Fun in the Bee Yard Today!

Today's abnormally high ambient temperature provided an opportunity to check on my honeybee colonies.

Nothing warms a beekeeper's heart more than to open up the hive late Winter/early Spring and find a healthy colony with plenty of food left and a queen that is laying eggs!

Pardon my photography skills (or lack thereof). But you can see bees on this frame, brood, pollen and honey. All of it is great to see this time of the year.

The first thing I look for when I inspect a hive is eggs. If I see eggs, I know that I have a queen that is laying. If I don't see eggs, I know I have a problem to correct. A fun bonus is to actually spot the queen when you're doing the inspection. A double bonus is to see the queen laying eggs. Out of the six colonies I inspected today, I saw five queens. So much fun!!!

See the queen? Easiest way to spot her is to look for the shine off of her bald thorax. Most worker bees have hair on their thoraxes. I love this queen's "tiger-stripe" coloring.

Can you see the queen on this photo? It's not easy but she's dead center of the photo frame and she is facing to the right. Half of her abdomen is concealed by other bees.

Another beautiful queen with very different coloring.

Frame with various phases of a bee's life. The adults, the pupae are in the cells with the orange caps and the white grubs are in the larvae stage.

I love beekeeping!