Fascinating Observation

It was right before lunch on June 14, 2010 that we visited the Chanhassen colony, thinking that it would be time for a third hive box. And indeed, it was needed; the colony had expanded some more. New bees are being born rapidly, the sunshine helps the process too. So, we took the 10th. frame from the second box, and was placed in the center of the third box,; this encourage the bees to expand, and spread out. We also remove the entrance reducer at the bottom of the hive, so now there is a big space for the bees to come in from foraging but it is also a larger space to defend. However with more bees, there are more foragers and more guards.

In the picture, it is a drone who stayed on my bee-suit the whole time that I was working the hive, at the end I had to remove it, and I placed him on a blade of grass. Maybe he was watching what I was doing!

As you can see, if you look at the bottom of the hive: a large entrance, 3 hive body which are the place where the queen, workers, drone and brood reside with their personal supply of pollen, nectar and honey...basically it's their home. On top of the third box, this is where we put the pollen patty. Next there is an inner cover for protection and 2 smaller boxes called "super". Right now, hidden by the supers are the 2 pails of syrup, and to close it all the cover.

You noticed that the third box has a cork plug unlike box 1 or 2, we will leave the plug until the honey bees are used to their new space and then we will place some frames in the super, replacing the pails. This is where the bees will put their surplus of honey that we will harvest in the fall. The honey that is in the "3-box condo" is strictly reserved for the honey bees. However, if they don't have enough honey in those boxes, we will have to leave the surplus for them as well. The most important thing this season is to build a strong colony that can survive the winter and thrive next spring. Usually, the first year of beekeeping in our region, does not allow us to get any honey...but I have a feeling that we may have a little for us...we will see.

This colony is still doing great, and flowers are abundant. Nature is cooperating. Now if it could stop storming and raining it would be perfect.

Ben is almost as "perfect" as a bee, making sure all frames are respecting the bee space.

Healthy bees walking around.

Only a little bit of pollen patty left.