Capped Brood!

Today was an eventful hive-observation day. It was interesting to watch one of the worker bees who had just come back from the "field" with massive pollen sacks (orange pollen) finding just the right cell in which to unload. The worker, much like the queen, lowers her thorax into a particular cell and begins to rub her legs to remove the pollen. This was about the same time one certain girl didn't appreciate my face on the glass and came right after me! Pretty nasty sting; it swelled up a little and is still tender to the touch almost 10 hours later - worst sting so far.

Later this evening, my friends Micah and James had their maiden bee voyage. I thought that I would go in and make some close up observations of the comb (with my smoker - wow, does that thing work well!) I am leaving the center most combs alone, but chose to lift one in the back - and there they were - LARVAE! HOW COOL!!! Lots of larvae at different stages of development- including capped. The brood pattern seems to be VERY healthy, as the queen didn't miss one single cell on this particular hand-sized comb. What was most surprising was to find brood on this one...I thought they would be more centralized in the hive. Through the observation windows I have seen a few capped brood cells on the center combs; however, since everything is so interconnected in the middle, I am leaving it well enough alone.

Thanks to the smoker, I was able to move enough bees out of the way to remove my "vent board" which made the entire lid an unwanted sheltered entrance. Now the only way into the hive is the correct way through the front. My only concern now is that the bees will attach the lid ... or they will continue the comb onto the lid - since that one bar still can't be inserted due to my delay in queen cage removal.

This is a before-and-after shot of the comb closest to the entrance. The top photo (taken today) and the lower (taken a week ago)...although they are not at the same angle, you can also see the next comb has filled out.

Pollen Sacks A Plenty

 When I swung by the hive during my lunch break, there tons of bees coming back with huge quantities of pollen - very cool to see. You can't miss the "saddle-bags" of pollen on the rear-legs! This pollen is on the yellow side; however, there was also a bright orange variety - the kind shown in last evenings photograph. Any ideas as to what that might be?

Oops...

Well my romanticized view of opening the hive presented me with many difficulties. As you can see from the image, the queen cage was left in the hive too long and the bees have built comb in the gap. This means that (unless I move all the combs around) I will not be able to place the last top-bar in the hive without destroying the principle combs. Also, I wanted to be careful not to harm the queen and when I noticed that many of the bars were "glued" together and possibly running at a slight diagonal across the hive; I decided to let sleeping dogs lie; the bees are building up the hive incredibly well and I DO NOT WANT TO MESS IT UP. When the hive doubles in size, I plan on going back in do determine exactly how the combs have attached. This will allow the queen have more places to seek refuge.

Since there is the gap, there are numerous bees that hang out on top of the bars! Crud... and as a result I have to rest the lid on a small slab of wood - to harm as few bees as possible. Sadly, when I placed the lid on I heard the sad little crunch of bees... I will need to re-design the hive top on my next version of the hive.

Propolis on top-bar.

POLLEN & NECTAR! Oh my!!!

This afternoon I invited my teaching co-hort Dawn F. to see the hive, I craned my neck to look at the front most comb and saw golden-orange pollen. Although my original shot was taken on a blackberry, I was convinced I could take a better shot - sorry bees for the flash.

The inner-most comb from what I can see are clear and most likely the brood comb.

I also saw the QUEEN laying eggs today! Top-bar hives (with windows) are so much better for the bees and the beekeeper. It was amazing to peer through the glass and watch the nurse bees turn to the queen as she made her way across the comb, dipping her thorax into various cells.

After returning from Cleveland this afternoon, I swung by the hive before picking up Carmen. The comb is getting significantly bigger - especially the four center most combs seen in the photo. Tomorrow is the expected delivery date for my bee-hood and gloves. I need to get inside to take out the pollen substitute patty (that the bees are not eating) and the queen cage. I just hope they haven't attached their comb to this...but they probably have :).

The substitute patty has disappointed me; I am not sure if there is enough pollen outside the hive that they are not interested or the recipe I found was not a winner. Additionally, the sugar syrup I had outside the hive has not attracted anything but ants... I'm assuming they just didn't need it; however, more experimentation is needed. It currently contains soy flour and brewer's yeast - two high-protein supplements, and is held together with sugar syrup.

Waggle Dance Sighting

On the left most comb (near the front of the hive) I witnessed the Waggle Dance of a honeybee! For those not familiar, it is the honeybee's method for communicating the location of nectar/pollen outside the hive to the members inside. Vertical (on the comb) is the placement of the sun, and the angle at which they do their vibrating figue-eight pattern shares the location of the nourishment. Please visit this YouTube link for a 55 second video explaination - very cool.

http://biodidac.bio.uottawa.ca/Thumbnails/showimage.cfm?File_name=Hyme009b&File_type=gif

Wahoo!

Today the temperature is supposed to reach the upper 70's, and the bees are looking for pollen and nectar outside the hive in full force. With so many bees searching for nourishment for the hive, I am able to see MORE COMB! The photos aren't great; however, there are three well developed pure white comb (not yet with brood - that I can see), and about 2 more in the process. The natural comb is quite wide even with our 1 3/8 inch top-bars.

More Comb is a comin'

Although this video was taken yesterday, the rain and cool weather has continued and kept the bees in the hive - feverishly building comb. I opened the viewing window to see glimpses of 3 or 4 more sheets of comb being constructed. Remember these are ALL NATURAL - no Langstroth frames 'round these parts!

This is what a bee looks like, after the sting. As you can see the honeybee's venom sack and intestines get ripped out after the stinger has been inserted into skin. Who got stung you ask... this guy! This bee was telling me to not take the video below :)

Day 4

On Wednesday, May 12th, I picked my 3 pound package of Italian Honeybees from Waldo, OH. Installing them in the top-bar hive my dad and I designed and built was a breeze, not one sting! Our design has two panels on the side which expose two windows into the hive; this is a fantastic way to observe the natural hive. This design uses no frames, allowing the honeybees to design the size and shape of the comb to the hive's specifications. It is incredible to see this process taking place; however, the fact of the matter is just this afternoon did we notice the pure white comb! We just thought they were surrounding the queen (who, yesterday, was still in her cage). Stupid me forgot to unplug the cork stopper at the end of the queen cage...so I had to correct that yesterday evening.
Around four o-clock each day the hive is in a flurry of activity - I assume from the heat of the day. The majority of bees are in the hive surrounding the one panel of comb (we can see).