Updates

Well, I just got home from the farm and needed to write an update on the bees.  I was up on Saturday, May 8th, to show my brother-in-law, Shawn, the bees as well as the rest of the farm.  It was a cool and windy day, and we didn't see any bees venturing outside the hives.  Feeling a little brave I opened the hives without any protection to show Shawn what beekeeping was all about.

I am concerned with my east bee hive because it does not appear to have nearly as many bees as the west hive.  In addition, since putting on the second deep hive box I'm not seeing the east hive working at all on the second story; as I see are a couple of bees just looking around.  On the other hand, the west hive is working hard on two frames on the second floor.  Also, the west hive is consuming more sugar water, which makes sense with them having more bees.  Also, my east hive bees insist on building comb connecting frames together.  My west hive isn't doing this at all!  Why are they connecting the frames?  What's up with that?  I'll need to see what I can find on the net.

Today, May 11th, I went up to the farm with Aaron and Jessica and we met up with Matt and Michelle Figgins and their two kids; we took them over to the hives to show off the new hobby.  Again, with no protection I looked in the hives and found the east hive now working on building comb on the second story.  The west hive continues to look strong and working away at building comb on the second story.  Also, their water jars were down a quart on each of the feeders, so I topped them off.  All together with the extra sugar water tonight they have gone through a total of 22 pounds of sugar in a little over three weeks!