The queen bee

It's been 1 1/2 weeks now since we installed our bees. By all accounts I'd say we have a healthy hive that is going like gang busters working on their comb. Our queen - pictured to the right - can be seen overseeing the work. We topped off their sugar water on this visit and also pulled out one frame to take a look. Their cells have been drawn out quite a bit on at least 4 frames and appear to be getting filled with sugar water. Pollen can be seen on the legs of many of the bees in and around the hive and some of the cells also appear to have pollen in them.

So far we have not noticed any brood being formed. However we also did not look that close at the center frames. We have been reluctant to fire up the smoker and are thus being cautious (especially after the sting last time).

This Sunday, May 3 will be 2 weeks from installation. I'm hopeful that we'll pull the sugar water at that point and put in the last two frames. If we do this I imagine we will fire up the smoker and also take a closer look at the cells. It'll be nice if we see brood in the cells and know that the queen is doing her job supplying the hive with new busy bees.