Caught in the Act

Today we opened the TBH to see how everyone was doing and to try and figure out next steps in our spring preparations. We have had two weeks of gorgeous spring-like weather, and everything is coming alive. A couple of weeks ago, I was just seeing the very first billowy blossoms on a few trees; today those same trees, and several of their neighbors, are in full bloom! I think we are still some time away from  the peak of bloomingness (<--not a real word), but it sure feels like spring.

The bees are getting into the act too. When we opened the hive today, we were actually able to watch the queen laying eggs! That's something I've never seen before, and I really didn't expect to pull a comb out into broad daylight and find the queen just going about her business. It was really incredible to see her go from cell to cell, inspect each one closely by putting her head in and then walk over the cell, put her abdomen in and presumably lay an egg.  Then later, we saw a new worker bee emerge from her capped cell. It was all happening in the TBH today!


The bees immediately put the new top bars into use by building beautiful new comb on them--the two that we added last week were each about 1/3 drawn out! They are also bringing in loads more nectar and pollen. Go bees, go!

This time, we introduced another top bar between bars 11 and 12 to open the brood nest even more. I can't wait to see what they get up to next week.

Unfortunately, the mite wars continue. We saw two bees with mites and a few wingless wonders. We're investigating ideas for treating them. Thanks to the reader who suggested powdered sugar. We will let you know what we finally decide to do and how it works.

Here are some videos of the action. It's best to go to full screen and increase the resolution from 360p to whatever your internet connection will allow....