Clover & Thistle

To avoid what happened last week, Charlie went ahead and started inspecting our hives while Hannah was still working on hers.  I went back and forth between the two taking pictures and adding my 2 cents worth when asked.  He started with the carniolan hive, which we are calling Clover.

Mold in the Hive

Our one colony from last year did not survive the winter. We found quite a few bees head first into the comb (a sign of starvation) on one end of the frame with half a frame of capped honey on the other end. In the hive we found about four deep frames and four medium frames worth of honey. We also found a lot of mold.

The honey and frames of drawn comb will not go to waste, they are added to our new colonies of bees and will give the package bees a bit of a headstart over bare frames. In return the bees will clean all the mold off the frames, it's a win for the bees and for us.

This is one of the frames we put in Hannah's hive, and after one week it is almost completely clean.

A Bee-autiful Day

Hive Check & Package Install

The main purpose of today's trip to the bee yard was to check on the two colonies we installed last weekend and to install a package of carniolan bees Charlie picked up on Friday from Schaffer's Natural Honey Farms.

Hannah did a thorough check of her hive and as Charlie got ready to open our hive she shoved him out of the way with a brutal hip check, almost sending him sprawling to the ground, and popped open our hive.  Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but just a bit, don't get in that girl's way when she is in the bee zone. 

It Bee-gins Again

Hannah's package of Golden Italians for her study grant, from Timmons Honey Farm.