We opened the hive for inspection this afternoon; my goal was to find the queen. I don't know why I feel the need to SEE her so desperately, as the evidence of her is all over the hive. I guess I'll have to keep hoping, because she stayed hidden today.
However, we watched bees being born!
As we inspected the bars of brood, we saw lots and lots of empty cells, because so many bees had hatched. Then, as we looked closer, we saw lots of bees emerging. In the following video, you'll see empty brood cells, and if you look in the center, you'll see a bee halfway out, and another below it just beginning to eat its way out of its cell. This was way cool to watch, I'm sorry the video is shaky, I guess we were just too excited.
We had added two bars last weekend, and both were already full of comb, and some honey. So we added two bars again today. Got to keep ahead of those productive ladies!
A pretty cute beekeeper joined us today.
This was a treat, because generally the kids are not all that keen on the bee hive.
There are some interesting things happening in the flower garden, as well. Plenty of forage for the bees.
I don't remember the name of this plant. It's a native, it has white flowers and a sort of rosemary looking leaf, and after it blooms, the seed pod looks like this:
And I can't remember what this giant thing is, but it sure is spectacular:
The early spring clarkias are blooming. I love this variety - Mountain Garland:
And all the Sticky Monkey Flower is blooming, both in my yard and in the hills. This is a rare variety of Scarlet Monkey Flower (can you see the monkey face?):
A delicate little flower is blooming in the front shady area, I got it in seed form from Larners last Mother's Day, a Tansy-Leaf Phacelia:
And I have a Flowering Pomegranate that was a volunteer from the neighbor's yard. I liked it so much I left it, and now it's huge and very showy:
So exciting things all around in the yard, though I wish more was happening in the veg garden.
However, we watched bees being born!
As we inspected the bars of brood, we saw lots and lots of empty cells, because so many bees had hatched. Then, as we looked closer, we saw lots of bees emerging. In the following video, you'll see empty brood cells, and if you look in the center, you'll see a bee halfway out, and another below it just beginning to eat its way out of its cell. This was way cool to watch, I'm sorry the video is shaky, I guess we were just too excited.
We had added two bars last weekend, and both were already full of comb, and some honey. So we added two bars again today. Got to keep ahead of those productive ladies!
A pretty cute beekeeper joined us today.
This was a treat, because generally the kids are not all that keen on the bee hive.
There are some interesting things happening in the flower garden, as well. Plenty of forage for the bees.
I don't remember the name of this plant. It's a native, it has white flowers and a sort of rosemary looking leaf, and after it blooms, the seed pod looks like this:
And I can't remember what this giant thing is, but it sure is spectacular:
The early spring clarkias are blooming. I love this variety - Mountain Garland:
And all the Sticky Monkey Flower is blooming, both in my yard and in the hills. This is a rare variety of Scarlet Monkey Flower (can you see the monkey face?):
A delicate little flower is blooming in the front shady area, I got it in seed form from Larners last Mother's Day, a Tansy-Leaf Phacelia:
And I have a Flowering Pomegranate that was a volunteer from the neighbor's yard. I liked it so much I left it, and now it's huge and very showy:
So exciting things all around in the yard, though I wish more was happening in the veg garden.