Friday afternoon - we got the 4 wheeler all loaded up and ready to take three of the nucs to the hives that are staying on our farm.
John unscrewed the wooden lids and then smoked the bees to help calm them. It was really windy and the smoker was having a hard time staying lit.
John and Asher getting the second hive ready. That top box that John has his hands on is the bees' feeder. He pours sugar syrup (2 cups sugar to 1 cup water, super sweet!) in it to help supplement the bees, the more nectar they have, the more their bodies are stimulated to produce wax to make comb, the more comb there is, the more places for the queen to lay eggs. The more eggs, the more brood; the more brood, the more bees to make the colony strong!
Asher helping use the hive tool to pry apart the frames out of the nuc, so they could be transferred into the hive.
Close-up shot of a frame of brood. The open cells that are glistening looking are baby bees, look like grubs, and the nurse bees are feeding and tending them, the capped off cells that look gold covered are baby bees that are growing and when done, they will chew their way out - one is actually emerging in this pic, you can see the capping is not solid on the bee that is on its way out. AWESOME!
Guard bee smelling and making sure this bee belongs to this hive - pretty cool!
Last step - John shaking the bees down into the hive to try to dislodge the strays out of the nuc box. He then set the empty nucs in front of each respective hive, hoping that the last few stragglers would enter the hive on their own. He will pick up the empty boxes in a couple days.
You can see the white hives in the upper left hand corner of this pic - here are Asher and me posing for a few quick pics as this was my first time in my bee getup. My hair was all crazy in my face and poor Asher's veil was all crooked, but we were having a blast. I know, we are definitely a little wacky! ;)
Asher just loves those bees. It blows my mind how involved he is and wants to be. He wanted to be a part of each stage of the process, and is interested in the life cycle and inspecting the frames for brood production and honey stores.
And lastly, here are some pics of the baby chicks as of Friday, 4.4.08, the day they turned 4 weeks old.
John unscrewed the wooden lids and then smoked the bees to help calm them. It was really windy and the smoker was having a hard time staying lit.
John and Asher getting the second hive ready. That top box that John has his hands on is the bees' feeder. He pours sugar syrup (2 cups sugar to 1 cup water, super sweet!) in it to help supplement the bees, the more nectar they have, the more their bodies are stimulated to produce wax to make comb, the more comb there is, the more places for the queen to lay eggs. The more eggs, the more brood; the more brood, the more bees to make the colony strong!
Asher helping use the hive tool to pry apart the frames out of the nuc, so they could be transferred into the hive.
Close-up shot of a frame of brood. The open cells that are glistening looking are baby bees, look like grubs, and the nurse bees are feeding and tending them, the capped off cells that look gold covered are baby bees that are growing and when done, they will chew their way out - one is actually emerging in this pic, you can see the capping is not solid on the bee that is on its way out. AWESOME!
Guard bee smelling and making sure this bee belongs to this hive - pretty cool!
Last step - John shaking the bees down into the hive to try to dislodge the strays out of the nuc box. He then set the empty nucs in front of each respective hive, hoping that the last few stragglers would enter the hive on their own. He will pick up the empty boxes in a couple days.
You can see the white hives in the upper left hand corner of this pic - here are Asher and me posing for a few quick pics as this was my first time in my bee getup. My hair was all crazy in my face and poor Asher's veil was all crooked, but we were having a blast. I know, we are definitely a little wacky! ;)
Asher just loves those bees. It blows my mind how involved he is and wants to be. He wanted to be a part of each stage of the process, and is interested in the life cycle and inspecting the frames for brood production and honey stores.
And lastly, here are some pics of the baby chicks as of Friday, 4.4.08, the day they turned 4 weeks old.
