Bearding

We have been observing lots of activity on our yellow hive for weeks.  Queen bees can lay up to 1500 eggs in one day so it stands to reason that she can have that many daughters emerging in a day.  After the worker bee emerges from the cell she cleans it up and starts working in the hive building wax or feeding larvae or other such duties.  Then she will become a forager.  She leaves the hive box and spends some time getting oriented and taking some practiced flights.  Which way is North?

You can see why this is called a beard.  This picture was taken early this morning and the crowd will increase as the sun comes up.

Compare it to the green hive which has significantly fewer bees.

Did I say it is HOT?

This is more of a garden update than a bee update but does contain info on the girls.

We were out of town for seven days and it was in the 90s everyday and never did it rain a drop.  This is the result and what we found when we returned home.  The blue berry bushes in pots on the deck are gone.  We have enjoyed them for several years.  Last summer was hard on them and it looks like this summer did them in.

The honey bees found a new source of water since we were gone and did not fill the bird feeder every day.  They finally discovered the lily pad in the fish pond are a good place to get water.

These herbs survived thanks to the jug of water with one small hole in the bottom and the cap on top to seal it in. 













The basil surprised me and I wonder if someone watered this pot.  it was not even wilted.









The fish pond was a little low on water but everyone survived, including the plants. 

The veggies were a little worse for the wear.  We have almost depleated the water in the rain barrel that we use to water them.  Obviously someone needed the moisture and nutrients and took advantage of nice ripe tomatoes.

But they left some for us. 

HOT HOT HOT

The month of June has been nothing but HOT in NC.  There has only been one day that the temp did not reach 90 since June 10th and it was 88 that day. 

Bees have to work hard to keep the hive cool on hot days.  We refill our three bird baths twice daily to give them water.  We also have two fish ponds but they seem to prefer the bird baths. 

We will not open the hives during this hot spell as they are not happy and we do no want to add to their stress.

Hope for rain and a cool spell.  It isn't even July yet....ahhhh.

Kodak moment

Hey Mom, can I go swimming now?

Hive Inspection

We went into the hives today to check out their progress. Green hive first.
Beekeeper in training was first to inspect the frames.
This one shows some capped brood.















Green hive is the one where the first queen "disappeared/died/ran off with a rogue drone" and the colony had to rear another queen. This frame from the outer edge of the hive body does not have brood yet but good honey.
















This queen is obviously laying. Cells in the middle have been capped and the brood will emerge in a few days. On the left of the picture is the top of the frame and the caps are white and not as neat, this is where they have stored their honey.















This is the green hive where there are two hive bodies. We added the one on top May 31 because the ten frames in the bottom hive box were well built out and it was beginning to get crowded. This hive probably has twice as many bees.









One check of the frames on tops and it shows they are building out wax. No action from the queen yet in the top hive body. But they are getting it ready for her.















This frame from the bottom hive box show capped brood and honey arch. They are a little over zealous in building comb at the bottom of the frame. We will remove this later.
Very good work girls.

Garden tour

I was looking for honey bees and did not see this wasp. All polinators are welcome.


















I could not resist posting some pictures of the garden. this is the veggie bed in the back yard. Note the fence? No deer - so far.
Left to right pole beans, cucumber, sugar snap peas, and bush beans.











Picked this morning, bush beans, sugar snap peas and the second cucumber.




















We planted blueberry bushes this spring.






















Harry's hydrangeas, planted last year, and they came back. Imagine that.





Lots of day lillies.

Honey bee hive update

Update on the two hives.



This is a picture of the apiary with the two hives. The one on the right is the green hive and the taller one on the left is the yellow hive. We put a small water garden in between them to provide them with water. But they prefer the birdbaths.





The green hive has been our concern. We still have the reducer at the entrance because it reduces the entry way and the guard bees have less space to guard. Guard bees keep out intruders such as yellow jackets and robber bees from other colonies that steal their honey. Because the population has been low we did not want to overwork the guard bees.

A large number of bees have emerged. This is the most we have seen on the entrance to the green hive. A few days ago there would have only been two or three bees guarding and a few coming and going. We may have to open up the entrance soon.



By comparison, this is the yellow hive. This one has been going great guns. We removed the reducer so the entire entrance is open and you can see it is full of bees coming and going. This hive has two hive bodies and a total of twenty frames for the bees to raise brood, store honey and pollen.















There is always a crowd at the bird baths.