Last Hive Visit in May

In the time since our last visit, I believe we have witnessed a bee population boom!! Suddenly we were refilling the sugar syrup every evening instead of every few days. The weather changed from cool to near 90 degrees and humid, and we've seen the bees hanging out on their front porches trying to keep cool, even as darkness sets in. When we move closer to the hives, we can watch bees landing on the flight deck with their pollen baskets filled with bright yellow/orange pollen. What are pollen baskets? The bees have branched hairs on their bodies and legs that catch and hold grains of pollen, which they are able to store in the baskets on their hind legs and carry back to the hive.

Because we were having so much trouble with the jar feeders leaking and attracting pests, we ordered the hive top feeders, which are specialized trays fitting inside the hive and can be refilled simply by taking off the covers and pouring the syrup. The package arrived from the Walter T. Kelley Company before our 4th hive visit on May 29th....

You should have seen us. It was in the morning, yet already hot and humid. We wore the usual jeans, button-down shirts, shoes, socks, hats, and veils. This visit only took about a half hour, but we felt we were experiencing our own personal saunas...sweat running as creeks then streams then rivers....we soaked our clothes, it quickly became a bad hair day. I'm so grateful we don't wear bee suits!

All we really wanted to do during this visit was to check on the frames of the newest super (3rd) of each hive and install the new hive feeders. We're happy to report the bees of both hives are busy drawing out the comb, and all looks well! Installing the hive feeders was fairly effortless, and bees were already coming to see what we were doing as we poured the sugar syrup. After the "freak comb situation," it was nice to have a more relaxed visit.

In related news, a friend gifted us with a copy of the book Bees In America--How the Honey Bee Shaped a Nation. The author, Tammy Horn, signed our copy and kindly wrote, "May these bees bless you!"