Motherly

I am always concerned about these bees - if it's not one thing, it's another.  I should not be surprised that I feel this way, since I know that's the type of mother I would be if I had an actual child.

Today I opened up the hive for the first time in several weeks.  I had wanted to time it to coincide with Cara and Carin's visit, and I also invited over a few friends who were curious about the setup.  It was also the first time I had looked into the hive since meeting with Andy, an 80 year old man who keeps bees in South Jersey and who's family has kept bees in Poland for decades.  (They still do - he is going to visit them this week!)

A short note about Andy, the bee man:

He has a row of about 10 hives or so, but only about 6 are active.  He told me that the number fluctuates from season to season, and I got the impression that he has had some disheartening experiences in his  many, many years of beekeeping.  He said to me, "Things happen with the bees... you never know.  Things go wrong and you'll never know the reason."

He was impressed by my knowledge of beekeeping, I think, but listening to myself talk with him, I saw myself as I'm sure he did: eager, emotional, nervous and a rookie.

He showed me two of his weakest hive.  One had no queen, one had just swarmed.  The swarm hive had produced honey, already.  He barely smoked them, and he approached the hives with calm and that was helpful to see.

Today I channeled that calm and tried to look at the hive with my fact-reciting brain as opposed to my rookie beekeeper jittery nerves sensibility.  These are some things we saw - some are good, some are disconcerting and some are just neat:

- No new building in the upper deep, but the three frames I moved up there had hatched AND new eggs were in those cells.

- The queen was moving rapidly through one of the frames in the lower deep.

- No more swarm cells.

- We watched some bees hatch from their cells.

- Very little capped honey on any frame.  This part unsettles me the most and I am not sure how to address it or where to look for information.  

I closed the hive and propped the cover open with a block of wood - like Andy had had - in an attempt to ease the heat within the hive.  If this helps, I'll leave it, but if they act the same then I'll take it out because I worry that it could chill them (unlikely) or incite robbing (though there is little to be robbed.)