Photo of Brood

A bee takes around 24 days to fully mature. These are about 7-9 days within the comb.

Beautiful day today.

These are some images from today's visit. Everything seems to be going smoothly. I'm still getting the hang of working with the hives. I may be a little more ginger that I need to be, but as I inspect the frames it tears at some of the connecting comb in between the frames. I guess it's not a huge deal but I think it is. Also getting used to the frame tool, almost dropped a frame with bees on it! They weren't to happy. Fortunately the bees that did fall were over the supers. You never know where that queen is. Speaking of queens, didn't see them today but obviously they've been busy. Temp was in lower 90's with a light breeze. No storms yesterday or today but there is going to be a little cold snap in the next few days. Down in the upper 30's with some precip possible.

 Creating art while they create thir home. Amazing isn't it?

 Eggs within the comb. Great sign in colony 1. I hadn't checked for a week, and I've already found decent sized larva. Their number will increase exponentially for the rest of the summer. The queen can lay up to 1500 eggs per day!

 Meeting of the minds.

 Capped off brood. Now that's a lot of workers coming out in about 15 days.

 Not sure what the exchange was here, but it looked interesting.

 Simply bee.

Worker at hive entrance.

Today Clarence met me out at the hives to determine if we needed to order another queen for colony 1. Fortunately only after a few minutes we were able to find her. Colony 2 seems to be doing well, didn't see queen but eggs are apparent within the hive.

 In both these shots the queen is central in the image. Her body is darker and abdomen is much larger.

Workers at hive entrance on Colony 1

Tuesday, April 17th

After leaving the colonies on Friday we had some major winds and storms come through. All seems well and Clarence visited on Saturday and said he did see the colony 1 queen. Today for me it was about the same as last. Haven't figured the best way to find the queens, no matter how hard I try. Colony 2 continues to show signs of eggs but not colony 1. Both are producing comb and continue to build out there homes. Colony 1 does seem to be producing more honey but again, no eggs. Both were out of their artificial feed. I figure right now they are going through about a quart and a half in 4 days. Temps in lower 70's and low was around 39 overnight. Light winds.

Checkup on Colonies

Here's a quick photo of colony one. Did not see queen nor did I see eggs, crossing my fingers that she's survived. They were active in both colonies with eggs in colony 2. Will post later more images.

A bee day

Did you know that worker bees only live an average of 40 days! That's like every day is 2 human years. Now that's a lot of fleeting moments.

 Queen still in her cage for Colony 2. About to release.

 Smoking #1 Colony

Checking Queen of colony 1