+17 Days: 2nd Hive Inspection

We pounded out the miles coming home from vacation . .  got through the bottleneck south of Atlanta (Hamton/McDonough area) relatively unscathed and arrived home about 4:30 pm. I was opening the first hive about 5:15.

I let my son puff some smoke at the entrance and opened hive #1 (Busy Bee). Much to my regret, the bees had started to build and fill comb that was in the 3 inch riser that housed the ziploc feeder. The 1 gallon ziploc was completely empty.

Here is what I saw: They had started to build comb on top of the frames

 I smoked a few more times, and looked down on the frames. It's a 10 frame super--on both sides the two outside frames were not really even touched. I was able to move the frames with relative ease (not too much propolis yet). I worked towards the inner frames that were built out very well.

I was surprised at the weight of each frame. You have to wonder how many trips it must have taken to work towards that combined weight.

Below, you see capped honey on top, a ring of pollen, nectar--and in the middle, the capped larva.

Although a little blurry, you can see a better view of the capped brood, at 6 o'clock, you can see some fat white larvae. The uncapped cells were filled, but with nectar/sugar?

A good view of the queen

Another very heavy frame with capped honey (white), pollen (black, blue, dark yellow, orange) and mostly capped brood in the middle.

As mentioned in a previous post, I scraped off all of the comb so the kids could take to school.

Now, it was Hive #2: Big Bee

We popped the top off the second hive and they did not build very much burr comb. I noticed this hive was a little weaker than the previous one. It only had about 5-6 frames that were being worked on where the other had a full six (maybe a little on the 7th). They were drawing it out nicely.

Again, I was surprised at how heavy the frames were. It was very interesting to see the different colors of the pollen. I had no idea the range of colors. I have always thought of yellow. I will look into what colors would generate these colors.

This was interesting since it showed all of the different colors:

Below, you can see the well defined areas (if a little lopsided)

The reverse side of above:

I also got stung while carrying the above frame over to show to my wife. I was fairly certain this one was queenless, so as I was getting a better grip on the frame to show her, I must have squashed a bee . . . she did not like and gave me a quick sting. This caused the following chain reaction: As I got stung, I instinctively flinched and removed my hand from supporting the frame which began to swing via gravity. I then quickly lowered the frame in case I lost my grip with the other hand, and it sort of banged on the ground . .  ejecting all of the bees onto the leafy pinestraw area.

My pride wincing from my first sting and realizing the queen could possibly be on the ground, I knelt down and looked at each bee and made sure the queen was not on this frame. My fears were alleviated when I found her on another frame.

Here is what I learned on the +19 Day 2nd Inspection:

•  Amazing how heavy the frames are getting (imagine how many trips)
• One hive doing better
• I used generous amounts of smoke
• Built comb in all the wrong places
• Smoke was bad for me too
• Got stung for first time
• Neighbors asked about the bees
• Still not using my water source (someone suggested a little salt & sugar to attract)
• Big Bee  5-6 frames drawn, 1.5 gallons syrup so far
• Busy Bee 7 frames drawn, 1.25 gallons syrup so far
• Comb on Big Bee not gone--need to retrieve
• Need more syrup (I only added quart bags)

Thoughts for follow-up:

1. What different colors of pollen represent
2. How to get bees more attracted to my water source

Eddie O.