Well it’s been about a month longer than I ever would have thought I’d have to wait.  The weather since installing the bees into their new hives has been thoroughly discouraging.

Again, this year we are having a colder, grayer, windier and wetter spring than is normal.

That makes checking in on the bees all the more difficult.

You see, every time the beekeeper opens up a hive to inspect, feed or make changes it sets the bees back several days. . .  days that are critical to getting a new hive established.

Even on a nice warm sunny day the bees are set back and upset just enough that it messes with their little bee brains.  This spring has been anything but warm or sunny.  On a cloudy, blustery and cold day it sets the bees back even further because of the heat loss and chilling of the brood.  To make matters worse, the bees are generally pretty cranky on a chilly gray day so I’ve opted to avoid doing my checks.


I’ve very quickly opened the top of the hive to check their sugar syrup supply but I don’t keep it open long and I don’t peek below the feeder.

This has had some good and some bad results I think.  I’ll show you soon some of the issues that I discovered by intentionally ignoring the hives.  I’m not sure yet if I made the right decision, but we’ll find out soon enough I guess.

On Monday the 9th of June something pretty spectacular occurred here on the farm.  The sun came out for a few glorious hours in the afternoon.  Sharon called me over to look at some bees snacking on the chives.

All throughout the spring the bees have been working the flowers well and bringing in lots of pollen so I wasn’t too worried about them starving out.  We decided that bees on the chives was an excellent sign and quickly made preparations to do our first major inspection since hiving the bees in late April.  This inspection was pretty overdue… and then some.


Sharon went into the house to get the camera and tie her hair up and grab a cap so the bees wouldn’t get tangled in her hair.  I went to my office in the barn and got my smoker lit, gathered my bee supply box and put on my suit.  The sun was shining and the bees were boiling around the front of the hive just as they should be.

I gently smoked the hive through the entrance reducer opening and then a few puffs into the top after lifting the outer cover.  What struck me most was how pleasant the girls seemed to be.  Nary a buzz or warning.  I suspect they were enjoying the sun too, and many of the foragers were off in the fields.  You’ll notice in the pictures that the bees’ yard sits at the edge of one of our pastures so they get plenty of wildflowers and clovers.




After smoking, I removed the top cover.  In my earlier brief openings I’ve gone this far in during feedings, but until now had not gone deeper into the hive than to view through the gap in the top feeder.  I suspect that was an error because of what I found.

Notice that the bees have built a large comb suspended from the inside of the outer cover and hanging down into the void between the top feeder.

I suspect this is mostly just messy and difficult to work around and that I object to it more than the bees do.  Still, I'm not sure quite how to handle this and chose to leave it alone until I get some advice form a more senior beekeeper.

I could have simply scraped it away but there are probably hundreds of brood being raised in this comb and now is not the time of year to sacrifice any new bees; this is the critical early spring build up.


I did damage this bridge of comb when I removed the top, however, I don’t think I hurt it too badly and Sharon and I got to see some fascinating things!

If you look closely at the photo there are lots of things going on.

First, I think this is drone comb because of the size of the cells.

Also, if you look at almost the exact center of the photo you will see a light purple “U” shaped object.

This is the set of eyes of a drone.

The drones (males) have much larger and more complex eyes than the queen or the workers.




This drone's cell was torn open when the comb ripped apart.

The creamy white crescent shaped objects are larva that have been exposed when the comb tore open.

I wish the photo was a little more clear but if you look closely at the purple eyes of the drone larva and the white larva right above him you might see a drone that was ready to hatch.

His cell was torn open too but he must have been within moments of hatching on his own because while Sharon was taking the picture he just crawled out of his cell even though his cell had been damaged.  I wish you could have watched it with us.  We’re still smiling two days later it was so cool!


Here is another picture that shows the drone getting ready to emerge and the big eyed larva next to it.

Even after I took this piece of comb away from the hive I had to shake all the worker bees off of it; they were trying to repair it and protect the larva but it was a lost cause.

Now that I’ve initially dealt with the comb the bees have built where they weren’t supposed to I’m ready to get a first peek at the actual frames. 

I start by removing the outermost frame and work in toward the center of the hive.

I’m not expecting much on this outside frame since I know that the queen concentrates on laying toward the center of the hive and working her way to the outside frames last.

My hunch is mostly correct, the bees are just starting to build comb on this frame.

Even so, it won’t be too long before the workers will have this frame built into nice comb for the queen to begin laying in.  Notice though, the frame next in the hive, right under the one I’m holding up.

That frame is covered heavily with bees that are actively building comb and preparing for the queen to lay eggs.

After I put the first frame removed on the outside rack, I immediately pull the second frame.  This one is noticeably busier.  The workers are busily drawing nice white comb.

If you look closely at the foundation near the bottom you will see it is very much like the foundation looked on the very first day.

Now look nearer the top of the frame and all the way to the right edge.  You can see the change in depth of the comb.  Soon it will be deep enough to store pollen, honey and eggs/larva.

If we go one frame deeper toward the center it starts to get really interesting! Frame # 3 shows the workers doing what we like to see, storing pollen and honey.

I’m holding the frame upside down in this photo.  The bees generally work from the top down, as they have done in this photo.

Look closely now; you can see several things of interest.  First, notice the cells with dark yellow in them? That is pollen that the foragers have collected to feed the new brood, the larva in their cells.

Pollen is critical to larva development.  If they have none, the queen will not lay eggs.  This pollen is probably from dandelion flowers, a bee favorite.

Next, look in the lower right corner… see some cells that glisten? That is the beginning stages of honey; this too is food, for the worker bees.

Now, look at the upper left corner; you can see that the original foundation is white but the comb has a yellow tint to it as they build it out.  This helps us to see their progress.  This frame is very encouraging.  But wait . . .  there’s more!


Here’s another photo to help you see the difference between pollen and honey.  Hold onto your hat, now comes the frame that made me really happy.

On the fourth frame in from the outside edge, remember we work in toward the center I found what I was hoping for.

This frame is full of capped brood.  Baby bees to be!  Notice that almost every cell is filled and capped.  There are very few empty cells; this is an excellent laying pattern.  It means the queen is healthy, vigorous and efficient.

A frame like this makes a bee keeper very happy.  The cells are capped over with a light tan coating of wax while the larva are growing and preparing to emerge.  The bees crawling all over the frame are the nurse bees that attend to the larva and the queen.

There is still one more frame toward the center but by this time I have had the hive open for 20 minutes and I think that’s enough for their first inspection so I’ve decided not to look further.  I can see that the hive is healthy and busy.

I put all the frames back into place in the order I’ve removed them.  Also, since they are close to reaching the outside frames I think it’s about time to add the second Hive body.  This will give them the room to grow that they need as the weather warms up and even more flowers begin to bloom.

I carefully add the second super, being cautious not to squish any of the girls and replace the hive top feeder for another couple of weeks.  After that the bees shouldn't need any more help with their food.


I also removed the plexiglas bottom piece to their screened bottom board.  This is a fairly new style of bottom board.

Because the spring has been so wet and cold they got filthy with bee debris (read poop) and dropped pollen grains.  It seems to have stayed very wet and moldy.

I pulled the sheets out and will now let the air circulate freely under the hives.  This will be much healthier and cleaner for the hive and I hope will help prevent disease.  The bees actually seem to prefer it.

Since I was in hive maintenance mode I took the opportunity to remove the entrance reducer.

The reducer is a piece of wood placed into the bottom that limits the size of the hive opening.

For a new hive and during the colder spring months this can help preserve heat and is safer.  Now the hive is thriving and needs the opening enlarged for more efficient foraging.

One of the final things I’ll do today is refill their feeder with invert sugar, a special sugar that the bees digest more efficiently.

Mr. Fly seems to like it too but he won’t be allowed to snack much as the bees will soon run him off.

Well, it’s taken about an hour and 25 minutes or so for each hive.

The bees have been well behaved and I think overall they are in pretty good shape.

I’ve got to ask some questions and get some advice about a couple of problems, but that’s how we all learn, no?

If the sun comes out more often and we actually get some summer weather we’ll be in the hives more often.  Stay tuned!