A week ago, I installed a package into this hive. I put a Rapid Feeder inside an empty hive box on this hive. So the hive began in a 10 frame (my only 10 frame hive in Atlanta).
I love looking at gorgeous newly drawn wax. This is what the bees had drawn in the last frame next to the wall of the hive box. The rest of the frames in the box were fully drawn and filled with either brood, pollen or nectar.
I pulled the queen cage and obviously (since I had already seen frames with tiny eggs and c-shaped larvae) the queen had been released.
Inside the queen cage were dead worker bees. I wondered if they simply died, since sometimes the accompanying workers do, or if the bees in the package killed the accompanying workers.
Since they had used so many frames in the bottom box, they needed another box and have grown another level! I left the Rapid Feeder on since about 1/3 of the syrup was still there, but I'll probably think better of that since the nectar flow is on, and remove it tomorrow. Bees much prefer nectar to woman-made sugar syrup, so they often do use the sugar syrup when nectar is available.
This is the tale that began in 2006 in my first year of beekeeping in Atlanta, GA. ...there's still so much to learn.
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I've been keeping this blog for all of my beekeeping years and I am beginning my 19th year of beekeeping in April 2024. Now there are more than 1300 posts on this blog. Please use the search bar below to search the blog for other posts on a subject in which you are interested. You can also click on the "label" at the end of a post and all posts with that label will show up. At the very bottom of this page is a list of all the labels I've used.
Even if you find one post on the subject, I've posted a lot on basic beekeeping skills like installing bees, harvesting honey, inspecting the hive, etc. so be sure to search for more once you've found a topic of interest to you. And watch the useful videos and slide shows on the sidebar. All of them have captions. Please share posts of interest via Facebook, Pinterest, etc.
I began this blog to chronicle my beekeeping experiences. I have read lots of beekeeping books, but nothing takes the place of either hands-on experience with an experienced beekeeper or good pictures of the process. I want people to have a clearer picture of what to expect in their beekeeping so I post pictures and write about my beekeeping saga here.Master Beekeeper Enjoy with me as I learn and grow as a beekeeper.
I began this blog to chronicle my beekeeping experiences. I have read lots of beekeeping books, but nothing takes the place of either hands-on experience with an experienced beekeeper or good pictures of the process. I want people to have a clearer picture of what to expect in their beekeeping so I post pictures and write about my beekeeping saga here.Master Beekeeper Enjoy with me as I learn and grow as a beekeeper.
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