Today's abnormally high ambient temperature provided an opportunity to check on my honeybee colonies.
Nothing warms a beekeeper's heart more than to open up the hive late Winter/early Spring and find a healthy colony with plenty of food left and a queen that is laying eggs!
Pardon my photography skills (or lack thereof). But you can see bees on this frame, brood, pollen and honey. All of it is great to see this time of the year.
The first thing I look for when I inspect a hive is eggs. If I see eggs, I know that I have a queen that is laying. If I don't see eggs, I know I have a problem to correct. A fun bonus is to actually spot the queen when you're doing the inspection. A double bonus is to see the queen laying eggs. Out of the six colonies I inspected today, I saw five queens. So much fun!!!
See the queen? Easiest way to spot her is to look for the shine off of her bald thorax. Most worker bees have hair on their thoraxes. I love this queen's "tiger-stripe" coloring.
Can you see the queen on this photo? It's not easy but she's dead center of the photo frame and she is facing to the right. Half of her abdomen is concealed by other bees.
Another beautiful queen with very different coloring.
Frame with various phases of a bee's life. The adults, the pupae are in the cells with the orange caps and the white grubs are in the larvae stage.
I love beekeeping!
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Great article! :)
My father has bees too, so we never need to buy any honey.
Does your dad give it to you for free? If so, hopefully you wash his car or mow his lawn or something. I give very little away. It's hard work.
Oh, and thanks for the kind words too!
i like your post and pix,, keep up the good work. btw can you follow me thank you
Thank you, I am complimented. You are upvoted and followed. All the best!
What exciting pictures! Congratulations!
Always lots of fun...well almost always. Thanks!
Thanks for sharing your passion for bees with us! Interesting pics. I'm curious, do you eat the honey they produce yourself or sell it at a local farmer's market or something?
My grandparents were really into beekeeping and producing all their own natural foods. Wish I didn't have to get everything off of supermarket shelves, but that's life in the big city I guess. :-)
My family and I usually go through about 5 gallons of honey that they produce every year. I sell the honey to an ever-increasing customer base that has expanded through word of mouth. I find myself moving farther and farther away from the city, but it keeps catching up with me!
5 gallons of honey, wow that's a lot! I go shopping at Costco sometimes and ogle the size of the honey containers they sell... that's probably the most I've seen at once. Sounds like a good little business you've got going for yourself.
I wouldn't exactly call it a "business", I would call it a hobby that doesn't cost me money. Which is important. ALL of my other hobbies produced red ink, which is why my lovely bride likes this one the best!
they look like they are hard at work!
They are. They never sleep and they literally work themselves to death. The bees teach me so many things. Pretty amazing little creatures.