Summer Heat has arrived

I did check the hive this weekend - I really dislike that it is already in the upper 90's and its still May. I really dislike heat and humidity. The bee's were still a buzz over Royal Delta's performance in the Black Eyed Susan Stakes race (remember the hive is a female society so they only watched the Friday fillies race).

Honey super #1 is full and weighs approximately 40 pounds. Ross Rounds are looking good - it is difficult to determine how full the rounds are without dissembling the frames. Medium honey super #2 is approximately 60% full. The super that I placed on the stack prior to leaving for the Preakness is empty and has no drawn comb. The deep super is looking good - not sure if I will extract any honey off the deep or if that will remain for the hive.

Brood chambers are alright- I am not seeing the tight brood pattern that I want, but I did see larvae. Did not see the queen.

Another visitor to the hive

Sunday was confirmation day for Allison. Both Karen's mother and my parents came for the event. Sunday afternoon, I paid the hive a visit and Nancy Garfield (Karen's mom) suited up to take a peek. This was a quick visit to the hive- honey supers are heavy, and rounds continue to fill. I am late in ordering my equipment from Brushy Mtn - need to place the order on Tuesday.

Awake

Woke up at 3:45 today and could not go back to sleep, so I just got out of bed. Yesterday, I did check the honey Supers. The hive is packing in the honey - harvest look good. The pictures are of the Ross Rounds (comb honey). This week, I will order an additional honey super, a filteration kit, and some harvesting equipment.

I did not check the brood chambers

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Non-bee topics carport is framed, and Preakness tickets arrived.

A New Queen

Since the latest Royal Wedding is nearly upon us, it is fitting that the hive has a new queen. Honestly I do not care about the Royal Wedding and I am uncertain if my hive has a new queen. A few weeks ago I saw capped queen cells, and Sunday two of the cells where uncapped. Strong evidence of succession. The brood chambers have plenty of egg, larve and capped brood (worker and drone). With the exception of not seeing the queen the brood frames look great. As long as I see eggs and larve I am not concerned that I am not seeing the queen.

Honey supers are getting heavy and the ross rounds are becoming packed with honey. I estimate that I have fourty plus pounds of harvestable honey. I did exchange email with John today about the honey harvest- I am going to watch him harvest and will take my frames to his house when he harvests his honey. This saves time as he will already have the club extractor and he can help me extract the frames. I will then bring the honey back to the house for filtering and bottling. Honey harvest should occur in late June/early July.

I also decided to move to a 10 day inspection schedule - the hive is doing great. Since thye are on spring time cruise control, no need for me to bother them.

Finally NJEB received a new hive over the weekend. His orginal hive had grown so aggressive that he could barely enter his back yard. A local beekeeper swapped him hives, hopefully this hive isnt fully of Snookis causing a Sisuation in the NJ mountain side.

Flight

It is a rainy morning, thus this bee blog post has nothing to do with the bees.

This past week, Allison, Laura, and karen went to Houston for Springbreak. During their trip, they had the opportunity to meet with Gene Kranz. Karen has an uncle who works at NASA and also goes to church with Gene Kranz. They had an absolute great time and enjoyed every second of their meeting. For two people who are captivated by NASA, space, and aviation this meeting was the ultimate thrill!

A peek inside before the rain arrives

Been in Denver for the past three days at a managers meeting. Fairly productive meeting - typicaly a managers meeting is a productive as a Presbyterian session meeting. Lots of hot air, bad chair and you cant wait to leave - but we actually got alot done this week. Although I really like the west and moved to Charlotte from Denver, I really have no desire to return to Denver. Our meeting was in the Denver Tech Center (near my parents old home). When we lived there in the mid 80's it was a nice sized city with a unique culture - now it is eastren southern california. That is not a good change from my perspective.

Since the weather is calling for rain tonight and Saturday, I wanted to check the hive today.

Good news first:
1) Top Super is full of honey and very heavy.
2) Ross Rounds continue to get built out and plenty of bees are in the rounds working
3) Hive has cleaned the frames on the new super - the frames where dirty from hive 1.0 . The frames should start receiving new food stores,ad the comb has been cleaned and refurbished byt the hive. Very interesting process.

Interesting News:
1. Queen cells that I saw last weekend remain and appear unchanged.
2. Bee population appeared a little lighter than last week. This could be due to the foragers being gone or if the queen has failed bee population will decline for the next two or three weeks.

Bad News:
1. Did not see queen today - looked through all of the supers (admitely I am not very good at finding her)

Misc.
1. Although I want my hive to be healthy, I am not concerned about losing any honey production due to a new queen or potential swarming. I want enough honey to give away to friends and family but I have no desire to have 100's of pounds of honey. NJEB helped me adopt this "Let it B" philosphy.

Enjoy your weekend.

Supercedure Queen Cells

John the Bee Mentor and NJEB have weighed in on today's visit to the hive, the three of us agree that the cells that I saw are queen cells. John states that they are supercedure queens cells and not swarm cells. A supercedure queen cell is created when the queen is weak or injured. I will check the hive again this weekend and see if any of these cells have produced a new queen. Once again this beekeeper stuff is both interesting and baffling.

These are the pictures we have been reviewing.

Additionally, in case the hive is becoming honey bound, I did add the additional super tonight. Weekend should be interesting.