzing noise in my ears and my vision was getting dim...I had to call Jane to hold onto Chase so I didn't pass out.

Al had just gotten out of the shower so and I was still in my robe so we both rushed around getting dressed because we knew he was going to need stitches. In the meantime, while Chase was sitting on the counter and Jane was holding him, he stops crying, looks around, sees an apple and starts eating it. The bleeding has stopped and he's hanging out, wondering what all the fuss is about.

I was afraid to put him in his carseat since the split was on the back of his head. I didn't want it to open up from movement. So I strapped him in the front seat with me. We made it two blocks and there were 2 sheriff cars. Al pulled over to announce we needed to get to the hospital quick, hoping the sheriff would give us an escort. Instead the sheriff said he couldn't let us go, we needed to sit and wait for an ambulance. WHAT!?!?! Al was not happy hearing that. but we waited...law enforcement was telling us he wouldn't let us go and we do try to live life by the rules.

Ambulance arrived, they strapped Chase into a car seat, put me across the ambulance from him and off we went. But not fast, nor with lights and sirens. We stopped at all the stop lights, just like everyone else. The ambulance attendant apologized that we were held up because of the sheriff insisting we needed an ambulance. He pointed out that there was nothing he could do to help Chase while he was being transported. Oh well, such is life.

Long story short, he got 6 staples in his head, he's perfectly normal, had no clue they're there and fell on his head twice this morning. I think we'll have many ER trips with this kid. Actually, we had the same ER Dr & nurse we had last week. He actually asked if I wanted to go ahead and make my appointment for next week since we had been there on 2 consecutive Wednesdays at 10:00 a.m. Please pray with us that next Wednesday our only Dr appt will be to remove the staples!

On top of that, Al is slammed at work (Hallelujah!!!!), Friday we have art class at 10:00 a.m. in Laurel, then Connor and I are off to sail for 3 hours (a 3 hour tour, a 3 hour tour....) in Annapolis before driving all the way back to Rockville and then shower and get ready for a graduation party at 8:00 p.m. Early Saturday morning, I have to be down at the church building to set up for a primary activity. And did I mention I had to get my bees while all of this is going on?

Needless to say, we cancelled piano again this week and Lillee hasn't picked up her violin ONCE all week.

So here are 2 pictures of my girls...all 5000 of them. They're currently housed in the small box on top of the hive (called a nucleus or nuc for short). This is how I picked them up from the apiary I purchased them from. The nuc contains a queen, 4-5 frames of drawn comb and a lot of worker bees (and hopefully some brood).

I place the nuc on top of my empty hive, open it up and allow the girls to orient themselves to their new area (find nectar and water sources). In a day or two, I'll go back to remove the frames from the nuc, put the frames into the hive and then the bees will follow the queen into the hive (they can smell her).

More to come, stay tuned!






My hive is beside an established hive at my friend Amy's house. The bottom 2 pictures are of Amy's bees. The picture of a honey frame is exciting! This is Amy's first honey frame. The cells with white caps are honey that will age for a couple more months and then it will be ready for extraction. The other picture is a glimpse inside her hive. These pictures were taken by Connor. He took a sting to the face (I didn't have a suit for him) but he was brave and ready to head back into the hive! I was proud of him for wanting to go back after being stung in a sensitive place. He wants me to make him a bee suit, first :)