Warm Sunny Days of Summer

July 9, 2011

Bees outside the hive getting "fresh" air!

You think you're hot in that weather? What about the bees? They are hanging outside their hives fanning their wings to cool off. They do the same thing inside the hive to keep the air flowing. Ben and I are really hot, dripping. There is nothing we can do, we still need to put on our gear... at least the bee suits are white!

The nectar flow is in full swing. Every week we can see more and more cells full to the brim. The honeybees are working hard; they absolutely love this warm and hot weather. I think that their swarming intentions are decreasing; which is a good thing :) I am a little tired to move all those very heavy boxes, reversing them and inspecting every single frame for queens' and swarms' cells. I feel that the bees make us work a lot this season. But I guess they will also give us honey, so I am happy.

Hive #1, looks like a tower! (Julie & Ben)

     In Chanhassen, we added more supers (2) on our first hive. It is now a tower, Julie had to put the last super on hive #1 today (July 10) because now it is almost above my head! We decided to place a couple of supers on the third hive, and one on #4.

This frame is completely full of honey, and heavy.

Some hives have already lots of honey.  We hope that our honeybees will keep foraging, bringing nectar and pollen. In a couple of weeks we should see some eggs on #3 in Chan. As the new virgin queen should be going on her mating flight soon.
In hive #2, we have decided that the bees know best after all, and can produce their own queen. The only downside for us beekeepers is that we may not be able to harvest honey from it. However, there are advantages to let the bees be bees... the new queen will be adapted to this climate, will be accepted easily and will be young going into winter and should be prolific for the rest of the season, and it does not cost us one dime! Nature at its best!