Week 3, third hive check

On Tuesday, May 3, I did my third hive check. My friend Deb Young joined me in the bee yard taking pictures as I dove in. I was excited to show her the bees in addition to seeing the changes from the previous week.

 

Wow, Hive 2 is beginning to crank! Below is a frame that is full of capped brood. Capped brood looks leathery whereas capped honey is white. You can see capped honey along the top. The gestation period for a worker bee is 21 days. So from this point forward all the new bees from the brood nest I’ve seen at one developmental stage or another prior to hatching.

We also saw Hive 2’s queen bee. As you can see, she’s been very busy. Queen bees are larger than the worker bees, are taller and have longer abdomens. Queens can lay anywhere from 1000-1500 EGGS A DAY!

As bee days go, it wasn’t a great day to go into the hive. The weather was cool, overcast and breezy. Bees don’t like this kind of weather and were not as docile. As it was, I received my fifth sting and decided to don my gloves to finish the day’s inspection. So here’s my latest challenge: I’m not one who freaks out around flying insects, but after recently being stung several times I’m finding myself hypersensitive to anything that alights on my skin. I’m not freaking out, but will be glad to get back to not caring!

 
Hive 1 is cranking! All but the outside frames have been drawn out with honeycomb and the frames are chock full of brood, pollen and honey. I have added a second deep super box on top which they will now expand in to. All the honey in the two deep supers belong to the bees which they will need to winter over with. When the frames in the second box are drawn out and full of brood, pollen and honey I will then add a medium honey super on top. This is where the honey I get will be stored! Honey supers continue to be added during the honey flow as they fill up.

Common knowledge says that first year beekeepers won’t get much honey, if any. That’s because the queen can’t lay eggs until the comb has been drawn out. Next year the hive population will be much larger when the honey flow starts which translates to more bees bringing in more nectar to be made into more honey!

 

 

Hive 1 continues to have mold on the front part of the bottom board. I asked my mentor, but he wasn’t sure. Will have to investigate futher.

Hive 2 Stats
Box 1
F1 –F5   Eggs + larva
F6    Saw queen
F7 –F10   Approximately 85% honey comb on south side of frame

Saw larva in all stages

Hive 1 Stats
Box 1
F1
F2
F3
F4
F5
F6   Solid capped brood, both sides of frame
F7
F8   100% drawn out with brood, nectar, honey + larva
F9    90% drawn out on south side 5% on north side
F10   Just starting to draw out comb

Did not see queen
Saw eggs
Saw larva in all stages
Saw lots of capped brood, pollen and honey
All but the outside frames have been drawn out with comb