Moopers and Layers

Just a quick update on the girls. They weathered the hail storm but have been very quiet ever since. I am going to attribute this to the chilly damp weather.

Red's hive is mooping along. They are finally starting to feel like they are growing in number and are using seven of their ten frames. Alas, I am not hopeful that they will produce a drop of honey for me this year. Nonetheless, I am grateful to have them. Her bees are lovely and sweet tempered.

Trey, our newest queen, has a hive I just cannot figure out. They had queen cups on three frames. These cups are not for tea but for a new queen in preparation for swarming. Hello! They have used barely half the hive so why swarm??? They were atleast three weeks away from swarming so I scrapped them off and moved some frames around so they can work to build out the foundation they still have on two frames. Perhaps they are just not busy enough.

Hope. Thank goodness I have Hope. That's her with the green dot. She's started to lay many babies in the upper chamber (see the white larvae by her butt) and they look great (and lots of capped larvae - the yellow in the pic). I put on that wonderous bit of beekeeping equipment... a honey super! That means that the bees are now working for me! Ok, I am not getting overly excited as I had two supers on by this time last year, but I will take what I can get.

My smoker stayed lit and it was a beautiful bee day.