Beehive visit 4, 15 June 2015

Well, a late entry on another visit.

Made my way out on Monday at a  nice 22 degrees, at around 6 pm and a brilliant blue sky. Love the alberta weather.

Found a little activity at the hive, and opened it up as one is want to do.

And as you can see the middle four frames are well populated, as is the first one and the sixth one getting built on. Nice! Not quite the seven I'd hoped for but I'd brought the second brood box and the frames to make it a 2 story condo for them regardless.

They had been busy little bees, collecting nectar (until its condensed enough to cap, its nectar, not honey)

These images should blow up really nicely as they were taken with my 'good' camera..which has the same amount of megapixel as my phone. Which says someting about its age. I still prefer it though, I can see the practicality of the phone..I'm less likely to lose the camera though as its bigger.

I found some tiny eggs, proof the Queen is there but HRH is still little Miss Shy.
I did find worker bees and covered brood. Here's a bee cleaning out a cell and some brood, covered with the tan caps.

Can you spot the Queen on this one? I couldn't. But I hunted for her and I hunted....

But to me it looks like one of those thousand pieces puzzles...or it could be.

One of the problems with the hive is that hte bees by nature want to build everywhere, not necessarily in the straight lines we want 'em to. The excess comb is called burr comb.

Here's a picture of some burr comb.

Now that's just the start of it, it gets a whole lot more packed in and dense. The easiest way to deal with it is diligently scrape it off before they build more and start laying brood in it, or storing honey. It just sticks the stuff together anyway so regretfully their hard work has to go.

This is a frame they are just starting to build up from the pre supplied, wax dipped board.

 The little coloured dots are a combination pollen and nectar, which gives them that colour as they fill the cells

If you zoom in on this little girl you can see how fuzzy they actually are. I'm always amazed when people confuse jellow jackets and bees. Bees are fuzzy! or have fuzzy parts.

I just really loved the colour gradients on this picture.


There is something very relaxing about spending an hour in the sun talking to bees. They have been so gentle so far its not even funny, Yes they sometimes walk over your jacket, but while I've been wearing my veil/jacket, I haven't felt the need to. I'm debating just getting a plain veil to wear instead, it'd be lighter. Alberta summers get hot!

And I kind of like being in closer touch almost with them.

There is an almost alien beauty about them, and they work so diligently and industriously. And watching you.

See where they're hanging on to each other? Typically they do that when they are trying to create wax, or working together. They have almost-barbed legs, almost jagged bits on them that help them hold on to each other.

And I'll leave you with this picture, becuase I can

I love the way the sun glints off the bee in the centre's wings if you zoom in! And if you look really close you can see the little barbs around her toes.

Closed up the hive after putting the second story on it, and next visit will tell!