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The weather has been so warm these past few days that Stephen opened up the beehive today for an inspection.
This hive is a swarm that we caught last year. We’ve lost several hives to Colony Collapse Disorder, so this winter we’ve been extra careful with this hive. It appears to be very healthy and is doing very well.
When Stephen built the swarm lure, he needed to use old comb. The only old comb he had available was on shallow frames. The lure worked and he transferred the bees to a deeper box. It looks funny the way they’ve built the new comb but it is good to see that they’re building it.
The hive had a good bit of honey in the frames. The queen was busy laying and the workers had been bringing in pollen. I’m very curious where they were getting pollen in February – I’m not aware of anything blooming nearby but apparently something is.
You can see the queen here. I’ve often wished I could see the queen during an inspection but I never have. Today Stephen brought the frame over to me so that I could see her. It was so neat to watch her for a moment.
It was very encouraging to see how well this hive is doing. Hopefully we’ll be able to harvest some honey this year!
Hey, Can you give me some good sites that would help me explain the honey making process to my kids? Malakai asked me how bees made honey and I had to tell him I had NO idea!
Thanks! And I hope you get lots and lots of honey this year!
Faith