Worker Bees

The term "Worker Bees" takes on a whole new meaning when you watch the bees in action. We added a second box to the hive tonight.  The bottom box is almost full!!  It's amazing that they have been so hard at work to fill it already. 

The Queen has been busy too!!  If you take a close look at the photos below, you can see what looks like little white "C"s.  That's bee larva.  So the Queen has been busy laying larva which will eventually be the second generation of the summer.  After she places the larva in the comb, the workers are busy sealing it up with honey and wax.  This is what the larva will eat until they hatch and become a bee.

This is the top of the box.  Just look at that honey dripping down. 

Here's my husband scrapping off some honey so we can have a sweet treat!  Yummmmm!!

While he was putting on the second box, it happened!!  The bees were not happy and he got stung on the leg.  It was just a matter of time.  At least it was only one that stung.  Just look at all of them flying around!  Yikes!!  Believe me....I was as far back as I could get and still take the pictures.  I don't have a suit...so if they get too close....I'm gone!!!

And here is the second box added on the top.  So now they have plenty of room to work.  I don't know about you, but there is so much to learn.  If we didn't get the second box on in time, half of the bees would have swarmed to find another open hive.  So it's really important that we check the hive at least once ever 7 to 10 days.  We have two more boxes that we can add this summer.  And it's looking better all the time that we will have lots of honey this fall!!  Stayed tuned for the next update!!



Bee Update

Our bees have been busy!!  We haven't been able to open the hive because it's been so windy this week.  But tonight we were able to look inside.  The Queen is laying eggs which is a great sign.  And five out 10 grids (I'm sure that's not the technical term, but you get the idea) are almost full of wax and honey.  You can see the wax and honey in the picture below.  It's the yellow honeycomb stuff at the top right. 

Our neighbor girls were over and we all were able to sample some of the "pure" honey.  Wow....it was amazing!  So sweet!!  The girls weren't too thrilled with chewing on the wax to get the honey out, but I think they liked it just the same!

Here's a closeup!



This weekend we need to fill their sugar water supply, so we'll be able to peek in again and get some more pictures.  Stay tuned!!  Isn't this fun??  It's looking good for honey this fall!!!

The Queen has been set free!!

Yes it's true!!  The Queen's subjects have successfully freed her from her box!  Yeah!!  The picture isn't great, but you can see the small hole at the end of the box.  That was filled with a sugar plug which the drones had to eat in order to free their Queen.  We were also able to see that they are already building wax in the hive. 

Yesterday we kind of thought that she might be out of her box.  There were a few dead bees in the box that they came in.  We saw bees dragging out the dead ones and pushing them out over the edge onto the ground.  They were definitely cleaning house and we thought that the Queen was already giving orders to tidy things up!!

Hopefully all will go well in the next couple weeks.  The next clue that our hive is thriving is to see that the Queen has laid eggs.  Isn't this exciting??  We think so anyway.  Stayed tuned for the next update!!  Have a beeutiful weekend (sorry I couldn't resist)!!



The Bees are in the Hive!

Since it was so cold when we got the bees on Sunday, we had to wait a day to put them in their hive.  We sprayed them with sugar water to make them happy first.  Here is my husband Gene in his bee suit ready to get started.

It's not as easy as you might think.  To try and get 10,000 to 12,000 bees in that little box was interesting.  Needless to say I stayed back (since I don't have a suit) and took pictures (believe me I was ready to run if needed)!!  Several of them decided to hang out on Gene's suit!!  They were all over him.

Then comes the Queen.  She arrives in her own special little box with a few of her drones (will just call them servants).  They are supposed to help her eat the candy plug on the other side to get her out among her subjects so she can tell them what to do like any good Queen would do!!  We will check back in a couple days to make sure she made it out.  If not we will need to intervene and get her out.  Otherwise, the whole swarm could just fly away!!  I'm not sure you can see her but she's about twice the size of the others (big enough to boss everyone around).

And finally, here is the hive completed.  We needed to put something heavy on the top so that the raccoons or other critters won't break in.  Tonight Buddy (our lab) went up to the hive and took off the other way.  He didn't get stung, but he knew enough that he shouldn't be around there. 

I'll be back in a couple days to let you know how the Queen's subjects did in helping her escape her little box!! 

Our bees have arrived!!

We have decided to raise honey bees.  If we get honey that will be great. But we are hoping that they will help pollinate our fruit trees, vegetable garden and flowers.  We picked them up today.  We got one 3 pound box, which is somewhere around 10,000 to 12,000 bees.  That is a lot of bees!!  It was pretty strange riding back in the car knowing that there were that many bees in the back seat.  There were even a few outside the container.  But we arrived home safely. 

It's pretty cold here today, only in the 40s, so we're going to wait and put them in the hive tomorrow.  They came from Georgia so I think this weather will be some what of a shock to them.  There is so much to learn about them.  Stayed tuned.  I'll be back with more pictures as the summer unfolds.