Checking the 2nd hive
Alison smoking the hive
We sent the girls off to school this morning and headed out to Yashresh to check on the new hive I installed last night. We got the smoker going, gave the bees a healthy dose of smoke and opened the roof and crown board. We pulled frames and started inspecting the bees. As we gain confidence and knowledge of what to look for, we spend more time observing how the bees behave and what they are up to. I brought my camera and took some close ups of the bees.
We pulled a frame and started looking for the queen. Alison spotted her, moving to the edge of the frame, moving quickly to the other side. There is a method of pulling a frame, then turning it 90 degrees while holding it in the same hands, then twisting the frame to the other side, holding the corners from the bottom corners instead of the top.
Queen among workers
When we got to the second frame, Alison spotted the queen. Alison has this unbelievable ability to spot living things wherever she is. We can be barreling down a highway (in Canada) at 100 km/h and Alison will say “hey, look at the deer”. Again today, she said “there she is” except since she was holding the frame with both hands and was unable to point to her. 
Some people mark the queen with Whiteout or some sort of marker. We left her alone but will look into the various methods of marking queens. The people who do mark queens, use colors to represent the year. She moves quickly and must know her importance because when we look for her she always tries to skirt around to the back of the frame.
Bees build their hives from the middle frame outwards. You can encourage them to fill out frames by taking empty frames and moving them 2nd from the outside. We did this and then placed the feeder box on top. 
The feeder box is filled with sugar water and gives them something extra so that they will have the extra energy these days, when they have to build their comb.
We also pulled some of the new frames with clean foundation. We were amazed at how fast they started building up the comb on the new frames. You could see the cells being formed and they were only exposed to these new frames for about 12 hours. These guys work fast.
Alison inspecting a new frame
May 15, 2009 2:09 pm