Week 4 - Bee Inspection
Let me first say......WOW!!!!
we knew that babies would be born during this past week, but I didn't
realize how many that would be ....the frames were packed with Bees
....here is some lifespan info.....
* every 21 days (3 weeks) Workers Bees are born
* they live to be about 6 week old during PEAK time
* during off peak (winter) they can live up to 4 - 8 months
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when we do an inspection, we are looking for several things...
the Queen Bee herself, eggs (the little rice looking stuff), larva, burr
comb that needs to be removed and propolis
during this inspection.....we saw the Queen in my hive, but didn't see her
in Ross' hive..... we saw eggs in both, which is great...because that means
the queen was present within the last day or two.....we saw larva of all stages
in both hives as well.....so far so good......next week we add another brood box.
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this is a great shot of 3 Bees coming to life....breaking through the cap...
2 up at the top of the picture, and one down 3 rows and over to the right a bit....
this picture also shows larva in different sizes...so another batch of babies is
ready to be capped....woohoo!!!
another shot of a bunch of larva in different stages
here is another shot of a baby bee emerging from the capped cell,
down a row and over to the right is another one just started the process
this is a great picture of a working frame.....the brown part is where
the bees have already been born.....new eggs are already placed in these
cells...the rest of the bees are busy doing their job.....gotta love everybody
working together!!!
this is from Ross' hive.....you can see the eggs (rice like) laid
by the Queen...there is also a bunch of stages of larva
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it was quite exciting to be amongst that many bees
this morning....we were all suited up so no stings again....honestly
once you get back to the hives, we are concentrating on what we need to do with
as little disruption to the bees that you don't have time to FREAK OUT!!!
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Pleasant Dreams!!!
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