#combchronicles

Life With Bees: The Comb Chronicles Well, it sure is quite the rollercoaster of emotions, caring for these sacred little creatures. But today's hive check-in seemed to yield positive results. Will share more later! . . . #happybees #backyardbees #backyardbeekeeping #ilovebees #beesarecool #beehive #hivemind #apiarist #buzz #pollinators #savethebees #fortheloveofbees #lifewithbees #combchronicles #madebynature #inspiration #insearchofthequeen

Life With Bees: The Comb Chronicles The last couple of weeks have been stressful! We've been having a hard time telling whether or not we are queenless. There have been signs of a queen, then signs of no queen, then continued signs of no queen to the point where we ordered a new queen, but she was dead on arrival. Then we thought we were going to merge a healthy swarm hive with our hive, but when we checked the other day just to make sure we don't have a laying worker we found larva and what look like capped worker brood. So now we wait and continue to check in and cross all our fingers and toes that our little supersedure queen was just slow to get started and is happily laying away! Such a roller coaster, this backyard be keeping! • This is the photo that shows we have Larvae (you can see the little wormy things in the cells, if you look closely) and what looks like worker brood, which is what we want. If we have a laying worker they would just produce drones, and that capped brood is much more pronounced sticking out like a little bubble. 🤞🏼 . . . #lifewithbees #combchronicles #backyardbees #buzz #backyardbeekeeping #savethebees #beehive #hivemind #beesarecool #beebabies #larvae #cappedcomb #queenbee #apiary #pollinators

Life With Bees: The Comb Chronicles I spy... we checked on the hive on Thursday to see how they were getting along with the guided frames and the fallen comb that we secured onto frames with elastics. Every time we go in, I'm amazed. They are so dedicated and industrious! • This visit I was surprised that there didn't seem to be much new comb, but they have definitely been busy! It has been a tough spring, with cooler temps and a good amount of rain. But we did notice that they have capped quite a bit of the already established comb (brood! Yay for baby bees!) and even have built what looks to be a queen cell, I'm thinking possibly an emergency queen or supersedure queen cell (the thing that looks like a beeswax peanut 🐝👑😉). Either way, we will be keeping a close eye on it. This frame is actually attached to the frame next to it and we couldn't see where one comb started and the other ended, so we are just going to let it be. But, it seems to be straightened out, so I call that a win! • So far our hive has been quite docile. Our goal is to wear little to no gear, to trust in the energy of the bees to read the situation properly and act accordingly. We do wear the hats so they don't get tangled in our hair. So far this has worked out very well. With that said, as they settle in and establish their hive, we have noticed a little more protectiveness when we go in. It is usually just a few bees with their butts in the air (you can see on the top of the frame that they are giving a slight warning ⚠️), so we have to be aware, talk to them and go in gently and very slowly. Part of me wonders if this indicates where the queen is as it seems to always be on one frame (not always the same one)? I'm so fascinated with the inner workings of a hive/bees! . . . #backyardbees #babybees #backyardbeekeeping #beebutt #beehive #queenbee #ilovebees #lifewithbees #combchronicles #queencells #adventuresinbeekeeping #amazingbees #beesarecool #hivemind #brood #honeycomb