Hundred Degree Hive Check
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| Cracking the hive! |
Despite the heat, these guys were prompt and up for the task. Funny story: It turns out that Chris and Ken used to be neighbors a few years ago until Chris and his family moved to another part of Forest Acres, so we had a sort of reunion there at first, with an update or two on their families.
We suited up and and cracked the hive in full sunlight. Smoker packed full of pine straw going, the bees were as calm and forgiving as one could ever hope for. Spoiler alert: no stings here today! We pawed through each frame, pulling them out and examining them for signs of brood, honey, nectar, pupae, (and I guess parasites). Chris praised the hive, saying it looked like a very healthy hive, estimated that the queen had been active up there, with evidence of laying in the top super in the past few days. Some drone, lots of capped honey there. Further down we saw good patterns: nectar, capped honey, drone brood, a couple of empty queen cups. Honestly it's still a bit confusing to me what I'm seeing in there. But I did learn quite a bit in that ONE HOUR. What comes to mind first is to wear socks with rubber boots in the hot sun and that those boxes of honey really ARE heavy. I'm glad I got eight-frame boxes! The second super was more of the same, good looking frames, honey, brood. Finally, we got to the deep, the brood box and it wasn't as honey full, but there were the most amount of bees and capped brood. A good laying queen!
Of course, one is always hoping to spot the queen in these situations, to prove her existence and satisfy the curiosity I suppose? The evidence is there, plain and simple, but one always seeks a queen sighting. At First, we did not see the queen. Chris began to espouse on the difficult-to-explain, intuitive process that sometimes accompanies a queen search. You know she's there somewhere, but there are thousands of bees and it's quite the hunt. Sure -she is usually surrounded by an entourage, so you look for a bee cluster, but there is sometimes more to it. A sense. We had already passed a few central brood box frames without seeing her, and as he spoke, he paused, quieted down, went back to an earlier frame and plucked it back out, examining it for "the signs" once again. AND THERE SHE WAS! She was busybusybusy, roaming around in no particular fashion, sticking her head down in the combs. The workers all turn and face her whenever she slows down or stops, which is one way to search. We followed Queen Maude around for several minutes, reveling in the moment, and then slowly carefully placed the frame back in the box. It was time to close up. We were sweaty and tired and had accomplished what we set out for.
Afterwards, over cold water and lemonade on the shade of the deck we compared bee stories and discussed honey extraction, an upcoming bee class, among other things. I was a bit woozy from the heat, so some memory of that conversation eludes me, but Chris patiently answered our questions and shared his own philosophies on beekeeping.
It was great to have an enthusiastic pair of bee friends helping me with the hive check. I sure learned a lot, and am a bit more confident about what to look for in the future checks. Thanks guys! Thank you to my photographer and husband, Bob Benjamin for documenting this event.
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| Ooooh, honey! |
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| Regular, close-up inspections are important for new beekeepers. |
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| The watering dish! |
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| It was hot and they were thirsty! |
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| Afterwards, they sat out on the front porch and cooled off. |