• bees,  learning

    bees with balls

    It looks like my queens have decided to grow some drones. See the capped cells that bulge out? Those will be male bees. The queen makes the decision to lay a male or female, usually based on the diameter of the cell. Once she’s made her decision, she makes it happen by either fertilizing the egg for a female bee, or leaving the egg unfertilized for a male bee. She can do this because she has a special sac inside her for storing the sperm. For each egg laid, she first measures the cell with her antennae, then turns around and backs up into the cell to lay the egg…

  • bees,  learning

    look out world

    Here she comes! Can you see the worker bee chewing her way out of the cell that she pupated in? Right near the middle of the picture. This is her first job as a fully developed bee. She is 21 days old, and full grown. She started as an egg, fertilized and laid by the queen in the cell. She developed for about 3 days in the egg before she hatched and other workers started feeding her. She is now a larva – looks like a little white grub – and very hungry. She eats until she’s fully grown, about 6 days, then the workers seal the cell with wax.…

  • bees,  queen bee

    elusive

    Every time I open my hives, I am on the lookout for my queens. It’s a good idea to know where they are, so they are not accidentally misplaced or incapacitated. However, for some reason the queen in my second hive seems to see me coming and vanish. I haven’t seen her since I installed the bees – that’s about a month. I know she’s there, I see the proof: there are always wee eggs in the comb, so I know she’s been there within 2 or 3 days. This hive is also my stronger hive, with more bees and more frames filled with brood and honey. They’re also the…

  • bees,  queen bee

    marked

    Can you find the queen? She’s a bit hidden, but you can tell which one she is. Here’s a better picture:She’s marked for easy identification purposes. It’s always a good thing to make sure you know that your queen is in the hive and well, not lost or squished. I’m not sure what this one was doing way over here on a pile of capped honey – maybe trying to hide from me, who knows. Usually she can be found on empty comb laying eggs, with workers bringing her food to eat, grooming her, and carrying away her poo. .

  • bees,  learning

    what the heck

    To my Dear Bees: Why would you build comb and fill it with honey in the squishy little space between the top of the frames and the inner cover, when you have more than two empty frames yet to fill in your hive?

  • bees,  swarm

    friends

    Some of the ladies came to visit me as I was watching the swarm settle into their new home. They hung around for a bit, let me take some pictures, then flew off to see what was going on with everybody else. Very docile. We thought the bees might be on edge, given the cloudy conditions and pending thundershowers, but they were fine. It was a busy buzz, not an angry buzz. Yes, there’s a difference. If I have a pressure headache, I will not go anywhere near my hives. Bees feel it too, and get a bit cranky. Just like me..

  • bees,  swarm

    a new home

    Continuing the saga of the swarm: it didn’t take long – about a few minutes – for the bees to head down into the hive box between the frames. They’re exploring the possibility of this new place, probably walking all around the box to measure it and figure out if it will work for them to live in. Meanwhile, back at the branch, some bees are still trying to cluster, not quite sure what just happened: They’ll eventually figure it out by following the pheromone that the queen releases – they’ll find her by smell and join their sisters in setting up house..

  • bees,  swarm

    beautiful bees

    I’m so glad I was able to go see the swarm yesterday. There’s something wildly different about seeing bees up close without the familiar constraints of the hive box. Wow are they gorgeous. A solid mass of bees, hanging from a branch. They didn’t mind me poking around with my camera, inches away from their cluster. They were too focussed on taking care of the queen and trying to find a new home..

  • bees,  beeyard,  neat tricks,  swarm

    swarm capture

    Today turned out to be pretty exciting after all. Around 10:30 I received a phone call from Michelle, Ken’s wife, asking if I wanted to come help capture a swarm. I would say I didn’t do much ‘helping’ – but it was amazing to be there. Here you see Steven sizing up the situation. He’s considering his options for capture. He’s placed a hive box under the swarm on the ground, and now the options for getting them into the box are being pondered. It didn’t take long – I had the camera ready to show the process, but by the time I took the picture it was over: He…

  • bees,  beeyard,  learning,  neat tricks

    ouchie

    Somebody got stung on Monday when we were out inspecting the bees. The bee had crawled up her sleeve and found it a bit too claustrophobic and threatening, so she ended up with a sting. No big deal, that’s what the pennies in my pocket are for..