Holy Honeycomb Batman

I opened my hive yesterday since it was such a nice day. I wanted to see how my bees were doing for honey stores. Apparently, they had a very abundant season last summer as they had loads of honey left. I will still feed them because there aren't really any flowers blooming yet, besides my few crocuses. One frame looked like whichever bee was in charge was high when she designed the layout. Instead of building flat along the frame, they build all sorts of little tunnels and mazes SIDEWAYS. It was all built out away from the frame and looked almost like rungs on a ladder. I cut it all off to encourage them to build it like they are supposed to. They had quite a mess going on. My kids have been picking at the comb ever since. I have to admit, fresh honey tastes soooo much better than what you pick up at the store!

Hive progress

My bees are getting feisty! I no more than opened the hive than one of them stung my little picture taker. So no pics of the frames or capped brood this time. I left the inner cover off and took care of the sting. I decided that maybe it was time to fire up the smoker. I got it put together and read the instructions. I got it let and went back outside. I didn't have time to let it really get smoking but it was enough to get done what I needed to do.

There was one frame that had just hatched and been cleaned ready for more brood or honey. There was one frame that was PERFECT! Capped honey at the top, pollen in the middle and capped brood in the bottom. Way to go girls! now if they would just quit messing around with that burr comb and draw out the rest of the frames. I am almost certain I won't have enough honey to harvest this year, I may even have to feed my bees through the winter.

I cut off all of the burr comb and put it in a container so I could take it in the house. I had a friend over who was thinking about getting a hive next year. I took her some of the honey filled comb to try. The first thing out of her mouth (once she had gotten around the sticky honey) was "It's WARM!" I gave her the first taste, I had not ever tried it.

I actually got a look at my queen today too, she was busy going from cell to cell laying eggs. I was pretty excited to see her, I knew she was there because I was finding brood, but I had not ever actually seen her after putting her in the hive for the first time.

I got the hive all cleaned up and put back together and took all of my gear off. I immediatly dug into the comb I had cut off and bit into the richest honey I have ever tasted! It was incredibly sweet. At lease twice as sweet as store bought honey.

There was more than that in the jar, but by the time I got around to taking a picture, I had eaten about half of it! My allergies had been kicking my butt all day, but now my head is clear and I feel pretty good! Local honey rocks!

(You can't tell I am excited, can you?)

Opened my hive yesterday

So I decided to open my hive for the first time yesterday. Here goes nothing.

Taking off the inner cover.

The bees are all hanging out in the middle two frames.

Checking for brood and looking for the queen.

The bees had build comb on top of comb. (After a panicked phone call to my brother I found out this is called bridging and is common and normal.) When I was looking at the frame, this extra chunk of comb crashed to the ground at my feet covered with thousands of bees. I was a bit freaked out.

I picked up the chunks of comb and placed them on top of the hive to allow the bees to wander back into the frames. Of course they didn't and I had to brush them all off the comb before I removed it.

I never did see the queen and couldn't see any brood either. I put everything back together and brought the excess comb into the house. A few hours later, I DID notice some eggs in a few cells of comb. So I DO have a queen and she IS laying. All is well in the hive!
Kind of cool, isn't it?