Bee #3 : HIVE ADDITION
I think I may have some sort of innate connection to honey bees due to the Winnie the Pooh décor that hung in my room as a child. Now as an adult I find myself deeply interested in the beekeeping process. Could this be related to Pooh Bear as well?
Today was the first day I've checked the hive since Al and I did a queen inspection a couple days after introducing the colony to the N40 hive. And after today's N40 hive inspection I'm now even more amazed at what these little bees can accomplish.
Going out today Jake and I (yes, Jake, the kid who is deathly afraid and allergic to bees) were hoping that the frames would be mostly filled with brood, pollen, and honey. This would indicate that it is time to add another box for our bee buddies to start mass producing honey. That was our hope, but of course I didn't know what to expect. What we found though was exactly what we were hoping for. Our hive is teeming with life and honey after only a few short weeks.
All but two frames were completely filled and the bees had actually started storing honey on the roof. I did a general inspection of the frames to look for any sign of disease or pests. I really don't know what I'm looking for, but from what I saw it looked great. No dead bees, no signs of mites and frames overloaded with honey. I quickly positioned the partially filled frames to the middle, scraped the comb and honey off of the lid and added a super.
Now, just like before, we wait again.
Side notes:
Jerrin likes honey.
Honey:
The honey our bees were producing was very tasty and really light in color.
I noticed the shelter belt rows of Russian Olives were in full bloom and nearby there were a lot of shelter belts of Caragana bushes. Russian Olives and Caragana bushes both have small, yellow flowers. I'm going to assume there is some correlation between that flora and the light golden honey in our hive.
Super:
Made a call last night to our local bee expert Brian Rogers and inquired about many things, but one thing in particular. How long does it take them to fill the super? Long story short it could be as long as six weeks or as short as one week. Based on the good May/June rain, abundance of food sources and the health of our hive he said we could see good honey production in a short amount of time.
Stay connected for more bee updates and if you have any questions send them our way!
Rookie Bee Wrangler - DPS