So after chomping at the bit to finally get in there, when the time came I was surprising reluctant. The weather wasn't good and I knew I shouldn't work the hive then since it makes them more cranky. The biggest reason I was putting it off was because I had no idea what to expect or what I was looking for. Even watching the YouTube videos weren't helping. But today was beautiful and I decided to go for it.
One hive was decidedly more advanced than the other. Not sure why.
And even as we were lifting out the frames they were busy working. They have a bunch of wax built up. Can you see the solid yellow parts? Those are capped cells. They are either full of brood (babies) or honey.
They were not bothered by us one bit even though we didn't smoke them. I'm more scared of fire than I am bees and Honey wasn't home to extinguish a mishap. Plus it was one less thing to mess with.
Ok this freaked me out! Can you see how they have connected 2 frames with honey comb? And when I started lifting out the frames it was tearing apart and I had no idea what to do so I put it all back and went inside to call a more experienced bee keeper. He said I could just cut it apart and they would re-build it. Hopefully keeping to one frame this time.
I think the darker cells are full of pollen. The bee guy said the different colors are from the different kinds of flowers.
And the white capped cells in the corner I'm pretty sure is honey.
We found both queens and put everything back together. I refilled their feed jars and they acted like nothing happened. Once the feed jars are empty I will go back in and cut the connecting comb then give them a couple more weeks. By the way the one hive is looking we will be needing to add a honey super sooner than we thought!
I'm so impressed with how they work and can even use the stuff I will cut away to make more comb.
LB... "I think the bees have more than paid for themselves in awesomeness."
I agree!
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