Bee Box Buzzing

Sunday marked the 2nd opening of the 1st bee hive. A little smoke warned the bees of the coming invasion, but it also calmed them down some. They are still taking sugar water so there was syrup in the feeder. A mistake was to set the feeder out uncovered. When it went back on there were 2 bees that had drowned in it.

Everything was stuck together very tightly with propolis, and took some prying with the hive tool. All of the frames in the top box were drawn except for a plastic drone comb that was added for varroa mite control. Most of them were only partly filled with either brood or honey. There was enough filled comb that a super needed to be added. The only super available was a small one, so when the medium ones come in (hopefully today) if the super doesn’t have too much honey it will be pulled off and the medium box will replace it.

There is a fence covered with honey-suckle right beside the beehives but the bees ignore it and fly off into the distance to get their food. Up until last week the bees were coming back with full pollen sacs. Now it seems that they are going for nectar. They also seem to be harvesting some propolis as there were quite a few bees working on the joints of the restacked hive.







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David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://davidsegrest.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/