2nd week hive inspection
Apr 18, 2011
Sun was shining this weekend but the temps were still chilly if you weren't in the sun. Saturday was Vahsaki, an ancient harvest festival celebrated across northern india and within the Sikh religion it is the commemorating the establishment of the Khalsa at Anandpur Sahib in 1699, by the 10th Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh. There is a parade in our neighborhood and people come out to do "seva" (religious work) such as giving out free food from tents set up all and down the streets.
One the way home we met our neighbor and he came up to visit the hive. I think his interest was piqued and he left with one of my many Beekeeping books. I'm all about sharing my excitement.
Sunday was 2 weeks since I had hived the package and i wanted to do a full inspection and document it. Things seemed to be moving along but as i don't have anything to compare it against I'm really just making educated guesses.
[caption id="attachment_119" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Frame 5 capped brood"]
[/caption]
I did spot the queen on frame 6. There is 8 frames and a frame feeder taking up the last 2 frame spaces. Below is a slide show going though the frames starting on frame 3 as there was only a couple of bees on both sides of frame 1 and 2
[gallery link="file"]
The pics are all up on picasa here
I'm also wondering what family my bees belong to. Originally I had thought it was getting Carnolions but I'm not sure now. The coloring leads me to believe they could be Italians.
When doing this inspection I didn't smoke the bees or use the sugar syrup spray and i had no issues with aggressive bees. I'm feeling much more comfortable handling the frames and taking my time to look for things. When the queen was sighted it was concerning that her large abdomen was only attached to her thorax with the smallest of body parts. It could have been the angle I was looking at her, but it looked like she would just snap in half with the slightest movement.
Now we wait for at least a week before another inspection.
Steve
[/caption]
I did spot the queen on frame 6. There is 8 frames and a frame feeder taking up the last 2 frame spaces. Below is a slide show going though the frames starting on frame 3 as there was only a couple of bees on both sides of frame 1 and 2
[gallery link="file"]
The pics are all up on picasa here
I'm also wondering what family my bees belong to. Originally I had thought it was getting Carnolions but I'm not sure now. The coloring leads me to believe they could be Italians.
When doing this inspection I didn't smoke the bees or use the sugar syrup spray and i had no issues with aggressive bees. I'm feeling much more comfortable handling the frames and taking my time to look for things. When the queen was sighted it was concerning that her large abdomen was only attached to her thorax with the smallest of body parts. It could have been the angle I was looking at her, but it looked like she would just snap in half with the slightest movement.
Now we wait for at least a week before another inspection.
Steve