This morning I checked the bees to see if the queen is producing brood. Yes, she is as you can see below. These were package bees I have had them now 16 days, it won't be long before the first brood hatches.
Here on the upper right you can see some of the food stores, I think it is the syrup I have been feeding them.
I'd liked to have seen less open cells here. Not sure if these brood have just been laid and the holes will fill in or not.
On the upper right you can see where I did not push the frames close together on my last inspection and the bees have filled in some of that space. On the frames bottom corners they have eaten away some of the wax, guessing that is normal.
More open cells, not good, we'll have to see if this queen can cut the mustard.
Here are some of the round carrots (Tonda di Parigi Carrots) we planted early this spring. They grew quicker than any carrots we have tried and they are very tasty too.
Sometimes the weeds don't get pulled in out garden beds. The birds must have planted this in the front flower bed, it is Yellow Moth Mullein, Verbascum blattaria. When I get home it has no flowers, in the morning it opens up, perhaps at night too.
Other items, we had a Eastern Painted Turtle about to lay eggs in the garden. I broke the rule of nature photography and moved in with the camera and took photos. She left the site without laying her eggs. A reminder we must observe and record, never interfere.
Last thing you get a kick out of this. Meg's sister lives in Chapel Hill, right on the bus route in town. Tonight she had a deer giving birth in her tiny backyard!
14 comments:
Randy, sure hope your bees do well; they are amazing creatures. We purchased some honey recently from a lady who was going out of business. I wanted to get a few hives, but my DH (and the lady) convinced me otherwise... and I'd also like to have some chickens... (laughing) I keep running out of day.
Go Queen! I am cheering her on! This beekeeping info is so interesting.
I like that Mullein, what a pretty bloom.
Randy, honestly, I wouldn't worry about that brood pattern. It looks good to me. Figuring they're new, new hive, new frames, looks great. You'll have more holes in the brood if your weather is cool/unsettled, and that will shift over the summer. They have to be sure of having enough empty cells for the heater bees to keep the brood at the right temp. Overall, you have nice wide swaths of flat worker brood, with relatively few holes. A truly spotty brood pattern is really obvious, and to me, you have nothing to worry about. Yay bees!
Wow, that's exciting! What fun to try something new like bee-keeping. You are brave! And you'll have your own fresh honey. Cheers!
Randy! You are amazing. I'm going to watch your progress, but I'm unfortunately? not going to do this! But that's okay... there are honey raisers and honey eaters and honey do-ers! ;-)
The yellow Verbascum is lovely. I hope the queen works out and the hive produces lots of honey.
Those bees are amazing!
Great bee hots. My fist hive will be 2 months on the 15th of June. Will have to give it a photo shoot and post.
Very interesting! You're invited to link this post to my Friday Creature Feature (held the first Friday of every month).
You're already harvesting! So impressed. I will have to look for those carrots next year.
Love your bees!
The bees look like they are very content and setting up housekeeping nicely. What an amazing process, glad you are keeping us informed of each new development.
...sooo interesting. I love these bee posts. I knew nothing about them...but am slowly learning.
Wow, you are successful in beekeeping. I love doing it too if i can, but not when i'm still not living at home. When we were young, i joined my father gather some honeycombs from the wild and experienced some stings. But the taste of honey diminish my pain! LOL.
Wow, watching a deer give birth. Cool.
So, did you get the bees for honey?
And what's the bad thing about the open cells?
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