Stung! (#2)

Another Beautiful day. Temps in the upper eighties, high bright sun, mild breeze, speckled clouds, and buzzing bees.

This full frame of nectar is being capped as honey. We did not get to look at all the frames in the top box. There were several helpers for today's inspection and the crowd may have made the bees uncomfortable. Hailey got stung on her finger and we cut the inspection short. Obviously the bees were agitated. Some of the bees from this frame were brushed off and that may have made them defensive. We are going to try to keep the observers, and the helpers, to just a few. Also, we will try to keep the bees in the boxes, with the lid on, as much as possible during the inspections.

The bees are doing a beautiful job. We were only able to see half of the top box frames, but there was only the outside of the outermost frame that was not filled out with comb yet. We counted five frames that had comb being built out in the lower brood box.

We replaced the quart sized entrance feeder, and added a pint size feeder. There were no signs of any pollen patty in the hive, so we added a new one. Hopefully, they will make it last until next week.

I did find one mite a few days ago. Today I saw no signs and decided not to do a sugar shake. It has been five weeks since the last powdered sugar treatment and I have only seen one mite. I believe they will be okay for a while.

About the beetles, I have not seen any sign of beetles in or around the hive since Deloris left. There was a wave of flies that came through a few days ago and nearly covered the outside of the hive. The bees seemed to be unaffected by the flies. But it got me thinking. They came and went just as the beetles came and went. I can't seem to find any articles on hive beetles that discuss a seasonal trait, or any migratory behavior of the beetles. Perhaps beetles tend to be more of a problem in apiaries where there are dozens, or thousands, of hives to propagate. Our one little backyard hive is doing great without them.

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