June quick check.

I checked the bees, just for a peek and saw their progress. It's slow going. It looks pretty darn tidy in there. Lots of bees, but not nearly as many as I think there should be.

First look into the hive

The bees had a rough start, instead of 2 day shipping, it took 6 days. It was during a heat wave, many were dead, including the queen. They got a new queen, but had to wait 4 days before she was released. The queen cage had fallen from the raffia and I had to release her, that was May 29, I had no idea what to expect, except that I really wanted to look, but was told to wait a week or two after releasing the queen. It has been 13 days. Tonight was the night. It was also time to change the bottom. I had paper and a piece of styrofoam on top of the bottom screen; it seemed like a temporary fix to the large holes in the screen. Later, I realized it wasn't very efficient. They needed something more solid to work the air flow for hive cooling. It was 107 today, that is very hot for bees. Chuck, the bee top bar maker, made me two bottom boards to slide into place. After taking the lid off, it was easy to take the bars from the far side where the bees had not progressed. The styrofoam was easy to remove. Now it was time to place the boards. It looked empty inside, but then I saw comb, perfect comb. Also, the bees were on the shady side of their top bar hive, obviously staying cool. It was amazing to look into the hive and see what they were doing. They seemed a little mad that I took off the paper at the bottom. It wasn't until I pulled it out that I realized their hive went all the way to the bottom. The paper had a little pollen on it. I left it on top for them when I was done. When I lifted the bar, I was looking down on it, not sideways, so I didn't see the honey that showed up in Katja's picture. Looking down into the hive, the comb was beautiful. It was just as I imagined. Hexagonal comb, perfectly shaped, hanging from the top bar, waiting for the queen to fill. I hope she is in there. I didn't really inspect for her because the 107 degree temp made me think twice about handing bars with comb. We looked at the bars, but they seemed annoyed by us and the heat. We just looked into the hive without pulling too many bars out. They have comb on 5 bars with 15 bars still empty and awaiting the rest of their ambitious season. I put the bars back and had two straggles. I helped them get back in. After putting the lid on, there was one coming home. HOME. I am so proud of these girls and their home! A special thanks to Chuck Schilling for making the top bar, and Katja Edgar for all the photos. And to Brian for supporting my transition from near empty nest as a mother, to full hive woman!