Queen Marking and Such

What a treat to watch these two at work with the bees! Robb was just soaking in the wisdom of experience. And! They were able to identify, capture and mark the queen of the Buzzy colony. Hopefully we can find Antoinette's queen eventually as well.

Antoinette

Wouldn't you know it, just as Evan's birthday party was getting into full swing, we got another call about a swarm of bees. This one was in a hedge, so Robb was confident that he could go grab it.

I got to name the colony, so welcome Antoinette. It is a huge colony at the moment. They look rather small and dark compared with our other bees, so are perhaps a European variety. We'll see!

Buzzy

Some time ago, we let Marlin know that we would be interested in any captured swarms he might happen upon. But it is pretty late in the season for swarming, so we were not expecting his call this evening. It was a particularly tricky case of a colony inside a pillar, so Marlin thought Robb might want to help with the extraction. And did he ever!

It looked like there had been a colony living there once in the past, as there was some old comb built up. They ended up having to scoop up big troughs of the bees and dumping them into their new home. Zeke has dubbed this little family, "Buzzy."

Guest Hive Check

Robb can't resist roping others into his new obsession. So he was giddy when Gene volunteered to help with a hive check today. I see bees in the Mahurin future...

He's a natural.

So much fun to watch them come and go.

The Wonderful World of Bees

Some good signs of activity near the entrance. (And check out the amazing hive stand that Corren made!)

We really look forward to our weekly hive checks every Friday. It is so exciting to see what these industrious little gals are up to. Robb gets the smoker going and we remove each frame and make sure everything is looking good. That means finding the queen, checking their progress in making new comb and depositing honey, pollen and brood.

The queen (with the little red dot) surrounded by her entourage. She is busy laying eggs.

The Sweetness

Today we celebrate our seventh year together. We're going to go out to eat at the Marc, but first, our bees. They arrived a few days ago in a little wire box. We had a hive all ready for them, and we've been pretty excited to do our first hive check. Tonight was the night. They look to be doing well so far. They've downed a fair amount of sugar water and are setting up their new home. We even got to see the queen. This is going to be so much fun.