March Inspection

Well it was finally warm enough to do a complete hive inspection. I ended up having to sort of rush through, however, because the girls were very alarmed and somewhat perturbed at being exposed after so many months of seclusion.

The hive is very healthy, I’m happy to say! I did not see the queen but she’s been laying pretty heavily as there are about three frames with larvae. I found a queen cell, but it’s up pretty high so I don’t think I need to be worried.

They ate quite a bit of their honey this winter, but didn’t touch the bee candy that I gave them. They still had been eating on remnants of the grease patties I put in last fall. I found lots of dead mites at the bottom of the hive (throught the mite screen) and so I will continue feeding them the grease patties with essential oils. At first glance, I did not see any mites on bees so keep your fingers crossed!

We moved homes — up to the NE Heights — and so we had to move the hive last week. As we were loading the boxes onto the truck I noticed a few bees had slipped past the screen, but I wasn’t really concerned. When we arrived at our location I decided to leave the hive in the truck while I ate dinner (and drank a glass of wine — BIG mistake!) While we were unloading, the loose bee took one whiff of my breath and ZAPP! She stung me right in the cheek. YEOUCH! I fortunately managed to quickly put the hive down (much to Ryan’s alarm) and get the stinger out. I was so worried that my cheek would be red and swollen for our wedding, so I OD’d on Benadryl and was pleased with the results. Perhaps I’m also building up an immunity!

Anyway, here are some photos.