BEES! I had so much fun meeting my bees for the first time. My bee mentor was coming over at 10am so I suited up at 9:45. He ran a little late and ended up getting there are 10:20 and surprisingly, I didn't get too warm in my suit. We went out to the hive and I took the cover off, then the top frame, and I examined the hive. I pulled out the cell that was third from the left and saw a few bees, pulled out the next and saw more, pulled out the next and the cell was completely covered with bees! It was amazing. The bees even waxed the comb! I saw lots of nectar but no brood. After examining the whole hive, we realized I didn't have a queen; my hive could not populate.
My mentor is going to bring me another swarm if he gets a call this week- this way we can combine the swarms and have a queen. If he doesn't get a call by Wednesday or Thursday, he is going to bring over a cell from one of his hives with brood and my swarm will make a queen from the brood. Because of this, I am not sure if I will get honey this year due to population and I don't know if my bees will make it through the winter, but one can only hope for the best. I have about 25,000 bees in my swarm right now and would like at least 40,000 by fall to ensure their survival throughout the winter.
Pictures to come in the near future (maybe even tonight).
