Emergency Honey Repair

After being away at a conference for a week, today was my first opportunity to look into my hives.  The Easter hive is doing well, although they only have wax and honey in the first four frames of their top box.  I pulled up one frame to see if the honey were fully capped.  It's a thick honeycomb and I tore some cappings from the other side.



"Waste not, want not," has to be the motto of the bees right now.  The nectar flow was over way too quickly and they can't spare a drop of honey.  Bees in the hive immediately  marshaled forces to retrieve the leaked honey from the frame top.  You can see their tongues (red) pulling the honey into their honey stomachs.



The emergency call went out and more bees circled the potentially dripping honey.  They didn't want any to fall through the hive to the ground.



In the end, all the possible places were taken in the circle as the bees rushed to save their precious product.  I felt bad about tearing the cappings, but loved getting to see this growing bee circle!