Happy Honey Bees
After visiting a local honey distributer to pick up 2 gallons of honey
for a batch of mead I became
enamored with the thought of learning how to take care of a beehive or
two of my own. This spring I finally bought the equipment and some
bees.
Pictures 1 through 19 are from the hive in my backyard. The remaining
ones are from a hive at my coworker's house. I figured with two
hives I would have a better chance of having one success story if
problems came up. And problems did come up!
The hive at my house has been queenless for one reason or another
since the packaged bees were installed. A week after the package
was installed (4 lbs of bees, about 11,000 of them!) I checked the
hive and noticed queen cells, which are only built when the queen
dies or is having problems laying healthy bees. So I got another
queen from the breeder and installed it. The queen cells when away
after that, but there is still no brood.
In the photos of the frames you can see the white-capped honey around
the top. Typically in the middle of the frame you would see
yellow-capped brood (bee pupa and larva) cells. Instead, on the hive
at my house only honey and pollen can be seen. It's hard to see, but
in the hive at my coworker's house there is white-capped honey at the
top of the frames and yellow-capped brood cells in the middle. This
is the sign of a healthy laying queen.
Bee Galleries
Author: Adam Boggs
