Today was perfect for checking the hives. It was quite a well attended event with all of our NH family (except our white water loving son) here to see the bees. I went out early today and practiced the various steps to try and get it right. Overall, tho' rather nervous opening my first hive as the "beekeeper", it was a fantastic experience!
The bees proved they definitely know what they're doing. Both queens were released and laying eggs. The workers were drawing out comb and packing away pollen. Both hives were extremely relaxed with hardly any smoke needed for the 2nd hive. In the photos above, you can see 1 day old eggs in some of the cells centrally and some pollen and nectar being stored in the bottom right on the black Pierco frame. The 2nd picture is the queen in hive 2. Click on the photos to enlarge.
Hive notes:
The bees in Hive one are drawing significantly more comb and storing more pollen. The central 4 frames have bees drawing comb. Hive 1 has a greater numbers of bees and the pollen patty is approximately 1/2 eaten. I never found the queen but the eggs tell me she is there.
Hive 2 is active, the queen is laying eggs but the bees have drawn less comb and hardly touched the pollen patty. They have drawn a lot of comb on the bottom of the hive top feeder.
I used confectioner's sugar on hive one and forgot to apply it to hive 2. I placed the remains of both pollen patties in the respective hives and closed them up. They immediately went back to normal operation and seem quite relaxed and content. Just like me now that I know we're off and running.
No comments:
Post a Comment