Checkin' in...

The girls are doing GREAT! I checked my notebooks from last year at this time and I was a very sad beekeeper: one hive had died and the other (Red's) looked like it wasn't going to make it. Well Red made it and was replaced by her daughter Pink.

Sun's hive is the weakest, they are using about 3-4 frames up top. They had sugar and pollen left. They were quite active and bringing back plenty of pollen and the only reason for pollen is BABIES! I still had three jars of honey from last year, so I gave them honey. The little rectangle in the middle is the opening to the hive. The honey is on risers so the bees can get under the lid and drink the honey from the holes. I put their outer lid over the top of this empty box.
Joy's girls were occupying about 5 frames in the upper box and that is great. They were pretty active when I opened the hive. Since my sweetheart and I had already moved frames this weekend, I didn't muck about too much, mostly just said hello and put the honey on them.

Pink's hive made my heart happy. I dug in to see where the empty frames were in the top box and found BROOD. Yep, I saw babies {happy dance}. It was a small patch but they were about ready to hatch out. Mazel tov Pink.

Since it was such a beautiful day, I just hung out at the end of all this and just enjoyed the bees. I got this picture of a bee with pollen. If you look carefully you can see a light line on her back between her wings. That is also pollen that her sisters will clean off her when she goes into the hive. The pollen is a weird green color too and comes from skunk cabbage. Skunk cabbage has its pollen inside the spathe. The odd shape often gets pollen on the bee's back. Check out a picture here.

Next pollen should be pussy willows and red maple - start looking for them soon. Spring is here!