The fun never stops around here. At least I didn’t get stung today (yet).

I was a bit drowsy from antihistamines this morning, so didn’t feel up to an excursion with Karin & Kate. Perking up a little later, I figured I needed to work on woodenware for the bees. It took a little while for the loud humming to attract my attention, but finally I looked out to see what the bees were up to. A cloud of swarming bees is impressive. I guess none of the neighbors noticed, because I heard...

selchie

13 July 2008
Since splitting Boudicca’s hive a couple of weeks ago, I have been waiting for the queen cells in the original hive to hatch. On Thursday, I inspected the hive. As expected, there are only a few remaining capped worker and drone cells from Boudicca’s egg laying. I saw one drone emerging from his cell, which is a first for me, and so a bit special. Down in one box I heard a queen piping, so I knew that at least one had hatched out. The piping sounds like a tiny kazoo. She does...

selchie

June 19 Swarm Cells!
Things had been going along rather smoothly in the hives for a while, so I restrained myself from gushing to you all about how fuzzy and buzzy the bees were. The Russians are still lagging a bit in the comb and brood building department, but it sounds like they are still normal. I’d been comparing them to my overachieving Italians, who have four boxes to the Russians’ two.

But now the Italian vigor may present me with a snag. Upon my most recent inspection,...

selchie

Just a few more piccies.

selchie

More bee excitement.

selchie