Wednesday, May 18, 2011

New comb in the bee hive...

We love our new Top Bar hive.  After one week we peeked in the observation window (no pictures turned out because of the glare) and they had already built 3 chunks of comb that was hanging from the top bars.  They all looked like the little piece that is in the front of the picture here.

We are now about 2 1/2 weeks into it and they are doing great!  I am so amazed.  This picture here is without the flash, and I can't get over how neat the comb is that they built themselves!  Click on the picture to make it bigger and you can see the detail.  You can also see honey that they have put in some of the cells behind the little chunk of comb. 


This picture is with the flash.  These shots are at the 'back' of the hive so this is where they store their honey.  Closer to the entrance, at the other end, is where they SHOULD be laying their brood (making babies).  In about a week we will open it up again to check the front.  From what we can see, they are happy bees and doing what they were made to do.  :-)


 Not a very clear picture, but you can still see the areas at the bottom of the comb where the cells are covered up.  That is capped honey.  At the very bottom of the picture is a bag of raw honey.  That is what we have been feeding the new bees.  Now that they have called the hive home and the Queen decided not to 'run away from home', we will stop feeding them.  They ate a lot slower this week so that tells us they are flying out to find real pollen and nectar...the good stuff!


 Brian just could not help himself - he had to lift out one of the bars.  It is so neat how they attach their comb, which is pretty tough, to the top of the bar.  Brian says that each piece of comb will be the shape of the inside of the hive when they are done.  


The world of the bee....no welfare system....you have a job to do and by golly, you do it!

I just had to share these...thought they were so neat!  Sure is different than watching stuff on Discovery channel!  :-)

Until later....Karen and Tripp who thinks we are weird for liking bees.  :-)

2 comments:

Michelle said...

This is so awesome. Thanks again for sharing.

Angela said...

OK, that is just too cool! I am allergic to bees so they scare me which is probably when Mike mentioned getting a hive I DID NOT tell him Brian has one!!!!!!