Just a quick note about today's inspection. The girls of Sweet BEEzus have filled the two main supers with brood and stored sugar-syrup, so it was time to remove the feeder. I added a shallow super on top and hope that they'll make some honey by fall.
Apollo has made more progress in the top super and I'm optimistic that I'll be able to harvest some honey there later this summer. The Rocky girls were angry when I took off the inner cover today, a sure sign that they're guarding some major honey stores. Sure enough, most of the middle frames are capped and they're starting to fill in the frames on either end of the box. Hopefully that means a harvest in a couple of weeks.
Also, Apollo and Rocky are "bearding" in this hot weather. Last year, I freaked out the first time I saw this behavior. This year, it's just normal.
Is there a reason that one hive is painted white and the other isn't??
ReplyDeleteWell, yes. The unpainted hive is home to the bees that swarmed last year. I was unprepared for collecting a swarm and didn't have a new hive box on hand when it happened. The poor bees had to stay in a makeshift cardboard hive that was on the verge of collapse while I anxiously waited for the new box to arrive. When it did finally arrive, there was no time to paint it — I loaded the bees in as fast as I could. I was just lucky they survived the whole ordeal!
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