I have cooties.
I did an inspection on the bees Saturday. Remember that swarm that Paul gave me? It was gone. *sigh* I think I must have bee cooties because these bees just do not like me.
The other hives are doing well, however. I added a third box to the swarm I caught a couple weeks back. Fred and Hans Huberman look like they will need a second box in the next week or two so I’ll keep a close eye on them. Phyllis, the terribly small hive, looks like it might be a bit larger now. They’re building comb and seem to be doing well considering. I can’t get enough of the natural comb in the foundationless frames!! It’s so fascinating to watch and gorgeous! I did note one issue in… Hans Huberman, I believe? (I jotted down notes when I came in but I don’t have them handy right now.) There were a couple of queen cells, both near the middle of the frames. One cut open neatly around the bottom and the second, a few frames over, was still intact. I didn’t look at every single frame so there might have been more for all I know.
Random pics from the inspection to follow…
Photos courtesy of a certain nine-year-old boy who does strange things with the camera when I’m not looking. And who has cilantro stuck in his teeth.
Seems like a lot of guesswork is involved. For instance, who’s to say that the bees you got from Paul didn’t simply find one of your already established hives irresistible and decide to merge? Isn’t the purpose of swarming to go off and mix genes with members of other tribes?
You can tell I know nothing about bees, but I would think they work on the same principle as early man.
Yeah, at this point for us it sure is a lot of guesswork. I suppose the experience old timers still have to do some guessing but I bet it’s a heck of a lot less than me!