Today is a bittersweet day. We are off tomorrow to Montana for the summer. We have left a house sitter in charge of the house, a maintenance person in charge of the garden, and Zaga (backed by John Swann of Wicked Bees) in charge of the apiary. I began my morning by communing with the bees. Considering it was already in the mid 80's when I got outside, there was no way I was putting on a bee suit. I wore a veil, packed the smoker good, and hoped for the best. I also made up two gallons of sugar syrup (1:1).
Hives 1, 2 and 4 all have upper brood boxes boxes on them, and none of the hives' workers have begun building them out yet. They all, however, have built out a lot of new comb since last weekend (I am guessing thanks to being fed). All the feeders were also empty (I am feeding hives 1-4 and 6) and I put two liters of syrup in each of them. Interestingly, the TopBar hive (#5) was just as full of nectar as any of the others, and as it is foundationless, the bees need a lot more nectar to make wax. There were new frames being drawn out in every hive, and in every one I moved or turned them around to encourage the bees to work on other frames too. I wouldn't be surprised if the three hives with upper brood boxes have started building them out by next weekend.
It was my first inspection for Hive #6, Zaga's hive, and the bees were just as sweet as they were when I put them in. The TopBar hive was also good natured as was the formerly cranky hive (the Flow--#4). I did get stung while in Hive #4, but it was only the pad of my thumb when I put it down on a bee. I took the stinger right out and very quickly wasn't bothered by it or any other bees. The poor bee who stung me wasn't so lucky as she lost her life. I always feel bad when that happens.
Yesterday I rescued two bees from the pond just by reaching my hand in and lifting them out. It was fascinating watching them dry and groom themselves after their ordeal in the water. As I wasn't sure how long they'd been swimming and how exhausted they were, I got them each a little sugar syrup. After about five minutes they flew off. I put one of them on my shoulder after fishing her out so I could keep working. It was so cool!
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