Summer Lovin'

Wow! What great weather we have been having for the past week or so. Granted there was some pretty hefty rain that came and went, but as of late it's been sunny or sunny with cloudy periods. I can honesty say I was a bit worried because I feed my bees with the notion that it would be lousy out, not sunny, so I didn't know what to expect when on this inspection. Would they have ignored my feed with such great weather allowing for nectar collection?

I'm a little ahead of my proposed inspection schedule, but with today being such a glorious day with the hot sun and lack of wind I just had to go out. With all this great bee weather I decided to pack up an extra super along with 10 Mann Lake frames just in case the bees happened to doing extremely well. When I arrived at the hive things were definitely looking good, my hopes and expectations immediately rose as this is what I saw.



The entrance was busier than I have ever seen it before. Lots of bees guarding the entrance and even more coming and going. I quickly suited up and got my smoker going. I was going to try working without a veil today, but I'm still a bit nervous about that prospect and I think my nerves were strained when I saw all the activity at the front. I did work again without gloves though, that sting last week hasn't deterred me and my finger is back to normal size. Most people are very concerned with the swelling of a bee sting even though it is the bodies normal reaction to the foreign proteins. Everyone is technically allergic, however a small population is extremely allergic where the reaction spreads beyond the local area. Given a few days the swelling will go down and all is well.

I popped the top off and was happy to see the bees were "all up on" my frame feeder, I guess they had no issues with the help I was offering. The feeder was only about half empty so judging from what I have read on some bee forums they aren't using it at a crazy rate, I was expecting it to be empty after a week.



I removed the feeder and instantly had a problem...I didn't have anywhere to put it. I couldn't prop it up against the hive like I do with my other frames because the syrup would run all over the place. I reluctantly placed it on the ground and in the process squished a whole lot of bees. Not to sound like a bleeding heart because a lot of bees do die during an inspection, however I can't help but feel guilty for the ones that I could have prevented with better planning. Feel free to avert your eyes from the carnage below.


(I apologize for the lack of focus, but those fuzzy blobs are dead bees)

After a quick prayer for the deceased I started inspecting the frames on the top super. Every single one of them was drawn out! It's incredible, my bees are doing fantastic. A closer look using the sun behind my back showed hundreds, more like thousands, of eggs in the newly drawn comb on multiple frames, this is going to be one strong hive once they all hatch into bees in about 3 weeks. I am delighted that I decided to bring my 3rd deep super because this hive was ready for it. I scraped some of the burr comb off the top of the frames to make room for the lid and to my delight some of that burr comb happened to be capped honey, I set that aside for later. I added my 3rd super and voila! Inspection done. Isn't it a wonderful sight!



Oh, as for that burr honey I collected, I ate it when I got home(wax and all). So delicious! Literally, to get any fresher the bees would have to deposit the nectar in your mouth, fan it and cap it. I am really hoping my hive is strong enough to produce enough honey stores for winter so that I can take just a bit for myself.