This is a journal I will be keeping to document my experiences, both successful and unsuccessful, in beekeeping. This will be my first year, 2011, keeping bees. We'll see how it goes. I will be keeping bees naturally, letting them build on foundationless frames, and without medication. This is also my first blog I have ever done and I am by no means a journalist or English major. So, if you see grammatical errors of any and all kinds don't be surprised. The looks of things on the blog will probably change several times before I come up with something that I like.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Checking on the Bee Tree Bee's

We done the bee tree cutout on Wednesday, 4-13-11,  I left the hive there at the base of the old tree for two days.  I went last nite, 4-15-11, in the rain to pick them up.   I left them there so they could get used to every thing and hopefully not abscond on me.  I setup them up in my back yard this morning.  I still hadn't found the queen yet so I decided to really go thru the hive and check things out.

I saw a few hive beetles.  One or two of the bees had DWV.  I wasn't able to get a picture of them.  I checked the frames one by one and on the 9th frame I found her.  Can you find her.  Clicking on any of the photos will allow a larger picture to be view and it will allow you to zoom by clicking once more.


She is circled in this image.  It's the same picture.
I have a few of her close up here.

Click on this next picture for a closer look.  You can see the queen and a nasty visitor on one of the bees.  I didn't see this until now while editing the pics for this blog post.  It's a mite, the nasty little blood suckers.  (that's a bad thing, I don't care if you do like the twilight saga, sorry that just poped in my head and had to say it.)  If you can't find it or her highness, they are both circled in the next picture down.  It's also enlarged a bit for easier viewing.  You may be able to find more in these pictures, I didn't.


What a joy it is working with the bees. 

I have a few drawing my five year old son drawed for me of us working with bees over the past few days.  I just had to show them.  I told him I was going to put them on my blog so everyone can see, and he smiled and said on your computer and then ran and gave me a hug. 

Here's working on the bee tree.



Going thru the hive when we got them home.















I hope you enjoyed this post.  It was fun making the hide and seek photos.

Thanks for reading,
James
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2 comments:

  1. The Starved IdiotApril 16, 2011 at 5:24 PM

    these drawings by your son made me smile the first full smile of this day - thank him for me! and let him know I hope he keeps producing such fine work for the blogosphere to enjoy.

    you, on the other hand, appear to be a photographer. great shots! my camera is crummy. what are you working with?

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  2. JamesApril 17, 2011 at 6:17 AM

    Luddite, Aiden, my son, said to tell you that you are welcom. I'm glad they brought a smile to your face. I will see if I can add some of his drawings for you from time to time.

    I wish I were a good photographer. I always see others photos (including yours) and think, jeez I wish I could take pics like that. These just happened to turn out better than usuall. They were take with my phone believe it or not. A Motorolla Droid 2 Global set on Macro.

    Thanks for you kind words I appreciate them.

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