Opened the hive yesterday. The girls haven't expanded onto more than 4 frames. They have made comb going up, but not to more frames, yet. They will.
I had a protein cake on top of three outer frames, so they would have enough to eat before enough flowers & trees could produce their own pollen. The protein cake is a gooey slab made out of mostly soy. Now that it's the end of May, there should be enough out there for them. Plus the slab didn't look any more eaten than the last time I checked it, so they must be done with it. I bagged it up and put it in the freezer. I have to do more research to see if I can use it again next year. They aren't expensive, so there's really no need to be a cheapskate.
Some of the bees look like their eyes are smaller than the others. On closer look, they might just have more "hair" on their little heads. I know, I know, more research is needed!
Stay tuned!
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After all that depressing info about mites and viruses, I had to get into my hive. It's been so cold, rainy, or windy, I couldn't do it before today. When the sun finally came out, I put my bee hat on and tried to light the smoker. Last night I went to my 2nd meeting of the Greater Cleveland Beekeepers' Association meeting. The speaker was the editor of Bee Culture magazine (no talk of new shoe styles for the season, sigh...), Kim Flottum. Surprisingly, he lives in Medina County! The title of his talk was "Keeping Healthy Bees." What I've done so far... |