on our way

well, we are on our way.  checked the bees today (day 14).  i have one super per  hive.  each super was about 90 per cent full of nectar, and the bees were starting to cap off at the tops of the frames.  had the other supers stored with moth crystals to keep wax moths and hive beetles out, so i unpacked 3 and set them out to freshen up before i put them on tomorrow.  

long live the queen(s)!!

turns out i DID kill the queen. all was not lost, however, thanks to Laney! he GRACIOUSLY gave me another queen. i went over to his house and helped him get into his hives, find her majesty, mark her, cage her and then brought her home. her cage is a little plastic sleeve with a tube packed with a paste made out of powdered sugar. there's enough food there to last her 2 or 3 days...long enough for the bees to get used to her pheromone and help her eat her way out. after i placed her cage in between a couple of frames, the bees immediately swarmed all over her! i'm not sure if they were glad to see her or trying to get rid of the "intruder"...

i checked on her on day 3. she was out of the cage and had been accepted by the other bees. i found her easily and REJOICED!

the boys decided to name the queens so we spent some time researching italian queens throughout history. wil tyler chose "Polyxena Christina" for his queen's name, andrew reed chose "Agnes", and we jointly decided on "Esther" for the third girl's name. Granted, Esther was hebrew, not italian, but she DID save her people.

*****

fed the bees for about a week or so. they are young hives with lots of brood, but not lots of foragers yet, so the sugar water gave them a little boost. i need to do a little more research on the life cycle and commit the numbers to memory...you know how my brain and numbers get along...

*****

had a good time with laney and one of his hives. his queen has such a pretty laying pattern. he jokes about having his bees well-trained. apparently he also tutors them in artistic arrangements as well. the darker crescent shaped area is capped brood. the areas in the corners of the frame hold nectar and pollen that the workers use to feed the brood. he is trying a new "nectar management system" that he has been reading about lately. still in the experimental stages, but i will let you know what his results are.

*****

it's so tempting to get in the hives whenever i t strikes my fancy, just to watch and see what they are doing...but i am "listening to advice and accepting instruction" with the hopes that "in the end i will become wise" - that is to say that i DON'T get in the hives whenever i feel like it. i'm trying to stick to a 10-15 day schedule.

The season begins...

So, a new year, a new adventure, and we are off to a good start with LOTS of help from Laney.  We brought the bees home late Saturday night.  Laney came over Monday and spent the morning inspecting, teaching and working.  We have 3 hives.  Were able to identify all three queens (though I may have accidentally committed a royal murder), capped brood and larvae in different stages.  Laney found eggs, but I never did find any...a bee egg looks like a little grain of rice.

This year our main focus will be to keep the bees healthy and learn, learn, learn.  Honey will be a sweet but secondary reward to our efforts. 

This was the first time for either of the boys to actually get in the hives, and it came with a price for Andrew.  He got stung for the first time.  The sting hurt, but not as much as the feeling of betrayal!  He was doing everything right and that girl "just decided to sting" him!  After the pain had subsided a bit, he said:

"Mommy, you know I'm rather glad I got stung, because it helped me to get a little better acquainted with the bees."  

What a trooper!!

Next step is to get into the third hive today and see if I can hopefully find the queen again, recovered and active.