Today's bee update

Boy, I didn't want to work my bees today. It was hot, I was tired, and there were way too many things to do. But bees, like children do not understand when you are late with their sugar water. In this continual heat my bees and Cathy's bees are making comb as fast as they can and aggressively sipping all the sugar water we feed them. Today when Cathy called me at 4:40, I threw pants, 2 long sleeved shirts, long socks and my hiking boots on. I grabbed my smoker and some tea.

By the time I got to Cathy's house, I was in a much better frame of mind. Lynn came home shortly thereafter and got ready to help. Cathy had just received a package from Brushy Bees, so the first thing we did was put foundation in 32 medium frames. I was thinking that we might need a super for Cathy's smaller hive.

Cathy wanted me to look at her two hives for the whereabouts of their queens and if the broods were doing ok.

While I was lighting the smoker, Lynn fed my hive which had a dry feeder trough. Since I checked my hive last time, I wanted to leave it alone this time. Once the smoker was going, I started on the smaller Cathy hive. I put the top brood super on top of my hive lid. That super is full of wooden frames. Then I systematically went through the lower brood super.

What I found- The bottom brood super is a full height super that only has plastic frames. The first two frames had almost no activity. No bees, no obvious bee products. The third frame had brood, but it wasn't really strong. I did not have my glasses, and the light was no longer really bright, I explained to Lynn how to look for young brood v capped brood. He felt there was some uncapped brood on the next few frames. We found the queen on one, and she was busy. I was afraid that one of her wings was miss-formed, but in a bit she moved, and Lynn thought she was symmetrical. We moved one of the empty outer frames in closer, but I was not impressed with how the bees were working the bottom layer of brood super. THe story was completely different on the next layer. There was lots of capped brood, even some that had more of a domed cap, like a drone. I would say that all of the frames except one had comb built out and there were more than half of the frames busy with brood in all stages. Lynn cleaned the top feeder and we put in new sugar water.

The big hive was dry, as it always is. The bees were all over the feeding trough, and we filled it. I will add another gallon tomorrow.

Things I need to do- cut the metal post in my front yard, so that I can get my bees home. Cathy says my bees seemed to be settled today. That most days they have been agitated. Zipping high and low, back and forth. Order my new bee clothes so that I am happy.

Just a reminder- I did get bitten on Saturday. I wasn't sure at the time. Inside the L knee. Yesterday, it was swollen, but on my 5 hour beach walk, I kept the knee wet, and the swelling went down rapidly, and it stopped hurting. It is still visible today, is not warm, and is about a nickel in size.