Inside the hives

We got our bee suits in the mail. After watching our bee inspector friend open a few of his hives, I don't think I would want to risk opening a hive without some kind of protection. Walking around the hives on a daily basis is a very different story than invading their territory.

This was our first inspection....about 2 weeks ago. The books say you should open and inspect your hives every week to 10 days. We did our two back yard hives this day and it took over an hour. I still haven't been stung (knocking on wood), but Cory must have squished a bee by mistake while we were putting the hive back together and one of them got his bottom lip that was pressed against the face netting. They were pretty pissed after that...and I am not as anxious to get in there and disturb them again as I used to be. :) Once we had walked away from the hives and I was getting ready to unzip Cory from his suit, I saw probably more than 100 stingers buried in his suit around his head and face.

I am completely amazed at the amount of work the bees have done. The larger swarm (the first swarm that chose our empty hive to live in) has created full comb in over half of the hive. The bees we ordered were about half in number and they have created about 8 combs.

You can see in the top picture the partial combs that are still being worked on and then, in the second picture, a full comb. You can see the honey and the baby bees.
I can see the benefits of the bees in our yard. All the fruit trees have double the fruit they had last year.

When the weather was just starting to get nice a few weeks ago, I noticed that the bees took over all the hummingbird feeders in the yard. If a hummingbird was brave enough to come up for a drink, the bees would literally chase it away. I watched this time and time again. I was at a loss for what to do since we really love watching the hummingbirds in the yard. Luckily it resolved itself. There must be enough plants in flower now because the hummingbird feeders have been abandoned by the bees and are happily free for hummingbird use once again. :)

I was out watering today and noticed a bee carrying another bee away from the hive. It was struggling and flying inches at a time with its heavy load. I watched it carry its burden and finally leave a dead bee under a pumpkin leaf in the little garden bed close to the hives. The struggling bee flew away...its task complete. I had read about bees keeping the hive clean by discarding dead bees away from the hive, but it was very interesting to witness it today.

Everyone says, with a smile, that they know what they're getting from us for Christmas this year. I say...we haven't quite gotten that far yet, but I can tell what everyone WANTS for Christmas. :)

Love and Namaste