Beeeeez Beeeeez and More Beeeeez

Well, Shawna here is the bee blog finally. You have been after me for a while to get this written, so I am writing it now before I write any thing about our little vacation to Colorado (hopefully James the 1st will get this before he comes home).

These are the bees. James wanted to start an new hobby and I wanted to get more production from my apple trees. I provided the place and he provided the bees. I am so happy. I am not much of a beekeeper, I leave that up to Kelly and James. I do need to learn how to take care of the bees so that James and Shawna can continue their lives with army and schooling. It works out well because I learn about another hobby, get lots of fruit production, and lots of yummmy honey.

I had some pictures of the hive when I added the honey super on about July the 9th, but I think they are on Hailee's camera and so I decided to get into the hive again. Not just for the pictures, but to inspect the bees and make sure that everything is going good. I also had to put the inner cover on the right way so they wouldn't get to hot.

I opened the hive later in the day at about 7:00 in the evening. This is the time when all of the how to books say DON'T OPEN THE HIVE, so I was a little nervous. The grape vine was in the way and I didn't want to make the bees mad brushing away the grape vines. I haven't been stung yet this year and I didn't want to end a perfect record. I have never seen so many bees. I have never been with Kelly when he opens his hives during the summer months. That many bees can be slightly intimidating. I usually move real slow but being uncomfortable I found myself trying to hurry too much. On with the story dad.

I took the honey super off and it didn't look like they had done much during the last week. It is probably my fault though because I didn't understand what the inner cover was and when I did I was in Colorado visiting my mom and dad. So I removed the HS and then started prying out a middle rack from the upper brood box. It was stuck to the bottom rack as the bees have connected the upper and lower racks with comb and honey. After I removed the rack, I placed it in the extra brood box that James left and pried out about 3 more racks so I could have room to work. As you can see they have been busy and there were many bees. They were all about home from the days work. I saw no burr or other strange comb but I did see rice grain eggs so the queen is doing her job. There is capped brood and capped honey also. I also think I placed the HS on at the right time because there were about 7 full racks out of the 10 in the upper brood box.

I scraped off some of the honey and comb gluing down the one rack and just felt like this was the wrong time to be playing with the bees because as you can see in the picture, I am in short sleeves and I have no bee bonnet net either.

I probably could have handled one or maybe several stings on my arms but if one would have flown up my nose or any other orifice from the neck up, I probably would have dropped a rack of honey and bees and then I would have had a real mess. So after scraping off the one bottom rack, I put the racks back in the brood box and then the HS, and then, just to make sure that the girls

(bees) were happy and content, I added the bee feeder with a gallon of water and sugar. I did this because Lorie thought I should. I then put the inner cover on and now I hope that the bees will make lots of honey.

After Rachel and I were through, I pickup what was left of the comb that I had scraped off and fought the bees for a taste of the honey. It was the best honey I had

ever tasted. It had a different taste or flavor that I had never tasted before. I am a real fan of Kelly's honey and I like it because it is crystallized. This had a different flavor and I was puzzled as to what the flavor was. After I thought about it and was talking to Shawna that night, I realized that the flavor was due to the cinnamon we had used to get rid of the ants. Any way, I still haven't been stung yet this year.