more syrup please...

The girls are loving the syrup! On Sunday I put on a pint jar of sugar syrup. Monday night I put on a pint and a 26oz jar. Tonight I check and they were both empty. So I filled both of them. Went back in the house and made some more. We'll see what tomorrow holds.

making syrup

The head bee man Ken ( MA Bee Inspector) stopped by to check our hive. The hive is weak but growing. BUT with all this nasty weather and small number of bees, they have been eating what syrup and nectar they had stored. There is nothing left. No food for babies. No food...no wax...no drawing out empty frames. So we have to start feeding sugar syrup immediately. I had a pint left from earlier this spring. So we put a jar on right away. I made more syrup and will have to keep a check on the jar. Ken said start feeding and they'll start drawing out that comb on those empty frames giving the queen more room to lay her eggs. So glad Ken stopped by,(thank you Ken) we never gave it a thought to start feeding again being inexperienced. Many other beekeepers have already started feeding their hives.

here comes the sun....

Finally! Some sun! Our girls are doing well. Many more have hatched. The queen is still working. Many more eggs have been layed and larvae in all stages. Lots of brood! YES! Alot more activity at the entrance, coming in with lots of pollen! Now we wait for the new bees to start drawing out the comb on those last few frames. Then we can put on the second brood box. Makes me very happy!
Know what else makes me happy? My new car...the Nissan Cube! Totally awesome. Very luxurious! And trusty assistant bought me new fancy hubcaps for my 'new rig'.

assistant in training

new bees!

We have babies! Here is our lovely Queen... she is on the far left. See how her body is longer than the others. Now in the other photo towards the bottom, the bees that are very light in color are the newly hatched bees. The first video shows the queen, she's the largest walking in the center of the screen. Now the other video is blurry, again. After we check on the girls, the weather turned cool and rainy. Sunday wasn't any better. I will try to get a better video next time. But, if you watch carefully towards the center right you will see a new bee hatching. The one of the bees that keeps stepping on her is also a newly hatched bee. Click on the photos to enlarge them.

brood capped over

The girls have capped the larvae. There are more eggs and larvae. Now we wait. Maybe Wed night if the weather is good we can check and see if any of the brood are hatching. We'll have new girls soon. The photo above right is the girls making a bridge between frames when we took out another frame. I need more practice with the videos. Might have to get a tri-pod.

in search of honey bees

These are some of the flowers on my walk route. There are large patches of them. Not a single honey bee to be found. I only saw bumble bees in the rhododendron bush.