Our First Inspection!

Today is the day! I couldn't wait to poke my head inside the hive! It had been over a week since I had been able to check on them. You should generally give your queen a week or so after she's released to start making baby bees. And laying eggs she did! By the way, I have named her Queen Victoria as she was the longest reigning English queen in history. Here's hoping our Victoria has a long productive reign in our hive. 

My main objective in this inspection was to find Victoria or to find eggs. I did not see her, but I saw plenty of her handy work. When I opened the hive, I noticed some burr comb being built under the inner cover so I shaved it off with my hive tool. It had bright orange pollen pieces on it. Signs the foragers were busy bringing home the bacon.

Notice the upper right corner of the blade has the pollen on it. The bees will eat that wax and produce it for another time. Not to worry. They're very efficient.

I pulled out my first frame and noticed lots of comb being built. When I first installed the bees, I didn't have the frames at the proper spacing so they built some comb a little thicker in the spot at the bottom. I'm holding the frame upside down so I'm handling the top of the frame. They will work it out, though. Did I mention they were efficient?

Look at all of those happy girls working hard! They had filled some of the cells with nectar as this wasn't much of a brood frame. Moving through the frames, I pulled out a center frame hoping to find Victoria busy at work. Sadly, I didn't see her, BUT, she's been very busy this past week. I saw lots of eggs and larvae in many stages, plus some capped brood as well.

Here is a close up of some of the cells and bees. You can see the larvae in different stages of life!

Isn't that amazing?? Nurse bees are busy feeding them and making sure everything is in order before those cells are capped. I couldn't be happier with what I saw inside the hive. Seeing Victoria would've made my day but knowing she is inside and working hard to grow her colony will do just fine.

They had drunk nearly 3 quarts of the 4 quarts of syrup I gave them so I'll be making more "bee juice" for them. Friday will be in the 70's so I will bring new bee juice for them then. The next couple of days will be cold and rainy so I'll just let them bee 😉 See what I did there?

Oh! One of the coolest parts of my day was when I was helping Tim with his hives. I watched a baby drone emerge from his cell! It was the coolest thing ever! My gloves would not allow for my iPhone to work so I wasn't able to document that, but it truly was amazing to see! If I get lucky enough to see that while in my own hive, I'll be sure to get some pics or maybe even video.

Until next time, bee kind. 🐝