Trouble in paradise...

We visited the ladies today, and got an unexpected surprise. The frames were full of wax,which were full with capped brood and honey- but the bees were also busy building a supersedure cell. That means the girls are not happy with the current queen, so they try to turn a larvae into a new queen. They build a cone shaped comb for the larvae, and feed it special secreted juice called 'royal jelly', which somehow turns a regular larvae into a queen. If given the chance to pupate to full grown bee, she would emerge a new queen, and half of the colony of bees would split from the other half, leave the hive with the old queen, and we would be tremendously set back in our progress. We removed the supersedure cell, and wondered why they were not happy. Too many bees- not enough space? Queen not producing enough eggs to fill the wax comb? What? So, we decided that maybe they were not happy with their food. We mixed a new gallon of sugar water, replaced it, and crossed our fingers. We shall see...

Sunday, May 18

Melissa and I went to check on the ladies... they have been busy. They have filled 4 of the 10 frames with wax. The eggs we saw during our last visit are in various phases of development- most are 'capped' with wax- the final stage before they come out as new bees. The queen is laying eggs in almost every empty comb, all day every day. jeez- what a life. We have been feeding our bees a syrup mixture of 2-1 sugar to water to help them excrete wax and build their comb- which they have surely been using. On our next visit I am hoping that we can add the second box on top. This will add 10 more frames for the bees to fill with wax, and the queen will still be busy laying eggs. The hive will wind up having 4 boxes- the bottom two being full of bees and honey for them, and the top two being full of just honey (for us) and no bees. But, we have a while before we get into all of that...

Well, this is it. We have a blog to keep you posted on what's up in the world of our bees. A little background on our girls:
The bees we have started with are Italian bees- they are supposed to be the easiest and most laid back of the different bees. The starter package of bees we received weighed 3 pounds- roughly 13,000 bees inside. Melissa made a video showing the release party, but the live show was awesome. They bees are, in fact, very calm and not aggressive. Yet.

They are living in Hawke Point, MO- about an hour north of St. Louis. Marsha's dad owns a nice little country plot, and the bees have full access to all the amenities- pond, flowers, trees...

Right now, we are visiting them about once a week to check on the progress. It is a fascinating experience- I never thought my mind would be "buzzing" with thoughts about bees. I feel like I am addicted, though, and hope to rub off on a few of you.

She's out...

The queen is out! The bees have drawn out three frames with comb, and the queen has been very busy laying eggs. the egga look like half pieces of rice- very small, but there. I am excited!!! Last time, we left a couple of the frames too far apart- and this caused the bees to draw out burr comb, as pictured below. We scraped the burr off and are keeping it to hopefully use for candles this winter.