Posted on May 30, 2014

We hived our honeybees  just over two weeks ago and other than checking to assure that the queens left their cages, we haven’t opened our hives.  We’ve fed the bees sugar-water, watched them cruise in and out of the hives and observed them at blooms and bird baths.  Neighbors inform us that they’ve seen a definite increase in honeybees in their gardens, so we knew something was happening in our hives. Last Sunday, with excitement and trepidation, we opened our hives to check on our honeybees. We took the top off,

and heard the incessant bzzzzzz of activity.  I pulled up the back frame of hive #1 and was stunned!

There was fully formed comb in that bar and the next 4 bars!

In the first combs there is capped honey (the lighter yellow, toward the top left) and capped brood–larva (the darker yellow in the middle of the frames).  We also observed uncapped larva, eggs and pollen stores (the dark amber on the upper right side).  After only two weeks!!!  We were absolutely giddy!  We couldn’t believe  the bees had accomplished so much in such a short time.

Busy, busy bees!

We closed the first hive,

and added some more syrup for their dining pleasure.

Look at these little girls and their pantaloons.

Pollen pantaloons: that’s what I call them.  That’s not the technical term, but I like it.

We opened hive #2,

and observed the same conditions as  in hive #1: larva, eggs, capped brood, capped honey, pollen stores and happy, productive bees. In both hives, not all the bars have fully drawn comb, but all the bars have some comb.

Beautiful.

Perfect comb.

We were gobsmacked at what the bees accomplished in two weeks, that we forgot the look for the queens.  Considering the built comb and amount of brood, honey and activity,  we assume the queens are ruling their roosts and doing their queen things. So amazing are these bees.

The Oxford Dictionary defines the word awesome as: Extremely impressive or daunting; inspiring great admiration, apprehension, or fear.

Except for the “fear” aspect, I think honeybees qualify as awesome.

The bees in hive #2 became a little annoyed at our amateur antics, so we closed the hive,

and logged our observations like good little beekeepers.

Meanwhile back at the bar,

…the honeybees regularly visit my bird baths, especially my blue bird bath.  No matter what time of the day, there are always some gals having a drink and socializing.  Sometimes, they’re drowning or drowned.  I rescue those I can, but there’s not much I can do about the others. Sniff.

They wiggle their butts when they drink.

We’re thrilled that our hives appear healthy and progressing normally.

Awesome is such an overused word,

but I think our honeybees are AWESOME!!!