The bees have mostly yellow pollen, and some bright orange and a mix of dirty colors but not a lot of that. The first drone bee spotted coming out of the West hive. A drone and a very light colored bee at the Center hive which has more darker bees. It really stands out.

Lost a hive recovery in someone's backyard... attacked by ants when they were out of state. The bees also rejected using the frames and instead went for the lid, LOL. (We had fed them some of their own honey in that space). Ah well. #beekeeping

Some of the girls came home with legs weighed down by pollen. Each day I'm noticing more pollen. It reached 70°F today so they were also more active than any other day so far. This probably sounds dumb but I just sit about 5ft from the hive and watch. They are so damn fascinating! I'm looking forward to looking in on Bee Arthur Sunday afternoon.

Have a nice evening!

The ladies are up and working hard today. It's exciting to see more and more bees as the temperature rises. Hopefully I'll find signs of brood on Sunday and resources starting to be stored.

Have a good afternoon everyone! May the rest of the week pass quickly.

I installed my liquid feeder on the hive a few minutes ago. I'm glad because it will help jumpstart the production of comb for storage and baby bees. They seem to have enjoyed their sugar block though.

I'm getting pretty good at lighting the smoker and producing thick, cool smoke. I'm using a blend of cedar chips and burlap. The bees don't seem to mind me at all. I'll check on Bee Arthur this weekend.

Have a good evening!

I took the new hive and I divided it vertically to make two 5-frame bait hives. I had a deep sized divider so I just made another one with the ability for the upper one to slot into it. It should work and I can put frames in the lower box too if I want to keep it divided this way for longer.

Now we wait for warmer, drier, less windy weather.

Hello everyone, hope you're having a good Tuesday. We're slow at work so I took 1/2 of my remaining 1 day of use it or lose it vacation. I'm taking the other half Friday. So I'm hanging with the girls of the Yellow Hive and going to vote with my wife soon. We're trying to remove our wanker of a mayor. He's shady and an asshole IMHO. On our return I'm putting 1 gallon of 1:1 simple syrup on the hive. We might visit a nursery too.

Have a pleasant afternoon!

It's official, Bee Arthur, Queen of the Yellow Hive is loose! They already ate the candy plug so she walked right out and down the 3rd frame when I removed the metal disc cover. I'd have gotten her picture but she took off into the hive.

On a secondary note, notice all that bright yellow by the reduced entrance? IT'S POLLEN, THEY WERE FORAGING!!! I'll check back in on Saturday to see if Bee Arthur is laying brood.

Have a great evening friends!

I'm seeing more bees every time I check! After work I plan on uncorking the queen cage so she can get out and start laying eggs. Ideally we'll have 50,000-60,000 bees in two brood boxes by summer.

I'm so relieved to see bees outside my hive after days of thunderstorms and freezing temperatures. We're looking at a frost tonight but improving weather after that. I'm really hoping these guys can make it.

Sherriff have developed a bee suit called the pollen maid which allows us females to have a pee without having to take the suit off! You have no idea what a relief this could be unless you have galloped across a field with your legs crossed pursued by a couple of sentry bees trying to a) find a discrete spot and b)shake them off so you can unzip your veil, bees know about faces. #beekeeping

These bees chose to stay out in the rain and cold all night instead of going in the hive. So I'm using sugar and a hair dryer to bring them back to life. So far I'd say 80 to 90% or alive just waterlogged.

Last bee post for now. I don't want to over do it. Here are the package stragglers making their way in slowly.

Here are some pictures Melissa shot during the install. The 1st is me preparing the hive and package for install. The 2nd I'm inspecting the queen to make sure she and her attendants were ok. The 3rd shot is me shaking the bees like they owe me money into the brood box.

I'm glad it's done but wish the remaining ones in the package would walk in there faster.

Have a wonderful afternoon friends! I'm sipping coffee and getting my daughter from school.

There's currently 3 lb of bees which is approximately 10 to 20,000 in the backseat of my car.

Today my beekeeping adventure begins for real. I'll be picking up my 3lbs package of bees and marked, mated queen at noon. Unfortunately the weather here is less than ideal for the installation process but I'll have to work around that. Hopefully they can get going in these less than favorable conditions.

Have a wonderful Friday everyone! I'll share some of the install process if it's not pouring rain later.

I'm installing beeswax foundations in my brood box frames like I'm a beekeeper or something.

Seriously, I've found this foray into beekeeping very rewarding.

I hope you're all having as much fun as me this evening.

Today, in my game The Isle of Elanor, I drew this beehive and got it working. It produces honey, of course.

If you look closely at the video, you can see the little bees emerging from the beehive.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1642630/

My fully vented beekeeping veil arrived yesterday but I never had a chance to get it out. It's much cooler than my full suit.

The picture is me wearing the beekeeping veil with full eye contact.