Beginning Beekeepers

Hi,

A couple of days ago I spent some time in Hive 1 and 2. Hive 1 is still doing ok but Hive 2 is doing exceptional. They will have nearly caught up with Hive 1 soon. All of the water was out in Hive 2 and only 1/4 left in Hive 1. No sign of Small Hive Beetle in Hive 2 so I took all the sugar water away and added frames to the honey supers. It will be fun to watch them grow from here.

My hive at home is doing well also. I gave them some more water but I think they will need a honey super in the next week or so.

It has started to rain some so I think we might get some production yet.

I'm very hopeful and thank the Good Lord that he takes care of me and the bees (in spite of me).

Till next time, take care and God Bless!

Mark

Hi again,

I've been watering the garden and feeding a lot this week, it is a terrible dry spell here. Worst in 15 or more years I hear.

Anyway here are some pictures of the funny comb the bees were drawing. I hope they are doing better now.







Until later, take care and God Bless!

Greetings,

I think it has been a long time since I made a post, this is probably a long one. I installed a new nuc in in a new hive (hive 3) in early May. These bees have just been difficult since then. They don't appear to want to draw any frames out or lay on anything but the 5 frames they came with until this week. I don't know what is up with them but I think maybe the herbicide that was sprayed on the fields right next to them about a week after they were installed and 2 weeks of pretty cold weather in May set them back. I did get into all of the hives on Saturday, this hive is finally starting to draw up new frames and the queen actually had a couple of frames of eggs on the new frames. I also inspected hive 2, I saw no evidence of Small Hive Beetle, no adults, no worms, nothing. I haven't caught any in the trap I made. The trap by the way was an idea I picked up off of a bee forum board, pretty smart design and looks like it should work good. Here is the URL: http://www.beeworks.com/informationcentre/small_hive_beetle.html

I did get a bottle of Guardstar, which is a pesticide for use in the ground outside of the hive, and some Texas small hive beetle traps which go on the very bottom of the hive but I haven't used either yet. I figured if I don't see any anymore we might have made it through the problem. Hive 2's queen is also beginning to lay very heavy and the hive is becoming stronger by the day. I added their food back, that will be a good way to see if the beetle is still there, they loved the substitute pollen.

Hive 1 is still very strong, but the honey super we put on last week hasn't been touched. It is so dry here, like late August, that I don't think there is much for them to collect. We may not get any honey this year, its in God's hands like everything else I guess.

The garden is growing but beginning to dry up and the trees need watered in the orchard very badly. I'm signed up for a woodworking class in July for a week. I think that will be fun.

Well I guess that is all I have for now, when I get a picture of the weird frames hive 3 was drawing out I'll post them on here for everyone to see.

Take care and God bless!

Allo again, it has been a while since I posted. All I can say is that I have been so busy doing things that I can hardly spare the time to post about it!

I think I'll start with an update on our hives from last year. We had to put a Honey Super on Hive 1 a few days ago because there are so many bees they've all but run out of space! This is good because it means that Hive 1 is already gathering Honey that is meant for My consumption. Ur..I mean, to sell to all of my Honey-Hungry patrons...right right...
Hive 2 on the other hand is having a very tough time still. We made the mistake of ordering a Russian-breed Queen from California, and while she is laying quite well she brought some unwanted visitors with her. A week or two after installing the new queen in our hive, we discovered Small Hive Beetle in Hive 2!
We've sent a sample of the little buggers to the state Apiary Inspector and will be contacting the business which sold us the Queen to inform them and demand they compensate us for making us bring such a destructive species into the environment! We're ordering a Small Hive Beetle Trap for both hives in addition to a ground-based pesticide to kill the beetle's grubs when they go into the ground to undergo metamorphosis. We're going to do everything we can to stop these little buggers before they spread.
So, from now on we'll be buying local bees only, including queens. So, our apologies Danny! We should've never bought from someone else!

On other notes, the Orchard is doing well. Most of the trees are thriving. Of the 80 we planted in the Orchard area, we've lost around 12 (I think its 4 Paw Paws and 8 Persimmons). I think that we did pretty good especially since we had to plant them in March AND we got hit with a cold snap right after we had finished planting them!

So, until the next time I update, good luck and keep eating Honey!

Allo again-

Today we hit 50+ degrees, so I mixed up a quick batch of 50/50 sugar water and put it in the hives. Lucky for me, Dad had already been here and put the empty supers on so that I could put the jars in quickly because Hive 1 has bees bubbling out of the top. Meaning they really need the sugar water if I want them to be strong when the major nectar flow for the area hits.

While Hive 1 seems very strong for this time of year, Hive 2 is quite the opposite. Now that the weather has warmed up, the remaining bees within the hive have dragged all of the dead bees out of the hive. Its quite a sad scene looking in front of the hive and seeing 2-300 dead bees on the ground. Indeed, we did the hive quite a disservice by not requeening in the fall. To the fallen bees of Hive 2, I salute you.

( Want to read about the Orchard? Click Here! )

So, looks like Hive 1 is doing better than Hive 2. No surprise there! ^_^ And so out Beekeeping year finally gets started!

Well, its been a long time since I've posted anything. I'd just like to say I've been busy. That doesn't excuse me from not updating this, its just the reason why. First off, in November my wife and I had our second little boy. (He's the one on the left. You know, the bald one) Secondly, my dad and I worked with the beeswax we harvested from our hive to produce two different cosmetic products, namely lip balm and hand cream. I may upload pictures of them later if I have time. They're extraordinarily helpful around the house as I know exactly what's in them and have no qualms in using either of them on either of my two boys (both under the age of 2). In addition to being helpful, I should mention they work great too. But enough self-advertisement, on to what I've done lately.

Yesterday I went back out to Hive 1 and propped open the cover to provide a little more ventilation. I received an irritated buzz when I disturbed the cover, which tells me the hive is in decent health.

Now, I want to do something that I hope to continue annually as I continue beekeeping. I want to state my goals for this year. I am guessing this will be quite lengthy, I am going to do a lj-cut for anyone who doesn't want to read about it.

If you do want to read about our annual goals ( Click Here. )

I may not of made it known here, but many who know me personally know my dream is to have an apiary/orchard to manage full-time. This year I'm going to stop sitting on my butt and thinking about what I'd like to do and start doing it. With our new trees and more bees, I'll be getting a chance to see if I can handle the problems that come with this kind of job. If I can get more honey from my hives and get most of my trees to grow and prosper, I'll know that I at least have a chance of furthering my dream.

I've been inspired by a lot of different people to do this, and I think I can. Now its time to put it to the test. I will be updating not only the progress of our bees on here, but also the progress of our mini-orchard since I believe them to be very interconnected. So, until later, Adieu!

Greetings!

Went out to the hives yesterday (March 5) to add some candy boards, both hives are alive but hive 2 looks like it might be struggling. True to it's nature however when we popped the top on hive 2 we were immediately buzzed, they are very aggressive. Hive 1 appears to be the most alive and bees were swelling up from the frames. Brandon said he thought they might have some chalk brood, but that was because he found one 'mummy' that might have been something else. We didn't keep the hives open long, but added the candy boards so they could have some more food available. Hive 1 with so many bees might have needed some additional ventilation, but until we do an inspection it will be hard to tell. I'm hoping to find a queen soon and re-queen hive 2. I am looking forward to warmer weather when we can tell how the girls did over the winter.

Until next time, may God Bless you and yours!

Greetings!

I just wanted to post that we did get about another gallon (maybe a gallon and a quarter) of honey. I've got some in pint jars now and I did have 10, 12 oz. honey 'bears' to fill also. Looks like a little yellow squadron of bears on my counter right now.

We are pretty close to finishing the winter preparations for the hives. We need to remove the mite treatment pads this Saturday and then add something around the hives to help them keep warm. It won't take very long I think.

In any case, I'm pretty pleased with the production this year. I hope we can winter the bee's that is the next test for the two of us as beekeepers.

Until later, I hope you have a safe and fun holidays!

God Bless!

Allo all, been a while since we've posted anything.

And that has a lot to do with the fact that since last I posted, we haven't done much. We are still trying to get the supers we left on the hives off of them so that we can treat for our mite infestation and prepare for the upcoming winter season. The problem is 2 weeks ago when we set out to start doing this, I ripped a very large chunk out of my middle finger (inner side of the top knuckle if you must know). And I am adamant that I have to be involved with these 2 hives. Even with every time Hive 2 has came after me and no matter how many stings I get, I love getting into the hives. If my father had opened the hives, it wouldn't of taken long before I had my bee suit on and just went without gloves into the hives. Hopefully, after re-queening Hive 2 next spring I'll be able to go glove-less all summer.

Speaking of re-queening, I admit I didn't know when most people get rid of their old queens to get new ones. I figured, "why not spring? The colony is weak and it'll be easier to find her." Well, it seems the professionals do it in the fall. I'm kind of glad we didn't try to re-queen the way we're supposed to, since we're having so much difficulty getting them ready for the cold snap as it is.

Well, I didn't create this entry just to tell you that we haven't done anything. Because....*drum roll*...we were able to do something! w00t.
shocking isn't it?

We first got into the hives and looked them over around September 22nd. We checked all the boxes, although we didn't check every frame, to see how their winter stores were coming along. It was then that we actually saw our Varroa Mite infestation. We figured we had them, since almost every hive in the US has them, but I didn't expect there to be as many as we found. Hive 2, the little bugger, didn't have half as many as Hive 1. Why do they pick on my baby? WHY? If we lose Hive 1 over the winter I think...*sniff* I think I'll cry.

Anyway, back to beekeeping. After that inspection, we determined that we needed to treat for mites prior to getting the girls all cosy for winter. So, my father ordered some mite treatment (I don't remember exactly what it is called, but I know it uses Formic acid. I'm more comfortable with this treatment then any of the others I read about. I'm still a Chemist at heart). I have so far only removed the super off one of the hives (Hive 2) and that was a fun experience. 3 things I learned:

1) Don't open the hives after 7:30 now that its getting to be fall.
(all the bees have went into the hive by that point).
2) Wear your bee suit if you do go out that late at night
and
3) Don't go shirtless

I'm sure the sight of me running towards the road, shirtless, frantically pulling at my hair and attempting to fend off invisible attackers was quite humorous to anyone driving by.

Allo there, as of 6 days ago today (August 13th), I have been eating honey from our hives!

The entire process took ~7 hours to complete, and we didn't even do a full super worth from either hive. Since we were impatient to get some honey, we took the frames that were complete from the super and left the rest to be finished up and taken later in the year. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Have to start at the beginning.

Hive 2 we did first, and no one was there to take pictures, so all of the pictures found with us outside are actually from Hive 1. For the first hive we did not use a bee escape as we weren't willing to wait for the bees to leave. More information on what a bee escape is can be found later. The bee escape made things a lot easier, so from now on I'm guessing we'll be utilizing the following method for all harvesting.

To begin the harvesting we suited up as usual and went out to crack open the hive. The frames that were finished were on the first super, which had a mostly empty super above it. So, we had to flip the supers. Once the empty super was on the bottom (on top of the hive body), we placed the inner cover on that super and the bee escape on top of that. Then the super with harvestable honey on top of it was placed on top of all that mess, and the outer cover on top of it. To get a visual of the change look at this picture. Now to explain what a bee escape is:
The bee escape is a board which has a large hole on the top side which leads to a screened in area with a sort of mini-maze for the bees to get out from on the bottom side. There are only 3 small holes on the bottom side of the bee escape where the bees can leave or enter. The maze actually leads them to these holes if they're coming from the larger hole on the top side, and once they are out it becomes very difficult for them to find these smaller holes and maneuver their way back through the bee escape into the super we are trying to harvest from.
So, with the bee escape on the bottom of the harvestable super, and the outer cover on the top, the bees only had one exit. Now, I haven't read this anywhere, just my amateur speculation here but I think I know why the bees clear out so quickly from the harvestable super. Since they are now completely cut off from the hive except for the hole in the bee escape(which itself is sitting on the inner cover which only has an equal size hole in it), the amount of pheromone from the queen is very small. This lacking in pheromone alerts the bees to a change, and they will seek out the pheromone. This I believe explains why in an hour or so the harvestable super went from a thousand or two bees within the super to a hundred or two. But again, just my amateur speculation.

So, after the bee escape was in place for a while we were able to remove the frames that were harvestable, brush off the bees remaining on the comb and take them to the house. Now, every book tells me this, and I should have listened, never extract honey in your kitchen. I had honey on the cabinets, honey on the floor, and honey everywhere in between. Alas, we had no other place to extract the honey, but I should have at least TRIED to find somewhere else. Anywho, back to the extraction.
The frames in all of these pictures were from Hive 2 as the person with the camera showed up around the time we got to this part. First off, we wanted to cut out the cut comb. Since the foundation used in these frames were pure beeswax, all we had to do to harvest the cut comb was to cut it out of the frame with a knife and cut it down to manageable sizes. Now, we're not professional beekeepers so we were using what we could to package these pieces (so yes those are generic plastic containers and baby food jars you see in that last picture). Professional beekeepers can use frames with special things in them that only allow the bees to make the comb into the shape they want to sell as cut comb. We didn't really care that much, we just wanted some cut comb to eat.
The cut comb in the plastic containers were placed in the freezer for over 48 hours in order to kill any wax moth larvae or eggs. The cut comb in the jars were later filled with liquid honey that we harvested later. I should have froze those pieces as well, but I forgot and I don't think the wax moth larvae/eggs can survive a completely liquid environment. Yeah, I admit it, we made a mistake on assuming it would, but it is a mistake we will not repeat in the future.

Next up we had to start harvesting the honey from the frames with plastic foundation. Since plastic isn't edible and we have no extractor to remove the honey without harming the honeycomb, we had to try a less fancy method. This method involved scraping the honeycomb and the honey into a 5 gallon pail with a piece of cloth on it to act as a filter. The cloth is 100 mesh, so all the wax (as well as the errant bee leg that might be in the wax) will remain on top of the cloth while the honey drips through. Mark installed a spout on the bottom of the pail which allowed for us to pour the honey out of the pail and jar it. We harvested as much as we could and then left the beeswax in the pail to drain over the next few days. I only got another jelly jar full of honey after the beeswax had drained completely, so the method we used is crude but effective.

After we were done with the frames, we hung the frames out so the bees could pick them clean. This was my wife's idea, and I figure I owe her the credit of coming up with this incredibly easy way to get those frames clean.

So, that's it. It took a while, but we have lots of honey to show for it. Well, lots considering we only got our bees a few months before. And the honey is very light, tasting mostly of clover honey, and is very thin compared to the grocery store variety. The flavour is spectacular though, despite its thin nature. Next we have to get that beeswax cleaned up so we can start other projects.

Allo again-

We did a quick inspection of the hives two days ago, and found a few things (as always).

The workers haven't started any comb on the second honey super, which is fine with me as they are busy with the first super still. Right now, both hives have between 3-5 frames on the first super 50-75% capped! Plus, we went back through and actually checked the frames where we saw the grey spots, and they were gone. Those cells were actually capped, but the honey is so light that it was easy to see through the capping and the honey to the foundation underneath.

And, yes I said Light Honey. Despite my complaints that the honey in the hive body looked rather dark, the honey in the honey supers is quite light. We've had a lot of clover growing in my lawn (due mostly to a lax approach on mowing) and I see them harvesting from them often. Also, my garden has a few flourishing pumpkin plants which the bees seem to enjoy as well.

Anywho, we'll probably not be able to get back into the hives for at least a week and a half, but the girls have plenty of room to grow until then.

Greetings!

I did an inspection on the last 2 frames of each honey super tonight, they are drawn out to within an inch of the edges on both. Hive 1 has begun to cap the honey, so I added the 2nd super to each hive.

Brandon was busy because he found a baby kitten today and brought it home. Needless to say he was trying to take care of that baby and his baby too!

I didn't find any more grey spots, but I didn't look at every frame, or at the frame we found the spots on last time. I'm not sure what they could be. It was funny it was in both hives.

Anyhow I think we might need some more honey supers, but the nectar flow is beginning to slow down I think, if the girls continue on the way they are they will have the 2nd super drawn out in about 2 weeks, we could start trading out frames, I have 10 extra, that would let us harvest the honey and the girls continue to work.

Till next time, God Bless!

Allo again.

Last Saturday (7/22/06) we did an inspection of the Honey Supers. We did it at around 8 o'clock at night, so all we did was crack open the hive, see how well the comb was drawn out on all the frames, and pull one frame out for close inspection.

Well, I'm happy to say that all 10 frames in both supers have comb drawn out on them and on each frame we pulled out about 70% of the frame was filled with Nectar. That means we should get honey this year! W000000T!

Anyway, we're still investigating what the experts say on when to add the second honey super. For the hive bodies, it was 90% drawn out and some capped honey. Since this is mostly drawn out but little capped honey, we may have to give them more time. Again, we're varifying this.

The only bad news we had was that there were 1 or 2 grey spots in the comb. We're not sure exactly what these spots were, and so again are investigating it.

So, not much info, but lots of excitement. Mmmmmmmmm...honey....

Greetings!

We did a fast inspection of the hives last night. The frames are nearly all drawn out. There may be 1 side on the end frames not drawn but it looks like the girls were working on those frames also. So we removed the feeders and added a honey super to each hive.

Hive 2 continues to be aggressive, Brandon got stung again. Seems a bee (or 2) found their way up his pant leg and stung him on his ankle. This in spite of his bee suit and elastic straps around his pant leg. I think we need to add a little length to his pants to keep this from happening again. He said it wasn't to bad, but they were itching when I left last night.

I got buzzed pretty good, but I didn't see any stings in my gloves or anywhere.

We added 10 frames of 'cut comb' to hive 2 and 10 frames of plastic foundation to hive 1. Each hive also has a 'Queen Excluder' which is supposed to, as the name says, keep the Queen from laying eggs in the honey super. I hope to catch the fall honey flow. I don't think we will get much honey, but I'll be happy with any.

On a different note, there seem to be plenty of bees so I think both hives are doing pretty well.

We don't plan to look at them much for a few weeks, but I may have to see what they look like before that.

Have fun, and may God Bless You!

Addendum by

Yes, I got stung twice despite being fully suited. When I move and bend, my pant leg rises and stays at the risen point thanks to the elastic straps. It didn't hurt too much, and my ankle is just a little swollen today.

Anyway, some additional information I thought might be nice. The Queen Excluder is a plastic frame with holes along it that are large enough for worker bees to get through but small enough to exclude the Queen. Thus she can't lay eggs in our honey due to the fact that she physically can't get to that comb. She's got plenty of comb to lay in the 2 Hive bodies.

Secondly, we do have a significant increase in our bee population. I regularly see the bees at a friend's house that I visit semi-regularly, she lives approximately 1/4-1/8 of a mile away. However, while at Mark's house yesterday I noticed 3 honey bees in a flower bed. While bumblebees and carpenter bees are a regular sight in the area, I had never in my life seen a honey bee there. I believe his house is within the 2 mile radius that honey bees will normally go to find a nectar flow, so this isn't exceedingly odd. BUT it does show that there are enough bees in the hive that the closer nectar flows are most likely getting drained and they are being forced to forage farther away for nectar. That is a good thing because it means lots and lots of nectar is being stored... w00t for h0n3y!

On a semi-bad note, the honey we were seeing in the hive had a very dark colour to it... Man, I hate dark honey, but I'll get what I can take.

Greetings!

Decided to work the bees today, its sunny and about 80 out. Nice weather.

Hive 1 was doing well, they still haven't drawn out 2 frames on the bottom hive body so we swapped hive bodies (top to bottom, etc.). They have used about 2 gallons of sugar water in 5 days, they should have been 8 or more days on it. Did not see the queen but there is a lot of brood and eggs, lots of capped honey. Looks very good. We did not inspect the bottom hive body at all. The bees were pretty calm.

Hive 2 is a different story, we smoked them and opened the top and were immediately besieged by 30 or so bees. Brandon only had a veil on, he got stung on the arm. I was in my bees suit, veil and gloves. The bees chased him all the way back to the garage. If he had not gotten stung it was pretty funny watching him run and swat and yell "Get off of me, Get away from me!". But he got stung and that was not fun. (Actually I think it was a Funniest Home Video' moment but I did not have a camera.) I did look at several frames, they seem to be doing about the same as hive 1, lots of brood, eggs and capped honey. We did not inspect the bottom hive body because the hive was so upset already. We put everything back together and decided to refill the feeders.

We purchased new 2 gallon feeders about a week or so ago. They seem to work ok, but we did not get the lid on the feeder in hive 2 very good so sugar water was leaking and making a mess. Naturally when we went back into hive 2, they started buzzing us again and it was a pain. But we got it with no other casualties.

We did not see either queen. It looks like hive 2 needs a new queen, this one is producing very aggressive girls, much to aggressive for my taste.......

I decided to feed the bees today even though it had been raining. Since I really was not trying to do much with them I went out without a veil and gloves. Hive 1 was fine, a few flying around. The feeding went easy. Hive 2 however has become really aggressive. I opened the hive top and was immediately buzzed by several of the girls, stung twice. Needless to say I went back and put on my bee suit, veil and gloves. The feeding went ok after that. Lesson learned, the bees don't like wet weather.

I haven't had much chance to check on the hives except for feedings, and even those have been interrupted somewhat. The weather has been varying between rain and "Ahhh! IT BURNS! IT BURNS!" sunny days. I have missed 2 feeding days due to rain, and have discovered the reason to not disturb a hive on a borderline day.

I fed the Hives (switching from quart to 1/2 gallon jars so I would only have to feed every other day) on the 11th. It had been raining the last few days, and I had not been able to get to the hives until after my son had went to bed (~7:40). It was still light out, but no bees were present outside of the hives. That's when I should have went and got the smoker...but I didn't. Again, I'm an idiot. So I crack the outer cover of Hive 1 and WHAM! 4 guard bees dart out the hive and scatter onto me. 2 around my chest, 1 in my hair, and another on my shoe. I got the 2 around my chest away first, the one from my hair got caught, then flew away, then went into my shirt sleeve. Got her out without getting stung myself but my shirt got stung. I then hear buzzing from my shoe. The last one had successfully stung my pants. I put her out of her misery and went back to the hive. I quickly got the jar, knocked the bees off, fed them and put the cover back on. I probably had 20-30 bees around me the entire time thanks to the pheromone released when the 2 bees stung my clothing. They left me alone once the cover was replaced and I fed Hive 2 with no problem.

So, that was fun. I was unable to do an examination on Friday due to my father being out of town and I'm preparing for a trip coming up this Thursday. It's raining pretty bad today, so hopefully I can get into the hive tomorrow night. I doubt they've filled the hive with comb yet, let alone with honey enough to warrant the addition of a Honey Super, but who knows.

They started being a lot more active around June 13-16 when the clover flowers started showing up. Now the rain is coming back, so they'll probably stay in the hive for the next couple of days until this storm system passes through. Once I get back from my trip I really need to start cleaning out someplace to become a harvest room. What can I say, I still have hope that I may get some honey this year.

By the way, tidbit I just learned. I had some comb honey I had left around the house (in a sealed plastic container) for a year or so. Most of the honey was liquid, but the bottom had crystallized. Now, typically I hate crystallized honey. In the comb though, where you have to chew anyway, it is amazing! It's like having solid honey hard candy to crunch into. I <3'd it!

Yesterday we did our second hive inspection, and it went rather well I believe.

We started with Hive 1, by removing the Outer Cover. As you can see in the image, I am wearing no protective gear. This is because if I wear my bee suit I become very nervous and jumpy. This just agitates the bees and increases my chance of getting stung. Since I don't have a veil to wear without my suit on (my current one zips onto the bee suit so it's useless without the suit), I have to do this "naked". My father is more comfortable in his bee suit, so he wears his like any smart person would. I will make this public, I am an Idiot. I like to try and catch drones, I brush bees out of the way with my hand instead of the brush if there are less than 10, and do other reallllly dumb things. But I expect to get stung, and I end up getting a few bee stingers in my clothes because of this.

Anyway, after removing the outer cover, we removed the feeding jar and the empty super we use to keep the hive closed to the outside, but still allowing us to stick the quart jar in there to feed them. Now, I'm going to ramble a bit about something I find absolutely amazing about bees. The subject of my ramble is Nasonov Pheromone. When we remove the outer cover, some bees fly off. Some of these bees are unskilled flyers or too young to have done an orientation flight around the hive. These bees become lost because they don't know landmarks. Skilled or experienced bees that fly off will immediately return and begin scenting the air with Nasonov Phermone, which is produced by exposing their Nasonov Glands (located in their abdomen), and fanning their wings. The inexperienced bees will pick up on the pheromone's aroma and follow it home. That is Freaking Awesome.

So, we removed theInner Cover in order to inspect the hive. I'm going to get to the nitty gritty facts of what we found here soon, but before I do I'm going to show what some of the things I'll say actually mean. An empty frame looks like that, mostly just the foundation with little to no comb drawn out on it. A Full frame looks like this. That specific one was used for nectar/honey and pollen storage. This one is a brood frame. If you zoom in the picture (very large so dial-up will have to wait a long while), you can see the capped brood (light yellow tops on some comb), open brood (white worm like things in the comb), and even new eggs (little white dots in the center of the comb below the brood). And in both hives we tried to find this little bugger: The Queen Bee.

Now to what we actually found. Hive 1 has a very organized queen, who is also very good at hiding when we're in the hive. We know she's in there due to the presence of eggs and fresh brood, but could not find her. The hive has a good deal of capped honey, nectar, and pollen stores. There was brood in both the second and first hive body, which is a good sign that the queen is utilizing the comb in both areas. Approximately 75-85% of the first hive body had comb drawn out on it and 25-35% of the second hive body had comb as well.

Hive 2 has a semi-sloppy queen. She has some drone cells mixed in with her worker brood cells, which means that she's either just sloppy or was not properly mated(She only mates once in her life, and stores the semen for her entire life. An unfertilized egg grows into a drone and a fertilized egg grows into a worker bee). But she has a good deal of brood, most of it worker brood as it should be. The hive overall has more drawn out and more stores than Hive 1. The first hive body has 75-85% of the frames drawn out and the second hive body has 30-40% of the frames drawn out. This may not seem like a lot, but it means Hive 2 is ahead by at least 1 frame of comb. 1 frame of comb out of 10 is a significant increase in space to store honey, pollen, or brood. The queen can continue to lay at her pace or more without the workers having to store their nectar in her brood area. More space = hive functions faster = more production = higher chance of me getting to eat honey.

It will probably be a few weeks before we get to add a honey super, but a strong hive is what we're going for this year. We want to be sure our investment survives the winter so that next year we might reap the rewards of having them.

Checked the hives tonight, Hive 2 had drained their quart jar of sugar water that was put out yesterday. Hive 1 had 1/3 of their jar left. We're going to have to check the frames on Friday to see how they're progressing. The bees don't tend to build comb on the outside frames, so by moving the frames with empty comb on them to the end and putting the frames with only foundation in the center we can maximize the amount of comb produced and thus maximize the hives area for placing pollen/nectar.

Since I haven't mentioned it before, foundation is the plastic placed in each frame that creates the "framework" that the bees lay comb by. When the frames are put together, there is a wooden border around the framework and the foundation is joined in the center of the frame. The foundation has the typical hexagonal shape we think of when we think of honeycomb embossed on both sides of it, and a thin layer of wax covers both sides as well. This thin layer of wax makes it easier for the bees to start building their comb on the foundation.

Anywho, the hives are certainly becoming more active. And now I feel the need to wax poetic.

Since getting our bees, this journey has been exceptionally fun. I know it's not been long since we got them, so I may still be experiencing the euphoria that typically surrounds any new and intriguing experience but as I watch them grow I can't help but feel a sense of pride or accomplishment well up inside. To someone like me, who has trouble being proud of anything I do, this is an amazing feeling.

The only problem is, I have to fight my urge to go around and poke in the hive all the time. We certainly need more hives, just to give me a reason to go out and play with the bees.

After installing the hives we began checking the sugar water in both the hives every other day. In a day and a half Hive 2 was using a quart of sugar water, while Hive 1 had not used 1/4 to 1/3 of the sugar water. Over the next week this was the norm for both hives.

Hive 1 gets slightly more direct sunlight than Hive 2. Hive 1 usually has more bees fanning outside of the entrance, and the fanning from inside the hive could be heard from ~6 inches away. We think that due to the heat Hive 1 was under, their bees were spending more time outside the hive instead of inside the hive using the sugar water.

On Friday, June 2nd we examined the frames to see how the bees were doing. Hive 2 was going strong, having filled ~75-80% of their frames with comb. Some of the frames had capped honey and lots of fresh brood were visible. The queen was busy in the middle of the comb, and all looked well. So, we moved the frames with little to no comb on it to the middle of the hive and moved the frames with comb on it (but no brood) to the outside of the hive. We added the second deep body to the hive, moved some of the frames with honey and open comb to the middle of the new deep, and filled the hives with empty frames where needed.

Hive 1 was a different story. Maybe 50-60% of their frames had comb, while the comb that was there was almost full with their nectar, pollen, and brood. We also couldn't find the Queen...which freaked us out. We checked twice for her, and I ended up getting stung because I squished a worker while I was placing a frame back. And let me just say, yes it hurts a lot. However, as long as you remove the stinger without squeezing it the pain fades very quickly. The dull throbbing feeling does take a few hours to fade though. Anyway, after messing with Hive 1 enough to really rile them up we left them alone for a few days.

On June 5th we checked Hive 1 again. We were excited to see that they have used a full quart of sugar water from the day before and so we eagerly delved into the frames. They had filled all but the outside of the outer frames (so 90% filled) with comb and had quite a bit of capped honey on their frames. We added the second deep, moving some of the open comb frames to it, and began to put the hive back together. It was then that we spotted our Queen on the inner cover. With a nervous but slow hand my father replaced the inner cover and then fret about the chance that he killed the Queen for the next 5 minutes. Since the space between the frames and the inner cover is equal to bee space, he was very careful in replacing it, and the Queen was not standing on any other bee I don't think he killed her. Guess we'll find out later.

Both hives are now using ~1 quart of sugar water a day. Since 1 quart is equal to about 1 frame of comb, we're hoping to get a honey super on within a few weeks. We just might get some honey this year, which would be sweet (no pun intended).