Friday, July 1, 2011

Bee hatching

Mickey joined me on going into the hive. Bees were very calm. Saw the queen and lots of capped brood cells (in a good pattern) and larvae. A few drone cells. What I had thought was brood in the super isn't, unless all have hatched. There was only honey in the super, and it is beginning to feel heavier. We saw 6 bees hatching. Their heads were poking up from the cells and they were chewing away to make the opening larger. We didn't wait long enough to see one actually emerge.
We definitely saw a couple of bees doing the waggle dance. No bees squished!
I was able to get some used hive boxes from a friend who had unsuccessfully kept bees a few years ago. According to published advice, I scraped them and scorched the insides with a propane torch. I'll probably use them in my planned new hive next year which will have the two-deep configuration.
My current hive has one deep and a medium super
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