Photo Shoot

These queens turned out to be very photogenic. We used cardboard in the smoker and it made a huge difference. The cardboard was easier to light, and made more consistent smoke. Temps in the 70's and mild winds. Once again there was a ton of activity in and out of the hive.

 Notice in this shot, how much bigger my finger is than bees. Just Kidding.

 You can see Delores, lots of eggs, pollen cells, and jelly filled brood cells. There is even a bee there delivering a fresh load of pollen. Too bad I didn't have a paint pen to mark her with.

 TRAGEDY STRIKES!!! I dropped the frame with the queen on it. I quickly grabbed the smoker and smoked the frame. Then I carefully picked up the frame. Delores was fine. She stayed on the frame but she was certainly not happy. What a bonehead rookie mistake. We closed up this hive as quickly as possible. Ashlyn wasn't supposed to get a picture of this but I guess it falls into the "challenges of keeping bees" category. Lesson learned.

Here is Doris. She has lots and lots of eggs. I held on to this frame with two hands and so we had more time to inspect the work they were doing. We got to see capped brood cells and developing larvae that were not in the picture. There will be lots of new bees from this hive in a few weeks.

In Doris' hive, we found a piece of burr comb built out from one of the frames. We cut that chunk out and spaced out the frames a little better so they didn't build out again. I noticed later that the burr comb actually had eggs in it. The bees had not begun filling these egg cells with jelly yet. Its is a very interesting find.

Thankfully, no stings; Even with all the angry bees. Now I just hope they don't give up on me and swarm because they don't like being dropped.

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