Long Over Due Posting

Last summer we had some bees trying to escape after retrieving them twice they finally stayed, however the hive died before winter and was a process in futility.The Hive was created as an experiment, we bought a queen and ended up not needing her, in an effort to keep her alive we removed a few frames of bees, honey and brood from a healthy hive and inserted them with the queen into a new hive. As you can see from the photos the bee cluster was very small, the queen never laid any eggs to increase the population and I could not steal anymore brood from the other hive without risking its survival as well. As a new beekeeper I understand that there is a learning curve when dealing with nature and sometimes you can not change the course of nature.

OUCH!!!!!

A bee committed suicide to protect her sisters and her queen last night. As I pulled her tail end complete with stinger out of my thigh, I said just another way I will learn from my mistakes. I was not wearing the proper pants, they were much too thin and she had no problem sticking me. I can't believe how much it hurt, but it was fast and over in about 20 minutes. Today it itches like crazy!

Warm weather finally!

The bees finally got a break from the cold today and were out flying around. Hopefully they were able to grab up some of the early pollen to give them a much needed boost for the brood rearing that is just around the corner.

Unexpected tool for checking bees in the winter

Putting the stethoscope up to the vent hole lets me know that those bees are still in there and alive.

Can't wait to get my hands on some of that honey! I got stung on the wrist yesterday. Surprisingly it hurt less at the point of sting than the last time I got stung. However today it swollen and itchy and hurts like crazy. That's what I get for not wearing my gloves! Point made, I will wear them next time I am filling the sugar water jars. When I was checking the hives earlier (when I took these pictures) I watched a bee hatching, I don't know why but everything about them is amazing and I love to watch them.

A Bee Tree: Removing Bees from a Tree

First taste of honey

Dipping my finger in the honey comb was a real treat!