Sunday, May 15, 2011

Bee Check


The bees are starting to outgrow their two-deep hive, so today we added a third box for them. 


 Above, you can see the box full of empty frames.  We added it to the top of our existing hive.


While we were in the bee yard, we took a look at how the girls are doing.  It is so nice to see that they are successfully raising a new generation.  Look closely in the picture below to see the C-shaped larvae in the comb cells. The workers feed the larvae and eventually cap the cells when the larvae stop eating.  What emerge just a few days later are honeybees, ready to work.

2 comments:

  1. That is really cool! Do the bee frames some pre-honeycombed so the bees can get right to the important part--making the honey?

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  2. The frames we use have a plastic foundation. The bees build comb on the foundation, so it does take them some time to build everything. We don't expect to get any honey until next summer.

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