As my usuall readers know (if I have any)I open the hive every week. It's really incredible to open a hive with 12,000 bees flying around and not having to worry about being stung. Anyways, this inspection was a little different than the past two. I had a little more trouble lighting the smoker. I as liting it and suddenly the thing went out in a phlume of smoke. I was pumping for a few minutes and when I noticed no flames were comming out I kept pumping and looked down it to see if any embers were still lit. I think I've reached a new low in stupidity. Right when I get my face over the smoker about a foot up, a flame shoots out and scorches my veil. I was fine after that but now I think I learned my lesson! I walked up to the hive and smoked them as usuall and since I've already shown that before I didn't take any pictures of it. I did the usuall inspection and if you look at the post below I said I would try to get a picture of some cappings...well, I got it.
In the first picture is two drones surrounded by workers. I just wanted anyone who has never seen bees to be better able to disifer between the two castes. A neat thing about drones is that they have no stingers and they do no work in the hive. "What good are they?" you may ask. They mate.
In the other picture you can see the typical orientation of stuff in the cells. I think I took the picture side ways or up-side-down. So, the capped honey( very white cappings) is near the top of the frame and then there is a ring of nectar and pollen followed by the capped brood (tan-colored cappings near middle of frame).
P.S. Sorry about the blurred spot on the photo. There was a smudge on the lense that I didn't notice until I uploaded the photos.
NEXT WEEK: Pictures of the Queen and her Court
2 Comments:
Great work, master beekeeper.
I think I will have to change my vote on your survey thingy.
P.S. Do you know where I can find any gas-powered turtle neck sweaters?
I think I know where one is...IN MY IMAGINATION!
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