The Bee's Knees Apiary

Because why else would they be building comb like this:

What the what?

And this:

Go home bees, you’re drunk.

These are frames from the second hive body on Hive 2 (the strong one). Why would they all of a sudden start building wonky comb, when previously they were drawing nice bee keeper-friendly comb within the frame foundations? This is burr comb, or in this case, bridge comb, because it is comb drawn perpendicular to the frames, and actually forms a bridge joining two adjacent frames.  I did what I could to remove the worst of it, and I hope the girls smarten up and start building correctly once again!  After the inspection I read on the internet that if the bees feel there is a nectar shortage, they may  build haphazardly like this.  I had let the baggie feeder go dry on this hive, but I had assumed that there was enough naturally occurring nectar to be harvested this time of year…hmmm…  At any rate, we added a new baggie feeder and closed up the hive after giving the girls a stern talking-to on comb building etiquette.

Once again, Queen Beeyonce made an appearance and did a little royal walkabout that Rob managed to capture on film:

We also added (for the second time) a second hive body to hive 1. I think adding the 2 frames of capped brood last week has giving the colony a jump start, and they need more room. Finally, we installed the beetle traps (Beetle Blasters), which are black plastic inserts filled with mineral oil, that are hung between 2 frames.  The beetles fall into the holes in the top of the trap and drown in the mineral oil. Can’t wait to see how many of the little %#$(@^&’s we catch!

Besides the bees, we have had a lot of wildlife making an appearance in our backyard the past week.  A momma bunny decided our yard would be a great place to raise her babies…the dog found the nest, managed to dig one out and begin to “play” with it.  We quickly got it away from her, returned it to the nest (unharmed), and then had to build a barricade around the nest to keep the dog out.  Rob (lol of course) placed a motion sensor webcam out near the nest and we were able to confirm that momma has been returning to her babies at night to feed them. Super cute until they start eating our garden…but anyway.  I was also joined by a cute little box turtle when I was out gardening near our hives yesterday:

Small box turtle (tennis ball size) found wandering around our yard.

Oh, and we may have some bluebirds thinking about nesting in one of our bird houses.  It’s like frickin’ Wild Kingdom here at the old homestead!

Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone!

E