#urbanapiary

Like clockwork The girls return home from foraging at 3 PM. #healthyhive #beekeeping #urbanapiary #apiary

05/23/2016 - Pupae - maybe days before emergence. This is a result of my ignorance.

05/23/2016 - What I took away from the inspection today. Feeder bottles covered with comb, brood comb,capped comb and the bottom of the feeder bottle frame.

05/22/2016 - things are looking good. Waiting for Queen acceptance. First inspection in 30 days, will probably add a feeder at that time. Hive will be relocated to Corn /sunflower

05/22/2016- install to 1 hour start to finish. Smooth sailing. The bees immediately started house keeping;removing the dead bees that were inevitably installed with the live bees. Installed just ahead of rain.

05/21/2016 - package arrived yesterday afternoon. A considerable amount of dead bees. Install this morning.

When Mother Nature gives you lemons - you give Mother Nature 4 I bolts and 2 ratchet tie downs.

04/13/2016- After being down for 2 days with it’s seals compromised in the aftermath of the 60 mph wind gusts that knocked the hive down 3 times 10 days ago; I thought the outlook was dim. I stood the hive up and figured I would let things settle and wait before making an inspection. During the past 7 days there was no visible activity; as the days past I started to think that the wind event was catastrophic and the colony was lost. I wanted the weather to settle before conducting an inspection. Weather was good today so I planned for a mid afternoon inspection. I went to the roof early this morning and did a recon. The first thing I noticed was brood that was scattered in front of the hive - actually these were almost full term bees, cream colored the size of bees, no eyes, legs, color etc. I wondered how did they get there? Were they ejected when the hive fell, wasps? After my recon I decided that a full inspection would go as scheduled later in the day when it got warmer. Fast forward 8 hours to the inspection. Fearing the worst, I went to the roof with only a plastic bag to put comb filled with dead bees into. Ready to clean the hive and get it ready for a new package. To my pleasant surprise, this is what I encountered. Activity similar to what it was prior to the hive going down. I could not believe what I was witnessing. I think that the partially formed brood scattered about the exterior of the hive is the colony exhibiting hygienics - cleaning out cells that house, dead, dying or diseased brood; that’s a good thing.