Egg Laying

If queens can lay 1000 eggs per day, and the first two batches of brood cells have hatched, that means we could be having a hive explosion. The hive-cam yesterday showed a hive full of dark bees.

50/50

The population of the hive is getting darker.

More light-striped dark bees than yellowish brown bees can be seen.

First Full Inspection

3rd Inspection (almost four weeks from installation): 8:30 pm, sun setting,

Clear skies, weather still warm from hot temperature day.

We went out to examine the comb we missed last week and to see how many bars had comb. The sugar syrup was almost empty and we replaced it with a new jar of 1:1 and three tiny holes in the lid. The bees took 10 days to go through the last jar - which may have been too long for the same syrup to sit in the hive. The substitute pollen patty was still untouched. I don't know whether it is better to take it out or leave it in - I left it in. The smoker only went out once this time around, despite working with the bees for 30 minutes.

This time around we used a crowbar to shift all the bars back about half an inch, so that I would have some room to set the bars back in without loosing lives. Although I started with bar #5 and moved back to bar #9 and then decided to see the bars from last week too, I went ahead and put the photos here in the order they are in the hive.

Bar #1 (front/back): 

Bars #2-#3 (last week/this week) 

Bar #4 (front/back) 

Bar #5 (last week/this week) 

Bar #6 (front/back) 

Bar #7 (front/back) 

Bar #8 (front/back) 

Bar #9 (just beginning) 

We could see that many of the capped brood comb had been open, but the drone comb was still capped. We could also see more darker bees than before. As I closed up the hive I needed my handyman husband to help shove the comb tightly together. He stepped in to help, again, unprotected, and received his second and third stings. This time he accidentally squeezed the venom into his skin while trying to remove the stinger and ended up causing himself quite a bit of pain, enough that he doesn't want it to happen again.

We still have yet to find that elusive queen. We'll spend some time examining our photos, but it's not to critical as it appears she is doing a good job.

Specimens

This afternoon we brought the package box in the house, counted the dead bees, looked at the varieties and let the boys play with and dissect them.

Many races shown here prove our package was a mix. It won't be long before they are all the same. 

One of These Is Not Like the Others

As I observed the bees, I realized that my bee package was not all the same bee. I later learned from the supplier that I was given a New World Carniolan Queen, but the bees could be any number of races. I'll get to enjoy these bees for a few more weeks and then they should all be Carniolans.

1st Package Ordered

I put in an order at Ruhl Bee Supply for a 3 pound package of bees and a New World Carniolan queen for $91. Now we are in for it.